Born 16th December, 1867 – Amy Beatrice Carmichael – name appears on the baptismal register of the Presbyterian Church at Ballycopeland (congregations now joined as Millisle and Ballycopeland) on 19th January 1868.
Amy’s father was David and her mother Catherine (a doctor’s daughter from Portaferry).
Amy was the eldest of seven children. Amy then 2 brothers, 2 sisters then 2 more brothers.
The family lived in a large grey stone house on the corner of Main Street / Abbey Road. Mervue House. (Mer – sea Vue – to see.)
‘In my day Millisle was a little old-world village of whitewashed cottages on the shore of the Irish Sea. From our nursery window we could see the great rock called Ailsa Craig rising like a cloud out of the sea. Blueness of the sea that looked happy, greyness of the sea that looked anxious, greenness of the sea that looked angry – these are my first memories of colour.’
The village was dominated by the Carmichael flour mills leased by Amy’s great-grandfather a hundred years before she was born. The mills were developed and enlarged by Amy’s father David and uncle William.
There were two mills: the Upper – half a mile inland, and the Lower, close to the sea. The Mill House (black and white building beside unused petrol station).
The mills were powered by water from the little stream. It had been dammed up to form a lake. In the middle was a little islet with one tree growing in the centre. According to local tradition that is how Mill-Isle got its name.
Amy’s family were leading members in the Presbyterian Church.
In 1866 David and William Carmichael provided over £500 for the building of a schoolhouse – the first in the Millisle neighbourhood.
As well as day school, there were evening classes (intended partly for employees in the mill), and services on a Sunday night. When the Rev Beatty was unwell, Amy’s father would read sermons by a man called Spurgeon – a famous Baptist preacher. I’m sure they never imagined that 119 years later that the school would become a Baptist Church
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Next - Amy's Prayer
