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…...
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…...
Coghill, Rhoda Sinclair
Coghill, Rhoda Sinclair (1903–2000), pianist, composer, and poet, was born 14 October 1903 in Dublin, the youngest of eight children of Alexander Sinclair Coghill, printing manager, from Thurso, Scotland, and his wife, Rhoda Ann Sinclair (née Baily). Coghill attended Alexandra…...
Duffin, Emma Sylvia
Duffin, Emma Sylvia (1883–1979), nurse, diarist and welfare worker, was born 8 November 1883 in Belfast, fourth daughter in a family of seven daughters and two sons of Adam Duffin (qv) and Maria Duffin (née Drennan). The family was well-to-do…...
Elder, Olivia
Elder, Olivia (1735?–1780), poet, was born on 21 January, possibly in 1735 or perhaps 1739, the daughter of Rev. John Elder (1693–1779), presbyterian minister of Aghadowey in north Co. Londonderry since 1723; her mother's name is not known. There seems to have been at least one brother…...
Esler, Erminda Rentoul
Esler, Erminda Rentoul (1860?–1924), author, was born Erminda Rentoul in Manorcunningham, Co. Donegal, to Alexander Rentoul, presbyterian minister, and his wife Erminda (née Chittick). She had five sisters and three brothers; her eldest brother was…...
Firth, Virginia Arabella ('Gay')
Firth, Virginia Arabella ('Gay') (1937–2005), author, journalist and political campaigner, was born in Belfast on 9 January 1937, the eldest of three daughters of Lancelot Turtle, a Belfast businessman and stockbroker, and Helen Ramsey Turtle (1911–46), born in Denver, Colorado,…...
Foster, Lydia Mary
Foster, Lydia Mary (1867–1943), writer and schoolteacher, was born in Newmills, Co. Tyrone in 1867, fourth of six children (three sons and three daughters) of James Foster, presbyterian minister of Newmills congregation 1850–90, and his wife Lydia (née Harkness), from a presbyterian…...
Gordon (Marjoribanks), Dame Ishbel Maria
Gordon (Marjoribanks), Dame Ishbel Maria (1857–1939), marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair, philanthropist, was born 14 March 1857 in London, daughter of Dudley Marjoribanks, 1st Baron Tweedmouth, banker and liberal MP, and his wife, Isobel Marjoribanks (née Hogg), who belonged to the…...
Hutton, Mary Ann
Hutton, Mary Ann (1862–1953), Irish-language scholar and writer, was born in 1862 in Manchester, England, the eldest child of James Drummond (qv) and his wife Frances (née Classon), who later had two sons and five more daughters. Secondary…...
Jemison, Mary ('Deh-he-wä-mis')
Jemison, Mary ('Deh-he-wä-mis') (1743?–1833), American frontierswoman, was born aboard the ship William and Mary, when her parents, Thomas Jemison and his wife Jane (née Erwin), (both of protestant Scotch-Irish heritage) were emigrating to colonial Pennsylvania, departing from…...
Leadbeater, Mary
Leadbeater, Mary (née Shackleton) (1758–1826), author, poet, and memoirist, was born 1 December 1758 at Ballitore (‘Ballintore’), Co. Kildare, the second child of the three daughters and one son of…...
Leech, Sarah
Leech, Sarah (b. 1809), poet, was born in 1809, in the townland of Ballylennan in the parish of Taughboyne, Co. Donegal. She was the youngest of six children of a protestant, probably presbyterian, weaver and farmer named Thomas Leech. When Sarah was only three years old, her father…...
Magee, Martha Maria
Magee, Martha Maria (d. 1846), benefactor, was born in Lurgan, Co. Antrim. She was the granddaughter of a clergyman, the Rev. William Holmes of Antrim. In 1780 she married Lurgan's presbyterian minister, William Magee, with whom she had two sons, but was left in straitened…...
McCoubrey (Morrison), Margaret
McCoubrey (Morrison), Margaret (1880–1956), suffragist and political activist, was born Margaret Mearns Morrison in Elderslie, Renfrewshire, near Glasgow, on 5 January 1880, one of two daughters and a son of William Morrison, labourer, and his wife Elizabeth. Her mother had three…...
McCracken, Mary Ann
McCracken, Mary Ann (1770–1866), radical and philanthropist, was born 8 July 1770 in Belfast, younger daughter and fifth of the six children of Capt. John McCracken (c.1719–1803), a prosperous merchant of Belfast, and his wife Ann (c.1730–1814), daughter of…...
McDougall, Margaret Moran
McDougall, Margaret Moran (1826–99), author and journalist, was born 25 December 1826, according to family records (though her obituary said 25 December 1828), probably in Co. Antrim. Her father, J. Moran (or William Henry) Dixon , tailor, died in Galgorm, Co. Antrim, when…...
McMordie, Julia
McMordie, Julia (1860–1942), philanthropist and politician, was born 30 March 1860 in Hartlepool, Co. Durham, England, fifth daughter of Sir William Gray , shipbuilder and shipowner, and his wife Dorothy (d. 1906), daughter of Capt. John Hall. A presbyterian, she was educated at…...
McTier, Martha
McTier, Martha (1742–1837), writer of letters, was eldest of the three surviving children of the Rev. Thomas Drennan (qv), non-subscribing presbyterian minister of Belfast, and his wife Ann Lennox (c.1719–1806), daughter of a wealthy Belfast merchant…...
Pim (later Grubb), Sarah
Pim (later Grubb), Sarah (1746–1832), and her brothers Joshua Pim and Joseph Pike Pim, entrepreneurs, were among the sixteen children of John Pim, quaker businessman of Mountrath, Queen's Co. (Laois), and his wife Sarah (née Clibborn), who was also of a quaker family from Moate, Co.…...
Shackleton, Lydia
Shackleton, Lydia (1828–1914), botanical artist, teacher, and poet, was born 22 November 1828, at Griesemount, Ballitore, Co. Kildare, the third eldest of thirteen children of George Shackleton, a miller, and Hannah Shackleton (née Fisher). Her forebear…...
Webb, Maria
Webb, Maria (1804–73), philanthropist and author, was born at Peartree Hill, near Lisburn, Co. Antrim, youngest child among two sons and one daughter of Thomas Lamb and his wife Dorothy, both members of the Religious Society of Friends. She was largely self-educated. In 1828 she…...
Young, Rose Maud (Ní Ó hÓgain, Róis)
Young, Rose Maud (Ní Ó hÓgain, Róis) (1865–1947), Irish-language scholar, was born 30 October 1865 in Galgorm Castle, near Ballymena, Co. Antrim, fifth daughter among seven daughters and five sons of John Young (1826–1915) and his first wife, Grace (née Savage). John Young was a…...