William Tillie HML (1822 - 1904)

Born Oct 1822 in Stow, Midlothian, Scotland, United Kingdom

Descendants

Died 8 Mar 1904 at age 81 in Londonderry, County Londonderry, Ireland

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Stephen Corkey [send private message]

Biography

William Tillie HML was born in Scotland.

William was born in 1822, in Crookston Mains, in the parish of Stow, Midlothian, Scotland, son of John Tillie and his wife Jannet Brown,^[1] who were substantial farmers; he had 7 siblings.

Until he was 27 he worked as an agent for Robert Sinclair, a shirt manufacturer in Glasgow, and often travelled to Londonderry to procure material or put out shirts for finishing.

On 25 March 1852 in Stow, he married Agnes Marshall Lee, who also came from a prosperous farming family.^[2] They had 5 sons and three daughters.

• William John Tillie 1855-1920
• Annabella Graham Tillie 1855-1937 m. James Dickson
• Jessie Browne Tillie (2nd daughter) m. 1877 Andrew Holmes Reed, son of Sir Charles^[3]
• Marshall Tillie 1858- mayor (candidate?) of Londonderry, m. Mary Walker, appears (without Mary but still married) in 1901 census
• Charles Reed Tillie^[4] 1864-1909 (born in Londonderry) m. 1893 (in Knutsford, Cheshire) Sarah Gibbons. son Lieut. C. Gordon Tillie (killed in action 1915)
• Catherine Tillie 1870-
• One other son^[5]

William went into partnership with Sinclair, and later John Henderson (hence "Tillie and Henderson Ltd") and moved to Londonderry, in the north of Ireland, opening a factory on Little James Street employing forty workers. They bettered their competitors by combining all the elements of shirt-making into one individual business (even if many of them worked at home), and imposing quality control with a system of inspectors. It was not long before they moved into larger premises in Foyle Street.

Other innovations included a patent for printing shirt fabric in 1854 and the introduction of sewing machines on a commercial level in 1856 (purchasing 100 for over £2000). These were powered by one of Ulster's first steam engines.

Within a few years the company was one of the biggest employers in Londonderry, if not the biggest.^[6] It was cited by Karl Marx in "Das Kapital".

He dissolved his partnership with Sinclair amicably in 1862. In 1863 he faced competition from two other Scots, McIntyre and Hogg, who set up their own innovative factory. In 1860 five million shirts were produced in Londonderry, more than anywhere else in the United Kingdom (and possibly at that time, the world).

He was a JP and grand juror for many years, high sheriff of Co. Londonderry in 1872, lieutenant for the city (H.M.L.) and deputy lieutenant for Co. Londonderry. In 1892 a steel-clad sailing ship was named after him. He was active in the Presbyterian church, and in politics, switching from the Liberal Party to the Liberal Unionists when Gladstone advocated home rule.

Agnes passed away in 1900.^[7]

William's death (age 80) was registered in 1904 in the Londonderry district.^[8] On the day of his funeral all the factories in the city closed, and all the blinds on the route were drawn.

Find A Grave: Memorial #103662005

Sources

1. ↑ Birth or Baptism: "Church of Scotland: Old Parish Registers - Births and Baptisms"
   National Records of Scotland, Parish Number: 699; Ref: 50/84; Frame: 1610
   ScotlandsPeople (accessed 10 August 2023)
   William Tillie born or baptised on 17 Oct 1822, son of John Tillie & Janet Brown, in Stow, Edinburghshire, Scotland.
2. ↑ Marriage: "Church of Scotland: Old Parish Registers - Banns and Marriages"
   National Records of Scotland, Parish Number: 699; Ref: 50/258; Frame: 1702
   ScotlandsPeople (accessed 10 August 2023)
   William Tillie marriage to Agnes Marshall on or after 25 Mar 1852 in Stow, Edinburghshire, Scotland.
3. ↑ Foster's Baronetage and Knightage
4. ↑ Presumably named after his sister's future father-in-law
5. ↑ Despite much trawling I can find references to no other Tillies. The Dictionary of Irish Biography seem certain there were 5 sons, but no Irish or Scottish birth records that match. More likely born in Ireland (married 1852, moved to Ireland "early 1850s"). Not in Ireland for 1901 census (there are no universal censuses for Ireland before then). May well have died young.
6. ↑ DIB says they employed 4,500 on site and a further 2,000 home workers, but another source suggests that was the cumulative total for all the shirt manufacturers in Londonderry.
7. ↑ Death Registration: "Civil Records of Irish Births, Deaths and Marriages"
   General Register Office, Ireland; Group Registration ID: 4461225; SR District/Reg Area: Londonderry
   IrishGenealogy.ie Image - IrishGenealogy.ie Record (accessed 10 August 2023)
   Agnes Tillie death 1900 (age 74) in the Londonderry Superintendent Registrar's district.
8. ↑ Death Registration: "Civil Records of Irish Births, Deaths and Marriages"
   General Register Office, Ireland; Group Registration ID: 4695079; SR District/Reg Area: Londonderry
   IrishGenealogy.ie Image - IrishGenealogy.ie Record (accessed 10 August 2023)
   William Tillie death 1904 (age 80) in the Londonderry Superintendent Registrar's district.

• https://www.dib.ie/biography/tillie-william-a9754

From which:

• Census of Scotland 1851, locality transcriptions (Crookston Mains and Fernieherst), online at www.maxwellancestry.com/census/51transcript.aspx?houseid=69901007;
• Donegal News, 11, 18 Mar., 29 Apr. 1904; 15 Feb. 1907;
• Geraldine McCarter, Derry's shirt tale (1991);
• Annesley Malley, The burning of Tillie and Henderson's, Foyle Civic Trust Review, ix (2002–03), pp 3–5;
• Robert Gavin, History of the clothing industry in Derry in Patrick Durnin (ed.), Tillies: Tillie and Henderson shirt factory (2005);
• Annesley Malley, Historical background to Tillie and Henderson in ibid;
• Ciaran Roddy, The history of shirt making in Derry (updated 2008), www.oocities.org/historyofshirtmakinginderry/Index.htm;
• Kathleen Wilson, Irish people, Irish linen (2011), esp. 202–4; DoE emergency dereliction improvement scheme (Apr. 2012), www.derrycity.gov.uk/DerryCitySite/files/53/53002d9c-7fb6-4836-850a-6409627a4bbb.pdf; Londonderry Journal, passim; familysearch.org (internet sources accessed Dec. 2013 and July 2015)

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to Linde Lunney, author of the Dictionary of Irish Biography entry.