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…...
Shaw, James Johnston
Shaw, James Johnston (1845–1910), economist, barrister, and judge, was born 4 January 1845 at Kirkcubbin, Co. Down, second son of John Maxwell Shaw (d. 1852), merchant and farmer, and Anne Shaw (née Johnston). His father died when he was only seven, leaving his mother to raise a…...
Sibbett, Robert Mackie
Sibbett, Robert Mackie (1868–1941), journalist and author, was born 4 September 1868 in the townland of Killycoogan, Portglenone, Co. Antrim, the only son of James Mackie and Agnes Ann Mackie (née Sibbett; b. 1832, d. 4 November 1916), who were married on 20 November 1867. After…...
Smith, Col. James
Smith, Col. James (c.1713–1806), lawyer, soldier in America, and signatory of the American declaration of independence, was born in the north of Ireland, second son of John Smith, a farmer with a large family. There are few details extant about his background or date of…...
Solomons, Estella Frances
Solomons, Estella Frances (1882–1968), artist, was born 2 April 1882 at 32 Waterloo Road, Dublin, second among four children of Maurice E. Solomons, optician to the royal family and maker of optical instruments, and Rosa Jane Solomons (née Jacobs) of Hull; the other children were Edwin…...
Stevenson, John
Stevenson, John (1850–1931), printer, inventor, antiquary, and author, was born in Rostrevor, Co. Down, in 1850, eldest among three to five sons of John Stevenson (d. 1881) and Harriet Stevenson (née Walsh; d. 1891). One brother died in childhood and one as a young man; there may…...
Stewart, Anthony Terence Quincey ('A. T. Q.')
Stewart, Anthony Terence Quincey ('A. T. Q.') (1929–2010), historian, was born on 8 July 1929 in the Ballygomartin area of north Belfast, only child of Christopher Greenwood Stewart, a baker, and his second wife (née Quincey), who came from Stockport, Lancashire. The presbyterian…...
Strain, Alexander
Strain, Alexander (c.1877–1943), Dublin builder and property developer, was born in Markethill, Co. Armagh, eldest son of Robert Douglas Strain, builder, and his wife Margaret (née McFadden). Alexander moved to Dublin in 1893 and initially worked for a timber dealer in…...
Swan, Harry Percival
Swan, Harry Percival (1879–1970), businessman, antiquarian, and author, was born 4 June 1879 at Ardeelan House, Buncrana, eldest child among five sons and three daughters of Thomas Swan, miller, and his wife Isabella, daughter of James Cooke of Belfast. His father owned a milling…...
Waddington, Leslie
Waddington, Leslie (1934–2015), art dealer, was born in Upper Mount Street, Dublin, on 9 February 1934, the middle of three sons of…...
Waddington, Victor
Waddington, Victor (1907–81), art dealer and gallery owner, was born on 9 January 1907 in Stepney, London, the second son of five sons and two daughters of William George Waddington, a schoolteacher and convert to Judaism, originally from a presbyterian family in rural Aberdeenshire,…...
Warden, David Bailie
Warden, David Bailie (1772–1845), United Irishman, diplomat, and bibliographer, was born at Ballycastle, Co. Down, eldest among three sons of Robert Warden, tenant farmer, and Elizabeth Warden (née Bailie). Educated locally, he studied for the presbyterian ministry, despite being…...
Wilson, Daniel Martin
Wilson, Daniel Martin (1862–1932), lawyer and politician, was born in Limerick, son of the Rev. Dr David Wilson (1819–94), moderator of the presbyterian general assembly 1865–7. His father was married twice: first (1845) to a daughter of William McFurran, and secondly to Jessie…...
Witherow, Thomas
Witherow, Thomas (1824–90), presbyterian minister and historian, was born 29 May 1824 in his maternal grandfather's house at Ballycastle, near Limavady, Co. Londonderry, eldest in a family of four children of Hugh Witherow, a prosperous farmer and grazier from Aughlish, near…...
Wylie, William Evelyn
Wylie, William Evelyn (1881–1964), judge and doyen of the RDS, was born 26 June 1881 at Kenilworth House, Kenilworth Square, Dublin (the residence of his maternal uncle John Girdwood Drury), son of the Rev. Robert Beatty Wylie, LLD, minister (…...