1 8 [Proc. B.N.F.C, 



referred to in Reid's History of Presbyterianism, some of them 

 pretty fully, while four, at least, have been honoured with a place 

 in the great " Dictionary of National Biography." Other men 

 of note who have been connected with the town, were — Owen 

 O'Connolly, who revealed to the government the plot to 

 surprise Dublin Castle in 1641. For many years he resided as 

 an upper servant at Antrim Castle, and afterwards rose to be a 

 major in the army. He was either killed or received his death 

 wound in a battle with the royalist, Colonel Hamilton, at 

 Dunadry, and was the next day buried in Antrim. Sir John 

 Clotworthy (son of Sir Hugh), first Lord Massereene, was a very 

 conspicuous man in the political and religious worlds of his 

 time. It was he who seconded Pym's motion for the impeach- 

 ment of Earl Strafford for his conduct in the government of 

 Ireland, and which led to his execution on Tower Hill. Sir 

 John — first Lord Massereene — died in Antrim in 1665. William 

 Edmundson, an Englishman, a disciple of George Fox, resided 

 in Antrim for a couple of years, distributed provisions and 

 wares, and with them the principles of his master, and culti- 

 vated a faith that enabled him to travel many thousands of 

 miles and to endure scorn, persecution, the stocks, imprison- 

 ment, and the prospect of a violent death without wavering. 

 His "Journal" is well worth perusal. He died in 171 3. The 

 Rev. John Howe, M.A., one of the 2,000 clergymen ejected 

 from English Church pulpits in 1662, was chaplain to the 

 Massereene family for about four years, and often preached in 

 Antrim church. Dr. William King, Bishop of Derry, and 

 afterwards Archbishop of Dublin, and author of a very learned 

 work on " The Origin of Evil," was born in Antrim in 1650, 

 In the early part of this century Antrim could boast of a 

 poet of its own native growth in W. A. Bryson, son of Rev. 

 William Bryson, at that time minister of the Old Meeting 

 House. A collection of his verses and translations was 

 published, which indicated the possession of literary tastes, 

 poetic ideals, and varied scholarship. He unfortunately com- 

 mitted suicide by drowning himself in the Six-mile Water. 



