The last quarter of the nineteenth century was a time of great industrial growth throughout Ulster. The linen trade was booming, new techniques in production encouraged the establishment of factories in towns and housing grew up nearby to accommodate the necessary workforce.

Portadown was becoming one of the most successful and progressive centres of industry. While there was constant emigration to North America and elsewhere, there was also a steady movement from the countryside to the towns. The new factories also required a skilled managerial labour force and industrialists such as the Richardsons looked to England to recruit capable people to assist them in their rapidly expanding enterprises.

Bessbrook became a magnet for many enterprising men from Quaker circles in England. John F. Harris, of Sibford, near Banbury, came to Bessbrook to act as tutor to the young James N. Richardson. Harris was obviously an able man for he was later taken into the business, becoming eventually Managing Director of both Bessbrook Spinning Company and Richardson Sons and Owden of Belfast. Others from the same area followed, notably the brothers Charles B. and Richard Lamb, cousins of John F. Harris.

The Lambs stayed a relatively short time in Bessbrook before settling in the Richhill area. It would be hard to estimate the contribution of the Lamb dynasty to Quaker life in Ireland through the past century and to the present day. Belfast and other parts of the North also attracted many able young men of Quaker background from England and families such as Marsh, Squire, Elcock and Tyler came to seek their fortune in linen manufacture or other businesses.

This wave of immigration was of immense benefit to Friends in Ulster. In fact the latter years of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth represent the high point of Quakerism in Ulster.

A nephew of John F. Harris and a cousin of the Lambs, Albert Shemeld, came from his native Northampton and took up residence in Portadown in the 1870s. There he established a thriving business in the wholesale and retail grocery trade. His shop was in West Street and he is listed in an 1888 street directory as a pork curer. He married Mary Wardell, a member of an Ulster Quaker family. They lived at first above the shop in West Street, but later set up home at Drumcree Cottage, close to the church, in fact just beside the barrier which was erected in recent years to prevent the Orangemen continuing their homeward walk along the Garvaghy Road into Portadown. They and their family joined Moyallon meeting and were very active locally and among Ulster Friends in general. For example, it is noted that in 1882 Albert was Chairman of the Management Committee of Friends' School, Lisburn.

By 1888 he was serving as an Elder. He was for many years Record Clerk and Registering Officer of Marriages for the Monthly Meeting and Clerk of Moyallon Preparative Meeting. Although an Englishman, he had strong sympathies with the Home Rule movement and was not afraid to express these often unpopular views in a town like Portadown. His daughters, Mary and Sarah, recalled their terror as children, lying on the floor of the sitting room above the shop in West Street, in order to shelter from the shower of stones coming from the angry crowd in the street below.

The eldest son, William, emigrated to New Zealand. Daughter Mary married William A. Green, the celebrated photographer of Irish rural and industrial life whose work is held by the Ulster Folk Museum in Cultra. The younger daughter, Sarah, was unmarried, but devoted many years to caring for the two sons of her brother, John, after his early death and that of his wife. One of these boys is well remembered by many as Jack Shemeld, who was teacher of Physical Education and Woodwork at Friends' School, Lisburn, and with his wife, Katie, gave devoted care as Houseparents to Junior Boarder boys in Ardfallen.

Important residents of Portadown in the latter part of the nineteenth century were the Moyallon Friends, Charles and Anne Wakefield, who lived in Corcrain House. As we saw above they were much involved in the distribution of food and clothing at the time of the Famine. Charles Wakefield was spoken of in affectionate terms by the tenants of his estate and Charles Street in Portadown is reputedly named after him. However the Wakefields had a long-time loyalty to Moyallon Meeting and had little interest in the establishment of another meeting in the town where they lived. It was left to others who had no traditional ties to existing meetings to pioneer a new enterprise. Such a one was Albert Shemeld. As he was new to the area and conscious of the growing importance of Portadown as a manufacturing town and a rail centre, he considered it fitting that this thriving town should have its own Friends meeting. He may well have heard of the general public interest in Friends evidenced by the meeting in the Town Hall in 1859.

In 1894 the matter of a new meeting of Friends in Portadown was discussed at Ulster Quarterly Meeting, held on 17 September. The relevant minute states:

"A proposal to establish a Meeting for Worship in Portadown has received much consideration today. The subject is now referred to the serious consideration of Lurgan Monthly Meeting "

One month later at Lurgan Monthly Meeting the following action was taken in Minute 4:

"The consideration of establishing a Meeting in Portadown being referred by Quarterly Meeting to this Monthly Meeting we appoint the following to seriously consider it and report: Albert Shemeld, William E. Green, Dr. Clarke, William H. Turtle, Robert Pedlow"

The committee carried out its work promptly and minute 10 of the next meeting, held on 14 November 1894, reads:

