Cherry Crawford Hyndman

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Cherry Crawford Hyndman (1768–1845) was a Belfast woman known for her liberal household and, in the 1790s, for connections with the republican United Irishmen. She was born in Cornacrow, Laragh, County Monaghan, the second daughter of George Crawford and Fanny Cherry, who had Scottish ancestry. Her father ran a linen business and a bleaching mill.

In 1791 or 1792 she married James Hyndman, a woollen merchant and auctioneer with Presbyterian Belfast ties and relatives in the West Indies. James had served as a captain in the Volunteers, a militia that pressed for Irish reform during the era of the American War.

A portrait of Cherry Crawford, painted in 1789, hangs in the Ulster Museum. The curator notes she may have been the only woman admitted to the United Irishmen in Belfast. Some women, including Mary Ann McCracken and Martha McTier, took the United Irish pledge and attended select meetings; if Cherry joined ordinary United Irish proceedings, it would have been unusual, but she may have attended special meetings in Belfast.

Her family had strong republican links. In Monaghan, her father George Crawford supported United Irishmen and sheltered speakers who promoted reform. In Belfast, Cherry and her husband do not appear to have been directly involved in the 1798 rebellion, though she was once seized by a military guard and whipped in the street after leaving a sick friend’s bedside; it is not clear if she was recognized.

James Hyndman did not sign a loyalty declaration to the Crown around the uprisings of 1798. Cherry Hyndman died on 3 August 1845 and was buried in Clifton Street Cemetery in Belfast. She was survived by her daughter Fanny Hyndman and her son George Crawford Hyndman; her sister Elizabeth McTier and her youngest son Hugh predeceased her.

Her son George (1796–1867) became a prominent Liberal and Unitarian in Belfast and was a key figure in civic and scientific life. He helped found and lead several societies, including the Belfast Natural History and Philosophical Society, the Botanical and Horticultural Society (which started the Belfast Botanical Gardens), and the Belfast Naturalists’ Field Club. He also played a major role in the Belfast Academical Institution founded by William Drennan.