April 2017 – velvethummingbee

Posted on April 18, 2017April 18, 2017 by David Steers

St Patrick’s Centre Terrace Garden Downpatrick

Walking through the Garden at the rear of the St Patrick’s Centre in Downpatrick I noticed how attractive the Garden now is. The little details are worth examining, like St Patrick’s ship (not the original one I would think), the standing stone, and the fairy thorn brought there from another site but growing well set in a Celtic cross just to remind people of Patrick’s victory over superstition. The Cathedral and the Southwell School provide a marvellous backdrop.

Looking towards the Southwell School

The Fairy Thorn

Standing Stone

St Patrick’s Ship and the Cathedral

Posted on April 14, 2017May 31, 2017 by David Steers

The case of the Clough meeting house (1836): law reporting and pamphleteering

Clough Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church

Clough Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church opened for worship in 1837

PUBLIC LECTURE

John F Larkin, QC

Attorney General for Northern Ireland

The case of the Clough meeting house (1836): law reporting and pamphleteering

The Lecture will take place in the meeting house on

Wednesday, 24^th May 2017

at 7.30 pm

Followed by refreshments in the hall. Admission free. Everyone welcome.

Abstract

The case of Dill v Watson (1836) determined which of two parties in Irish Presbyterianism was entitled to the ownership of the Meeting House in Clough, County Down. It was the first Irish battle in a campaign in which litigation was the adjunct of theological controversy, and in the Clough case there is almost a fusion of legal and theological debate. What is striking (and fascinating) about the Clough case is that both parties published reports of the decision. Law reporting was for the parties to the Clough litigation no abstract record of a judicial decision but a further way for historical, legal, political and theological debate to be carried on. The two reports of the Clough case opened a distinct front in a pamphlet campaign that lasted until the Dissenters Chapels Act 1844 – if not beyond. This lecture explores this litigation and its background through the prism of the two partisan reports of the Clough case and the later law report by Thomas Jones. It examines the significance of the Clough case as a turning point in wider legal and theological controversy.

For further information contact: Rev Dr David Steers, nspresb@hotmail.com

Clough Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Church, Castlewellan Road, Clough, BT30 8RD

The interior of the meeting house. The venue for the lecture

Posted on April 4, 2017 by David Steers · 1 Comment

Transactions of the Unitarian Historical Society 2017

The April 2017 issue of the Transactions of the Unitarian Historical Society is now available. Annual membership costs £10 for individuals and can be arranged through the treasurer via the Unitarian Historical Society website:

http://www.unitarianhistory.org.uk/hsmembership4.html

In this issue you will find:

Francis Dávid (Dávid Ferenc, c.1520-1579) by the late Donald A. Bailey. This is an important article discussing the theological and historical significance of Francis Dávid which was sent for publication by Don just a couple of days before he died so suddenly in 2015.

The Diet of Torda (picture: Unitarian Historical Society)

Socinians Out – Dr Williams’s Trust in the 1840s by Alan Ruston. An examination of the will and legacy of Dr Williams and the arguments over its ownership.

Daniel Williams (portrait in Dr Williams’s Library)

The Centenary of the Unitarian Historical Society by David Steers. A survey of the foundation and early history of the Society adapted from one of the talks at last year’s annual meeting.

John Crosby Warren of Nottingham and Aberdeen. First President of the Unitarian Historical Society

Note – James Martineau – a neglected source. Alan Ruston. Newspaper articles on the centenary of his birth.

Record Section – an unpublished letter of James Martineau. David Steers. A letter to the Rev James Orr of Clonmel.

New PhD Thesis at the University of Kent. Valerie Smith. Rational Dissent in England c.1770-c.1800.

Reviews:.

David Clark, Victor Grayson The Man and the Mystery, Quartet, 2016, 324 pp, ISBN 978 0 7043 7408 9. £20. (Reviewed by David Steers).

Alan Ruston, On the Side of Liberty: A Unitarian Historical Miscellany, The Lindsey Press, London, 2016, 212 pp. ISBN 978-0-85319-087-5. £9.50 plus £1.50 p&p. (Reviewed by Phillip Hewett).

Alan Seaburg, The Unitarian Pope: Brooke Herford’s Ministry in Chicago and Boston 1876-1892, Alan Seaburg, Alan Miniver Press, 162 pp, 2014, available on Amazon Kindle, price £3.83. (Reviewed by Alan Ruston).

Building the Church, The Chapels Society Journal, Volume 2, 2016., 91 pp, ISBN 978-0-9545061-5-5. (Reviewed by Andrew Hill).

Matthew Kadane, The Watchful Clothier, The Life of an Eighteenth-Century Protestant Clothier, Yale University Press, 312 pp, hardback, January 2013. ISBN 9780300169614. Price £65. (Reviewed by Alan Ruston).

David Sekers, A Lady of Cotton Hannah Greg, Mistress of Quarry Bank Mill, The History Press in association with the National Trust, 280 pp, 2013, ISBN 9780752490083. Price £9.99. (Reviewed by Alan Ruston).