"The report from the committee to consider establishing a meeting at Portadown, report having visited the town and having seen most of those having any connection with Friends there. It does not find that any meeting is required and does not see how one could be established and maintained unless some Friend or Friends seriously concerned therefor would take responsibility for it. The proposed conveyance from Portadown to Moyallon on First Days does not seem to be wanted. Signed by four Friends. This meeting unites with this report and sends it to Quarterly Meeting'"

The definite and negative tone of this report seemed to preclude the possibility of a meeting in Portadown for some time. The rejection of the proposal for joint transport to Moyallon also indicates that no strong nucleus of Friends existed in Portadown. However, the report was signed by only four Friends. Five were appointed. Could it be that Albert Shemeld, the only resident of Portadown, was a dissenting voice?

From 1901 some Friends in Portadown began gathering for meetings on Sunday evenings in a small room in the town. In time they considered again the matter of a special identity for their group and turned this time to support from a different quarter. Richhill Monthly Meeting offered encouragement and this was recorded in a minute of Lurgan Monthly Meeting held on 16 March 1904.

Minute 2 "We have received the following minute from Richhill Monthly Meeting 'A few Portadown Friends have brought before us the question of the establishment of a First Day morning meeting in Portadown. We very much unite with these Friends as to the desirability of having a morning meeting for many reasons and we encourage Friends to approach Lurgan Monthly Meeting also to see what their feeling is upon the matter. Charles B. Lamb, Clerk'. The proposal has been supported by Friends from both Lurgan and Richhill Monthly Meetings and has had our serious consideration today. We think it wise to leave the subject over for further deliberation next month"

In July 1904 a more definite proposal for a regular Sunday meeting was put to Monthly Meeting and granted in the following minute:

"A number of Friends from Portadown and neighbourhood have requested permission to hold a Meeting for Worship in Portadown on First Day mornings. This meeting, after serious consideration, decides to accede to their request. The meeting to rank as an Allowed Meeting. This step has the approval of Richhill Monthly Meeting".

Arrangements were made to rent a room in The Anchor Cafe in Bridge Street on the banks of the Bann in premises at present occupied by Ross Raymond's cycle shop and a small group of Friends gathered each Sunday morning for Meeting for Worship. Who would have been present in this group? Albert and Mary Shemeld, both Elders, their daughter, Sarah, now an Overseer, and their son, John; Capel Reid and his wife, Louisa, a daughter of Benjamin Sinton, and their young family. Capel Reid had a linen manufacturing business in the townland of Tarson near Seagoe and had joined Friends in Moyallon with his wife. Both had been appointed Overseers by 1904. (Incidentally, Capel and Louisa Reid were grandparents of the present doyenne of Portadown Meeting, Esther Davis). Another family with Moyallon links living in Portadown were the Magowans. They too transferred their allegiance to the new meeting and were active in Portadown Meeting for every decade of the twentieth century.

Richhill connections were represented by Robert Chapman, a young man who had set up a thriving auctioneering business in the town, along with his wife Kezia. William Jones Burrell, an Overseer in Richhill Meeting, with his wife Sarah, were living in West Street. Samuel N. Baker, a member of an old Munster family and brother-in-law of Charles B. Lamb, was living for a brief period in the district at this time and lent his support. A widow, Alice Bamber, and some of her grown-up children probably attended also. Her husband had been a mill manager and had previously been active in Bessbrook. In addition there were doubtless attenders, curious to learn more about Friends' ways.

At the Lurgan Monthly Meeting on 11 January 1905 minute 7 states:

"Albert Shemeld, on behalf of the Friends who attend the Allowed Meeting in Portadown, has applied to this meeting for its approval of a proposition to erect a Meeting House in Portadown. We are glad to support this proposal and instruct the Clerk to send a copy of this minute to Quarterly Meeting."

Acting with unaccustomed speed the Quarterly Meeting later the same month listened to Albert Shemeld and Samuel N. Baker present the case for a new Meeting House in Portadown and advised the purchase or renting of a suitable plot of land. The following committee was appointed to process the decision: Albert Shemeld (Convenor), Joseph C. Marsh, Samuel N. Baker, Louis F. O'Brien, Joshua Pim, R.H. Stephens Richardson, Charles B. Lamb, Edwin Squire, Robert Chapman, Wm Jones Burrell, Richard H. Lamb.

This committee acted swiftly and by March of the same year Quarterly Meeting sanctioned the progress of the work by the following minute:

"A verbal report has been given in reference to the proposed Meeting House at Portadown and the collection of funds. A request has been made for liberty to commence building operations and this meeting agrees to sanction this conditionally upon the money needed being in hand. The £70 and interest from the sale of Lower Grange Meeting House is hereby handed over to the funds of Portadown Meeting House Committee for the payment of ground rent."