Ulster dairy
By Eddie McIlwaine
THE diary her grandmother kept way back in
1900, when she was on a world tour, prompted
New Zealander Bridget Preston (50) to make a
pilgrimage to Northern Ireland in search of her
roots.
For granny Lilian Burrowes Bassett wrote
about her stopover in the province to look at
houses and places that were associated with
her family. Lilian came here with her father and
mother Tom and Minnie Bassett on that
holiday of a lifetime which stretched into 10
months at the turn of the century. She wrote
an A4 page every day of her trip - not just
about her visit to Northern Ireland where her
family had its origins, but about her travels in
America and Europe including a stay at the
Great Exhibition in Paris.
"The diary is a fascinating piece of history,"
says Bridget. She and her husband chartered
accountant Richard from Christchurch have
been staying in Downpatrick with her cousin,
teacher John Bassett. "In fact on a previous
visit, in 1887, Minnie actually gave birth to one
of her daughters in Belfast."
Bridget has been shooting an episode of a new
television documentary series called Blood
Ties with director Michael McGowan for the
Brian Waddell Studios - and her research
brought her to the offices of the Belfast
Telegraph to look into the career of one
William Bel Burrowes, born 1859, deceased
1946, who was the chief cashier of the
newspaper for many years.
Way back in 1875, Bridget's great great
grandmother Sarah Bassett, a widow, with five
children financed her brother Sam Kennedy
Bassett and her brother-in-law David Morrow
when they decided to set up a hardware
business in Christchurch, to which town they
had emigrated.
"Eventually Sam came home to Downpatrick
where Sarah was living and persuaded her to
return to Christchurch with him," says Bridget.
"Sarah had five children, one of whom, a
daughter, had already gone to New Zealand,
She took two teenage sons, William and Tom
who was my great-grandfather with her to her
new country and she also took in the party
Minnie Burrowes, another teenager who was in
fact the sister of cashier William Bel."
The hardware business prospered and Bassett
and Morrow became the sole agents in New
Zealand for the famous McCormick
International reaper and binder, as farms
across the country became mechanised.
And of course Minnie and Tom fell in love and
married and Lilian started keeping her diary
which all these years later has prompted
Bridget to retrace her ancestor's steps and
bring those pages vividly alive. Blood Ties,
which is a series of six half-hour programmes,
will be screened by BBC Northern Ireland next
spring.
© Belfast Telegraph Newspapers Ltd.
