Barbour Tomb and Railings, Lambeg Parish Churchyard, Church Hill, Lambeg North, Lisburn, Co. Antrim, BT27 4SB

Barbour Tomb and Railings

A twentieth century free-standing pedimented neo-classical stone mausoleum, facing east with railed enclosure, set within the grounds of Lambeg Parish Church on the south side of Church Hill Road in Lambeg.

The mausoleum is constructed of granite ashlar and comprises three inscribed memorial plaques flanked by engaged Ionic columns on plinth blocks. These support a full dentilated and stepped entablature with an open-top scrolled pediment and funerary urn. The architrave below the pediment is inscribed 'BARBOUR'. The three inscribed plaques are arranged in an arcade configuration with gilt lettering, dating from the early to mid twentieth century.

The mausoleum is mounted on a rock-faced basalt wall with stone coping to the rear. The front elevation extends as a painted rendered wall, which supports further stone and marble grave markers of earlier dates. Within the enclosure, polished memorial plaques are laid. The entire structure is enclosed by robust cast-iron railings with foliate heads, set into a low plinth wall with a pedestrian gate.

The Barbour tomb is the resting place of several generations of the Barbour family, beginning with William Barbour (1797-1875) and his wife Eliza Kennedy. The Barbours were engaged in the linen industry in Scotland and erected a hand loom linen factory near Paisley in 1739. By 1783 they were engaged in linen thread manufacture and travelled to Ireland to import linen thread. In that year, John Barbour (1755-1823) leased a property near Lisburn, and by 1786 Barbour's Linen Thread was in full production. William Barbour (1797-1875), John's son, pioneered the use of power-driven machinery for twisting thread and established a flourishing business in Hilden. He had seven sons and six daughters, five of the sons entering the business. Three sons emigrated to America, two of whom involved themselves in branches of the Barbour linen thread enterprise. By 1888, William Barbour & Sons Ltd were ranked as the largest manufacturers in the world of tailors' thread and shoemakers' thread for hand and machine sewing.

The main part of the tomb is reserved for William's sons John Doherty Barbour (1824-1901) and Samuel (1830-1875), and John Doherty's children Sir John Milne Barbour (1868-1951) and Harold Adrian Milne (1874-1938). John Doherty Barbour, who became Chairman and Managing Director of William Barbour & Sons, formed the Linen Thread Co. Ltd. in 1898, bringing together the Irish, Scottish and American Barbour companies. Sir John Milne Barbour was created a Baronet in 1943 and held numerous public offices in Northern Ireland, serving as a Minister in the Northern Ireland Parliament for eighteen years and Minister for Commerce for sixteen of those years. He developed the Barbour interests in netting for salmon fishing and became Chairman and Managing Director in 1905.

The tomb has group value with Lambeg Parish Church and the Wolfenden Mausoleum, which pre-dates it by approximately 230 years and may have inspired its design. The classical design and scale of the Barbour memorial attest to the importance of the family and their contribution to local industry and the prosperity of the Lisburn area.