Ballymena

The river and the market

Ballymena stands on the Braid in Kirkinriola parish. Lewis’s 1837 account describes a substantial stone bridge and a market drawing goods from surrounding farms and workshops. ^[2]

A network of linen work

Lewis attributes local linen growth from about 1732 to the Adair and Dickey families. By 1837 he records bleach-greens within a five-mile circuit, town merchants and a mill spinning linen yarn by machinery. ^[2]

James McHenry’s Atlantic journey

James McHenry, the physician and politician commemorated by Fort McHenry in Baltimore, was born in Ballymena. His birth year is usually given as 1753, although the Maryland State Archives records several competing dates. He emigrated to Philadelphia in 1771, attended Newark Academy and studied medicine with Benjamin Rush. ^{[3] [4]}

McHenry served as an army surgeon during the American Revolution and was captured at Fort Washington in 1776. The surviving papers at the Library of Congress document the subsequent course of his public life. His migration adds a different strand to Ballymena’s linen history: alongside the circulation of cloth and agricultural goods, individual journeys connected the Antrim market town with institutions across the Atlantic. ^{[3] [5]}