Thomas Sinton

Thomas Sinton, JP (February 1826 – 20 August 1887) was an Irish industrialist and magistrate. Sinton made a significant impact upon the Irish linen trade; not least establishing the village of Laurelvale, County Armagh.

Thomas Sinton was born in Tamnaghmore House,Tandragee, County Armagh, the son of David Sinton and Sarah Green. The Sintons, like so many of Northern Ireland's linen families were Quakers, in this case of Scottish descent; although the Sintons had been settled at Tamnaghmore for several hundred years. Thomas Sinton was sent to board at Friends' School, Lisburn – a Quaker school. In 1859 he married Elizabeth Bridget Hesilridge Buckby (1835–1900), her family lived at Prospect House, Tandragee. He had eight children by his wife;

Sinton died at his home, Laurelvale House (later the home of Michael Torrens-Spence), and was buried at Moyallon Friends' Burial Ground, Gilford. His effects were valued, in 1887, at over £100,000. Sinton, through his brother John Sinton, was a great-uncle of the soldier and doctor John Alexander Sinton.

Sinton built the model village of Laurelvale (named due to the abundance of laurel bushes in the area), also known as Laurel Vale, to house workers at his large linen factory – Thomas Sinton & Co. The factory was started in the early 1850s and by the 1880s it employed around 700 workers, responsible for manufacturing very high-grade heavy linen. The company was responsible for almost all of the houses built in the village, especially those for family members and factory managers.

He also owned factories in Tandragee, by the River Cusher, and at Killyleagh, County Down. His younger brother, John Sinton, owned a linen mill at Ravernet near Hillsborough, County Down, and Thomas's descendants would also acquire the Banford Bleachworks, at Tullylish.

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