Susan,
You can use Griffiths Valuation to see where Ballyligpatrick is (search on Griffiths Places):
https://www.askaboutireland.ie/griffith-valuation/index.xml
You’ll find that a William Patterson lived in Ballyligpatrick c 1862 and he was probably the person who reported Gabriel’s death. May have been a relative or just a friend. He had plot 9 which was a 43 acre farm. There is no Brownlee household listed in the records, then or in later years, and that suggests Gabriel was staying with William Patterson at the time of his death. Occupier just means the person who lived there.
A weaver usually couldn’t afford a gravestone so Gabriel and his wife are probably buried in an unmarked grave. I would hazard a guess they are buried in Buckna Presbyterian graveyard as that is very close to Ballyligpatrick.
I am sorry to say I can’t find any other reference to this Gabriel in the land records. That’s not unusual for labourers and weavers who often lived a lot of their lives below officialdom’s radar.
Weaver was a very common occupation at that time. In rural areas most weaving was done at home using hand loom weaving machines, such as are still used in the Outer Hebrides in Scotland to make Harris Tweed. These machines were collapsible, so as to be stored out of the way when not needed and for ease of transport should the weaver move home, as they often did, to follow the available work.
Most weavers in Ulster were labourers who earned a bit of extra money by weaving in the winter months when there wasn’t much labouring work required on farms. This meant that labourers in Ulster had a slightly better standard of living than elsewhere in Ireland. It also gave them some ready cash (in a society that mostly operated by barter) for the things that could not be bought by barter, eg a ticket to America.
At one time weavers wove a lot of cotton but the interruption of supplies from the southern US states during the American War of Independence in the 1770s meant they focused on other materials, notably flax (which linen is made from) and which grows well in Ireland in contrast to cotton which won’t grow at all. They did weave other products eg calico and wool as required, but by the 1800s it was mainly linen. Linen made at home was taken to the local linen market and sold there. Ballymena in this case I suspect.
As the 19th century progressed, water powered linen mills were introduced all over Ulster. These were faster than home weavers and often made better quality material and so gradually made the home weaver redundant. In addition, the factories also mostly employed women and children (being nimbler and cheaper) so this impacted on male employment too. At a time when farms were starting to mechanise and so needed fewer labourers, the average labourer/weaver therefore faced a bleak future and so these combined changes were a major factor in many a labourer’s decision to leave Ireland during the 1800s.
A little more information on this link: https://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/flax-plant.html
If the Brownlee family attended Buckna Presbyterian church, then you may find it helpful to know that it has baptism records from 1836, plus an index to baptisms that starts in 1828 (looks as though the actual baptisms 1828 - 1835 are lost), plus marriages for 1830 only and then 1845 onwards. There’s a copy in PRONI (the public record office) in Belfast. I don’t think they are on-line anywhere. Presbyterians generally didn’t keep burial records and Buckna has none.
I had a look at the statutory marriage records 1845 onwards for Brownlee and Ballymena registration area, hoping for a marriage where the father was Gabriel. I didn’t find any. Nearest I got was a Brownlee from Drummuck marrying a Graham from Ballyligpatrick in Buckna Presbyterian in 1867. Might be a relative perhaps. Her father was a cottier. That’s a small farmer (typically 3 or 4 acres).
https://civilrecords.irishgenealogy.ie/churchrecords/images/marriage_returns/marriages_1867/11501/8228849.pdf
