43 



8th January, i8gs. 



R. Lloyd Patterson, Esq., J.P., President, in the Chair. 



William Gray, Esq., C.E., M.R.I.A., read a lecture written by 

 John J. Marshall, Esq., entitled — 



OLD BELFAST: THE ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF 

 THE CITY. 



The President said before proceeding with the regular business 

 of the evening he deemed it due to the memory of one lately 

 called away from among them, Mr. Robert MacAdam, to make 

 some allusion to him and his long and useful connection with 

 that society. He was the last of those of whom he might speak 

 as the old set connected with it. His elder brother, James 

 MacAdam, a distinguished geologist, was one of the eight 

 founders of the society in 1821. and he continued closely con- 

 nected with it up to the time of his death in i8bi. Robert 

 Shipboy MacAdam was born in 1808, and- was, therefore, at 

 the time of his death last week in his eighty-seventh year. He 

 was recorded as having attended a meeting of the society in 

 the year it was founded (1821), nearly seventy-four years ago. 

 He was elected an ordinary member in 1828, and a member of 

 council in 1831, a position he continued to hold till i88q, a 

 period of no less than fifty-eight years — an official connection 

 with the society altogether without parallel. During that long 

 period he filled many oflfices, such as those of secretary, treasurer, 

 and vice-president, the latter office very frequently, but he re- 

 peatedly declined the presidency, a position it was long the 

 wish of his fellow members he should occupy. Mr. MacAdam 

 was educated at the Royal Academical Institution, and brought 



