Monteith, Charles Montgomery
Monteith, Charles Montgomery (1921–95), publisher, was born 9 February 1921 in Lisburn, Co. Antrim, son of James Monteith, draper, and Marian Monteith (née Montgomery). The family were devoutly presbyterian. Charles was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institute – he later…...
Moore, Robert
Moore, Robert (1886–1960), farmer, politician, and presbyterian minister, was born 26 September 1886 at Ballymacannon, Ringsend, near Coleraine, Co. Londonderry, son of Kennedy Moore, whose family had farmed in the area for generations, and Mary Elizabeth Moore (née McFetridge).…...
Morgan, William James (‘Billy’)
Morgan, William James (‘Billy’) (1914–99), politician, was born 17 July 1914 in Belfast, third son of William James Morgan and Susan Jane Morgan (née Sharpe). At the age of 14 he left Finniston primary school to enter the family transport business, John Morgan & Sons, and retired…...
Morrow, Addie (Adam James)
Morrow, Addie (Adam James) (1928–2012), community activist and politician, was born on 17 July 1928 at the family farm, Hill House, Ballyhanwood, Gilnahirk, Dundonald, Co. Down, eldest of five children (three sons and two daughters) of a dairy farmer; his mother's maiden name was Watson…...
Morrow, Henry Cooke (‘Harry’)
Morrow, Henry Cooke (‘Harry’) (‘MacNamara, Gerald’) (1865–1938), playwright, writer and artist, was born in Co. Down on 27 August 1865, the second eldest of eight sons of George Morrow, a painter, decorator and founder of Morrow & Sons Ltd, and his wife Catherine (née MacNamara).…...
Morrow, John Watson
This is a co-subject for the entry on Morrow, Addie (Adam James). View the original entry....
Neilson, Samuel
Neilson, Samuel (1761–1803), United Irishman, was born in September 1761 at Ballyroney, Co. Down, one of at least three sons of Alexander Neilson, a presbyterian minister. Educated at home and in a local school, in 1777 he was sent to Belfast to take up an apprenticeship with his…...
Nelson, Isaac
Nelson, Isaac (1809–88), presbyterian minister and politician, was born in Belfast, son of Francis Nelson, greengrocer, of Barrack St., Belfast, who was said to have been a United Irishman in 1798. Little else is known of Isaac's early life, but in the late 1820s he was in the…...
Orr, James
Orr, James (1770–1816), weaver, radical, and poet, was son of James Orr, who farmed a few acres and was a linen weaver. His mother's name is unknown. They lived in the small village of Ballycarry, in the parish of Broadisland, Co. Antrim. James was an only child, born when his…...
Paisley, Ian
Paisley, Ian Richard Kyle (1926–2014), Lord Bannside, protestant revivalist and politician, was born in Armagh city on 6 April 1926, younger of two sons of James Kyle Paisley (known as Kyle Paisley), baptist preacher, and his wife Isabella (née Turnbull), a former governess from Kilsyth…...
Parker, Henry
Parker, Henry (1604–52), parliamentarian pamphleteer, was born in 1604, the fifth son of Sir Nicholas Parker (d. 1619) and his third wife, Katherine Temple. His family, important Sussex gentry, was based at Ratton. Little is known of his early life until he attended Oxford, where…...
Patterson, Robert James
Patterson, Robert James (1868–1930), presbyterian minister and temperance campaigner, was born 1 January 1868 in Ballymoyer, Whitecross, Co. Armagh, second son of Samuel Patterson and Margaret Patterson (née Ranton). His father was probably a farmer, but a half-brother and three…...
Payne, Davy (Hugh David)
Payne, Davy (Hugh David) (1948?–2003), loyalist paramilitary, was born in Belfast, where he was brought up in the Woodvale area of the Shankill Road. He was involved in loyalist activism from his teens (although he later falsely claimed to have been radicalised by IRA bombings in the…...
Pinkerton, John
Pinkerton, John (1845–1908), tenant farmer, magistrate, and MP, was the son of John Pinkerton of Seacon, near Ballymoney, north Antrim, and his wife Nancy (née Pinkerton). John Pinkerton senior was a unitarian tenant farmer and linen merchant who died young after falling from his…...
Porter, Alexander
Porter, Alexander (1785–1844), US senator, was born 24 June 1785, one of seven children of James Porter (qv), presbyterian minister, and his wife Anna Knox of Dromore (d. 1823). Though not a United Irishman, James Porter was implicated…...
Porter, James
Porter, James (1752/3–1798), presbyterian minister and satirist, was born in the townland of Tamnawood, near Ballindrait in the Laggan district of Co. Donegal. His parents, who were presbyterians, were natives of the place and had three younger sons and four daughters. The father…...
Rentoul, James Alexander
Rentoul, James Alexander (1845–1919), presbyterian minister, lawyer and politician, was born at Errity House, Manorcunningham, Co. Donegal, on 7 August 1845, eldest son (of three sons and five daughters) of Alexander Rentoul, presbyterian minister, and his wife Erminda (née Chittick…...
Robb, John Hanna
Robb, John Hanna (1873–1956), politician and barrister, was born 4 November 1873 in Clogher, Co. Tyrone, second son among ten children of the Rev. James Gardner Robb (d. 1891), presbyterian minister, and Martha Robb (née Hanna). As a child he spent five years in Toronto, Canada,…...
Robinson, Samuel
Robinson, Samuel (1865–1958), businessman and philanthropist, was born 9 June 1865 in Culcrum, near Cloughmills, Co. Antrim, eldest son among three sons and two daughters of Samuel Robinson, farmer, and Margaret Robinson (née Megaw). His mother's family, the Megaws, produced…...
Rogers, John
Rogers, John (1740–1814), presbyterian minister and Volunteer, was youngest son of James Rogers, elder of Newbliss congregation, Co. Monaghan. He was said to be a descendant of the Rev. John Rogers, the first protestant martyr to be burned at the stake during the reign of Queen…...
Ross, Sir John
Ross, Sir John (1853–1935), judge, politician, and last lord chancellor of Ireland, was born 11 December 1853 in Derry, eldest son among eight children of the Rev. Robert Ross (d. 1894), presbyterian minister and moderator (1886–7) of the general assembly of the Presbyterian…...
Rowan, Archibald Hamilton
Rowan, Archibald Hamilton (1751–1834), property owner, Volunteer, and United Irishman, was born 12 May 1751 in Rathbone Place, London, only son of Gawen Hamilton (1729–1805) of Killyleagh, Co. Down, and his wife, Jane (d. 1793), only child of a barrister, William Rowan (1693?–1767), a…...
Russell, Sir Thomas Wallace
Russell, Sir Thomas Wallace (1841–1920), radical Ulster politician, was born 28 February 1841 in Cupar, Fife, Scotland, son of David Russell, stonemason, and Isabella Russell (née Wallace). Educated at the Madras Academy, Cupar, Russell settled in Ulster in 1860, aged 19, and was…...
Rylett, Harold
Rylett, Harold (1851–1936), non-subscribing presbyterian minister, journalist, land leaguer, and home ruler, was born 4 February 1851 in Boston Road, Horncastle, Lincolnshire, the son of Henry Rylett, a book binder, and later a commercial traveler, of Boston Road, and his wife Mary Jane…...
Shanks, James
Shanks, James (1854–1912), farmer, agrarian activist, and self-taught naturalist and historian, was born 4 November 1854 on Ballyfounder farm, two miles south of Portaferry on the Ards peninsula, Co. Down. A presbyterian, after attending Portaferry no. 2 national school until age…...