Presbyterian Historical Society of Ireland
March - December 2023
Acquisitions
We have received a number of new accessions of archives in the last 9 months:
A framed portrait of Miss Mary B Stevenson, the first deaconess to serve in Ballymena with a poem about her written in 1849 along with a towel commemorating the Church Extension Centenary 1866-1966 which lists the new churches built during this time with pictures of some of them.
Copy of a photograph of the Central Presbyterian Association Memorial to those who served and those who died during the 1st World War (the original has been lost).
Photograph of the opening of an extension to the War Memorial Hostel in 1949 with the Moderator, Rt Rev Dr G D Erskine, General Sir James Steele and others.
A Bible presented to Clifton Street United Presbyterian Church in 1954 by a Miss Watters.
Crudens Concordance that belonged to the Rev Joseph Corkey while at Queen’s College and who later became minister of Glendermott Presbyterian Church.
Framed photographs of Moderators from 1907- 1987.
A silver trowel presented to Mrs James Henderson on the occasion of her laying the foundation stone of Castleton Presbyterian Church, Belfast in 1897.
A silver trowel presented to Rev John McNaughton by members of Donegall Pass PC and teachers and scholars of the Sabbath School on the occasion of his laying the foundation stone of their school houses, Jan 1881.
- Photographs of members of the family of the Rev William Hunter, missionary to China including photographs of members of his church in China on loan for copying.
- Minutes of Templepatrick Presbytery, 1795-1990.
- Baptism Register of Ulsterville Presbyterian Church, Belfast, 1902-74.
- Additional records of Windsor Presbyterian Church, Belfast – session minutes, 1969-2010 and annual reports, 1887-2012 and 2014.
- Records of Hamilton Road Presbyterian Church, Bangor, 1898 -1981.
- Illuminated address to Professor Shaw, Magee College, Derry, from former and present students, in appreciation of his teaching on philosophical studies, 1877.
Cataloguing
All new accessions or records received in this period have been fully catalogued along with 50 books catalogued and added to the Library.
Website and Facebook Page
Our website has been kept up-to-date, thanks to the work of one of our volunteers. We continue to add to our indexes on-line, to the History of Presbyterian Congregations and to audio recordings of our talks including ‘The Ballycarry Session book’ by John Nelson, ‘Hunter of Knock’ by Bill Addley and ‘Presbyterians and the Establishment of Northern Ireland’ by Bert Tosh.
Talks and Lectures
Our May lecture was given by John Erskine, one of our Council members who, along with Christopher Maitland, gave an illustrated talk at Belmont Presbyterian Church on ‘The auld Meetin’-Hoose Green’, a relaxed miscellany looking at aspects of life, language and practice in the Presbyterian tradition. May is traditionally the month for the Robert Allen lecture at Union Theological College which this year was given by Dr Robert Whan on ‘Presbyterians and Print in 18th century Ulster’.
June saw the resumption of our annual Field trip which was postponed in 2020-2022 due to Covid restrictions. We had a very full day visiting a number of churches in the Route Presbytery – Ballycastle, Ramoan, Bushmills, 1st Ballymoney, Dervock and Drumreagh ending up at Toberdoney for the evening meal. We also managed to squeeze in a visit to The Vow, near Ballymoney where the Rev William Martin ministered to a number of Covenanting societies and from where he led a number of families, five shiploads that sailed from Larne, Belfast and Newry to America in 1772.
Our autumn series of talks began with Dr Andrew Holmes giving a talk at Lowe Memorial Presbyterian Church on ‘Union and Presbyterian Ulster-Scots - William McComb, James McKnight and the Repealer Repulsed’ and ended with a talk in Dunmurry Presbyterian Church by Dr David Steers on ‘James Kirkpatrick c.1676-1743 and the First Non-Subscription Controversy’.
Publications
The Society has continued its programme of publishing material on Presbyterian History. An expanded version of a talk given at the Robert Allen lecture in 2015 by the Very Rev Dr Donald Patton has now been published. The previously unpublished journal of the Rev Andrew George Malcolm (1782-1823), minister first at Dunmurry and then in Newry (which was the subject of a talk by the Rev Dr John Nelson in 2019) is now in print. It gives a fascinating insight not only into his life and his congregations but also into late 18th and early 19th century Presbyterian Church history and especially into the town and community of Newry.
Second Hand Books
We have a number of books for sale that are surplus to our requirements. A list of these is available on our website under ‘Publications’ with details of costs to which we will need to add on postage. Most are related to Presbyterianism in Ireland and to the work of overseas mission in Ireland including some congregational histories but are not exclusively so.
Volunteers
We have a number of volunteers who help us out for a few hours each week. They can be engaged in a variety of tasks - numbering books and documents, indexing, cataloguing, preparing mailings, etc. If you would like to get involved please contact the Librarian and Archivist (at 028 9041 7299 or phsilibrarian@pcinet.org). We would be very grateful for any help you can give us, even if only for a couple of hours a week.
Membership of the Society
If you would like to join as a member of the Society and support us there are details of Associate, Annual and Life membership on our website - (presbyterianhistoryireland.org).