Adair, Patrick
Adair, Patrick (c.1624–1694), presbyterian minister and historian, was the third son of John Adair, of Genoch in Galloway. He graduated from the University of St Andrews in 1642 and proceeded in 1644 to study divinity in the University of Glasgow. When licensed he travelled to…...
Alexander, Sir William
Alexander, Sir William (1743–1822), 1st baronet, wholesale merchant, and Dublin alderman, of Belcamp, Booterstown, and Mountjoy Square, Dublin, was born 3 March 1743, son of William Alexander (d. c.1788), wholesale merchant and linen factor, of Mary's Abbey, Dublin (…...
Anderson, John
Anderson, John (1815–1905), woollen merchant, geologist, bibliographer, and local politician, was born 8 July 1815 near Coleraine, Co. Londonderry. After moving to Belfast he entered (1840) the woollen business in Donegall St. founded by James Young in 1795. Anderson's eminence…...
Anderson, Sir Robert
Anderson, Sir Robert (1837–1921), 1st baronet, businessman, was born 1 December 1837, probably in Ballybay, Co. Monaghan, son of James Anderson of Ballybay and Elizabeth Anderson (née Ker) of Newbliss. At 15 he joined the firm of John…...
Andrews, Sir John Lawson Ormrod (‘Jack’)
Andrews, Sir John Lawson Ormrod (‘Jack’) (1903–86), politician and businessman, was born 15 July 1903 at Maxwell Court, Comber, Co. Down, the only son among the three children of John Miller Andrews (qv), later prime minister of…...
Arnott, Sir John
Arnott, Sir John , (1814–98), first baronet, businessman, philanthropist, and politician, was born in Auchtermuchty, Fife, Scotland, on 26 July 1814, the third son of John Arnott (d. 1878), JP, manufacturer, of Greenfield, Auchtermuchty, and…...
Baird, Ernest Austin
Baird, Ernest Austin (1930–2003), unionist politician and businessman, was born 13 June 1930 in Ballycrampsie, on the Malin peninsula in Co. Donegal, son of Samuel Baird, a farmer, and his wife Rachel (née Fulton); he had two sisters. In 1953 the family moved to Belfast. Although Baird…...
Barkley, John Monteith
Barkley, John Monteith (1910–97), presbyterian minister, scholar and historian, was born in Belfast on 18 October 1910, the only son of Robert James Barkley and his wife Mary Darcus (née Monteith). He had a younger sister. When John was born the family was living with his mother's…...
Barnhill, John ('Jack') Eccles Nixon
Barnhill, John ('Jack') Eccles Nixon (1905–71), senator and businessman, was born 11 April 1905 at Brickfield, Strabane, Co. Tyrone, the third child and second son in a family of at least five children (two sons and three daughters) of William Wilson Barnhill (1867–1950), a well-to-do…...
Barry, David
Barry, David (1873–1938), businessman, was born 4 April 1873 in Ballycarry, Co. Antrim, son of William Barry, teacher, and Sarah Barry (née Weatherhead). In 1887 he joined the Belfast & Northern Counties Railway Co. and in 1891 he joined the shipping firm of G. & J. Burns…...
Benn, George
Benn, George (1801–82), businessman and historian of Belfast, was born on 1 January 1801 at Tandragee, Co. Armagh, the youngest son in the family of four sons and five daughters of John Benn (1767–1853), a Belfast brewer, and his wife Elizabeth (d. 1859), daughter of James Craig…...
Brown, James
This is a co-subject for the entry on Brown, Alexander. View the original entry....
Bryce, James
Bryce, James (1838–1922), 1st Viscount Bryce , politician, historian, jurist, and chief secretary for Ireland (1905–7), was born 10 May 1838 in a small terraced house in Arthur St., Belfast, eldest of two sons and two daughters of James Bryce…...
Bryson, Samuel Maziere
Bryson, Samuel Maziere (1776–1853), apothecary and Celticist, was born 9 March 1776, probably at Holywood, Co. Down, youngest of 21 sons of James Bryson (qv) (1730?–1796), presbyterian minister. After studying medicine at Edinburgh, he…...
Butt, Mahmood (‘Mike’)
Butt, Mahmood (‘Mike’) (1927–88), restaurateur, was born 7 May 1927 in Nairobi, Kenya, into an Islamic Indian family of one daughter and five sons of Ahmed Butt, railway engineer, and Zakia Butt. He was educated at a catholic school in Nairobi. After running a fleet of hire cars…...
Byers, Margaret
Byers, Margaret (1832–1912), educationist, suffragist, and philanthropist, was born 15 April 1832 in Windsor Hill, Rathfriland, Co. Down, fourth child and only daughter of Andrew Morrow , farmer and mill operator, and Margaret Morrow (née Herron). After the death (c.1840…...
Cameron, Charles
Cameron, Charles (1841–1924), politician, newspaper proprietor and medical doctor, was born in Dublin on 18 December 1841, the son of John Cameron, newspaper proprietor, and his wife Ellen (née Galloway). John Cameron founded the Glasgow North British Daily Mail – subsequently…...
Campbell, Henry James
Campbell, Henry James (1813–89), benefactor of Campbell College, was probably born in Newtownards, Co. Down, second son among two sons and two daughters of Henry Campbell (d. 1814) and his wife Elizabeth, daughter of Michael Campbell of Ballyalton, Co. Down. He was apprenticed to…...
Campbell, Robert
Campbell, Robert (1804–79), trader, businessman, and philanthropist, was born 12 February 1804 on a 180-acre farm at Aghalane, near Plumbridge in the Glenelly valley, Co. Tyrone, the youngest of four sons and two daughters of Hugh Campbell (c.1748–1810) and his second wife,…...
Carlile, Anne Jane
Carlile, Anne Jane (1775–1864), temperance pioneer and philanthropist, was born 8 April 1775 in Rooskey, Co. Monaghan, the youngest child of David Hamill , a farmer and linen merchant, and Martha Hamill (née Armstrong). Both her father and her brother John were connected with the…...
Carlisle, Alexander Montgomery
Carlisle, Alexander Montgomery (1854–1926), ship designer and businessman, and his two brothers John Carlisle (1856–1945), engineer and shipowner, and Henry Montgomery Carlisle (1863?–1945), shipowner, were sons of John Carlisle (d. 1884), teacher, and Catherine Carlisle (née…...
Carmichael, Richard
Carmichael, Richard (1779–1849), surgeon, medical reformer, and benefactor, was born 6 February 1779 in Dublin, fourth son of Hugh Carmichael, solicitor, and Sarah Carmichael (née Rogers), and was educated privately by the Rev. John Fea. Apprenticed to Robert Moore Peile (1763?–…...
Corry, John
This is a co-subject for the entry on Corry, Sir James Porter White. View the original entry....
Corry, Sir James Porter White
Corry, Sir James Porter White (1826–91), businessman and public figure in Belfast, and John Corry (1831–1908), architect, businessman, and inventor, were the two elder of three sons of Robert Corry (1800–69), quarryowner, and Jane Corry (née Porter) of Turnagardy, near…...
Craig, James Humbert
Craig, James Humbert (1877–1944), landscape painter, was born 12 July 1877 at 16 Brougham St., Belfast, second of five children and the only son of Alexander Craig, wholesale merchant, and his wife Marie Metezzen, a Swiss national, who had married in Belfast in 1874. Soon after…...