Railway Presbyterian Church, Lisburn (1910) (pt2)

SOME EXTRACTS

FROM THE

RECORDS OF

OLD LISBURN

AND THE

MANOR OF KILLULTAGH.

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 Edited by JAMES CARSON. 

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CVIII.

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RAILWAY STREET PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, LISBURN.

Extract from Address delivered
at the Jubilee Meeting
of the Congregation,
November 16th, 1910.

(Continued.)

In the year 1889 unfermented wine was first used at the celebration of the Communion. In 1894 the name of the church was officially changed from 2nd Lisburn to Railway Street. Instrumental music was introduced into the service of the church, and an organ installed in the year 1908.

The Lecture Hall was built in 1887. Side galleries erected in 1897. In 1900 James E. Sloan generously presented to the congregation a free site for the new manse on the Fore Hill lands. The building of the manse was preceded with and completed at a cost of about £1,400. In 1909 Mr. Sloan made a further grant of land at the rere of the manse for a garden. and, thanks to his and Miss Brownlee's generosity, the congregation now possess a manse and grounds second to none within these bounds of the Church. Numerous valuable bequests have at various times been made to the congregation.

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The Brownlee Memorial National School, Wallace Avenue, opened August, 1913, was erected at the cost of some £3,500. Towards this amount the Board of Works made a grant, the Brownlee Trustees paying the balance. The school is under the control of the Church Committee.

The E.M.B. Memorial Hall, Hilden, was erected in 1911 by J. Milne Barbour, D.L., J.P., in memory of his wife, and placed under the care of the congregation.

The organ installed in 1908 proving inadequate, James Crossin, J.P., in 1914 presented the congregation with a new instrument costing some £700.

1908.

Session -- Rev. R. W. Hamilton, M.A.; John Butler, W. J. Fraser, David Kilpatrick, H. G. Larmor, David M'Cluggage, J. M'Clung, J. M'Kittrick, J. L. Rentoul, M.B.

Committee -- H. Adams, J. Archer, J. Alexander, B.A.; J. Crossin, J.P.; S. Cowan, G. Duncan, H. Fraser, R. Garrett, J. Graham, W. J. Hanna, W. J. Heron, F. Duncan, David Erwin, J. Hunter, C.E.; C. Magill, M.D.; H. Maybin, B.A.; A. J. Morrow, A. M'Clelland, H. Ritchie, W. Ritchie, James E. Sloan, J. Stalker, H. S. Whitfield.

1918.

Session -- Rev. R. W. Hamilton, M.A.; Edward Finlay, W. J. Fraser, J.P.; James T. Lamont, B.A.; LL.B.; John M'Kittrick, John H. M'Elderry; J. L. Rentoul, M.B., J.P.; James Shortt, Geo. Watters, Hugh G. Larmor, J.P., clerk of Session.

Committee -- James Archer, A. E. Boyd, James Carson, James Crossin, J.P.; Geo. Dunlop, Frederick W. Duncan, George Duncan, David Erwin, Hugh Fraser, James Hunter, C.E.; W. J. Larmor, A. M'Clelland, R. D. Morrison, C.I.; Wm. Ritchie, J.P.; D. B. Simpson, John Stalker, H. S. Whitfield.

Treasurer -- George Duncan.

Secretary -- D. Barbour Simpson.

Memorial Tablets in the Church.

William Barbour, J.P., Hilden.
"One of the first members and the most munificent contributor to the funds of the church."
Died 1875, aged 78 years.

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Rev. David J. Clarke.
First minister and for seventeen years pastor of the congregation.
Died 1878, aged 43 years.

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Rev. James Lyle Bigger, M.A., B.D.
Second pastor, for six years.
Died at 1890, aged 36 years.

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Frederick Duncan.
Elder for 37 years.
Dave 1905, aged 63 years.

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Miss Isabella Brownlee,
"The last of a much-respected family."
Died 8th January, 1909.

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James Edgar Sloan,
Plantation house.
Died September 20, 1910.


(Next week: local banks.)



(This article was originally published in the Lisburn Standard on 8 November 1918 as part of a series which ran in that paper each week for several years. The text along with other extracts can be found on my website Eddies Extracts.)