Crossgar Historical Society meeting about Rademon’s ‘Radical Landlord’

Crossgar Historical Society meeting about Rademon’s ‘Radical Landlord’

22 October 2025

RADEMON’S ‘Radical Landlord’ is the theme of Crossgar Historical Society’s meeting next Tuesday evening 28th October, with guest speaker Professor Peter Gray.

William Sharman Crawford, of Crawfordsburn – and later of Rademon House too – was not just a prominent Crossgar landlord, but was also one of the UK’s most prominent MPs in the Irish tenants’ rights movement in 1830/40s.

The guest speaker, Professor Peter Gray, from Queen’s University will talk about Sharman Crawford and the revival of Ulster Protestant radicalism.

Prof Gray explained: “The collapse of Ulster Protestant radicalism in the decades following the Union has been widely commented on, yet that radicalism persisted and revived from the 1830s in counterweight to the dominant conservative political dispensation in the province.

“A central figure in that revival was Sharman Crawford, who worked in sometimes uneasy alliance at different times with Belfast liberals, Daniel O’Connell’s Repeal movement, and British Chartism.

For him the memory of the Volunteer movement of 1778-93 offered an alternative radical ancestry to that of the now more problematic United Irishmen.

“Sharman Crawford was most successful in his pursuit of agrarian reform between 1845 and 1853, bringing significant northern support to the cause of the Irish Tenant League which for a while posed a serious threat to the landed social order.

“He remained committed to promoting radical, democratic, and social reforms through to his death in 1861. His mantle was inherited by his son, James, who lived at Rademon House between the 1840s and his death in 1878 and who became the Liberal MP for County Down in 1874.”

Peter Gray is Professor of Modern Irish History at Queen’s University, Belfast. His book ‘William Sharman Crawford and Ulster Radicalism’ was awarded the James S Donnelly prize for books on Irish History and Politics in 2024.

Crossgar Historical Society president Callum Bowsie said, “Many of us drive past William Sharman Crawford’s monument in Rademon estate on a daily basis, but few probably appreciate the importance this Crossgar landlord was to the Irish land reform debate of the 19th century.

“This will be a great opportunity to hear from an expert on William Sharman-Crawford’s life and legacy.”

The meeting takes place in Crossgar War Memorial Hall and begins at 7.30pm. Admission is £3.