Ringing True:
The Bells of Trummery and Beyond:
350 Years of an Irish Quaker Family Bill Jackson £16.00 Archibald Bell of Arkinholme arrives in Ireland in 1655, becomes a Quaker and settles in Trummery, Co. Antrim. His descendants are tanners first in Lurgan, later cotton and linen bleachers and spinners there and in Ballyclare, Belfast and Whitehouse. The story follows them through the ‘98, the Famine and the Great War. It chronicles those who emigrated to Cuba, the USA, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, two becoming millionaires. It examines their constancy as Friends and commitment in campaigning against slavery, colonisation, intemperance and resort to arms. Discrimination and charity, bankruptcy and prosperity, evangelism and education, tragedy and love, fill the pages. The tale concludes with the election of Archibald’s six-times great grand-daughter, Prof. Jocelyn Bell Burnell, co-discoverer of pulsars, to Fellowship of the Royal Society. The family is a colourful microcosm of the last 350 years.
Educated at Campbell College, Belfast and Trinity College, Dublin, Bill Jackson retired in 1999 from a career with Oxfam, the Irish public service and the United Nations.