The Great Chemist, Jof^eph Black. 73 



He was our first honorary member when our Society was founded 

 in 1821, and on his death a medal was struck in his honour and 

 awarded as a prize. He married in 1799, Katherine Johnston, 

 of Seymour Hill, and left a son Robert, a medical man, deputy 

 inspector of hospitals, and an entomologist who contributed 

 several papers to the Magazine of Natural History. 



The Clarices have already been mentioned as descendants of 

 the Eccles family. The present Clarkes trace descent through 

 Mary Pollock, their grandmother, to Jeremy Taylor, through 

 their mother to the Blacks, and by their father's family also to 

 the Legges. Some interesting and historical connections are found 

 in the family of which their grandfather William Clarke was a 

 son. His sister Elizabeth married Dr. James MacDonnell the 

 famous Belfast Physician, and one of the principal members of 

 the old Belfast Literary Society, the father of another well known 

 Belfast man Dr. John MacDonnell. Another sister married a 

 Mr. Carson, and was grandmother of the Miss Cunningham who 

 married James Thompson, of Macedon. A third sister G-race, 

 married the rather notorious Councillor William Sampson, and 

 a daughter of this marriage became the wife of Theobald Wolfe 

 Tone. One of the brothers. Rev. John Clarke, was the husband 

 of Mary Isabella Stewart, whose daughter Katherine, as I have 

 already said became the second wife of John Bellingham. There 

 are many other family relations to Lindsays, Stewarts, Corrys 

 and Thompsons which I cannot deal with. Another of the Legge 

 sisters, Jane, married Robert Thompson and became ancestress of 

 the Thompsons of Jennymount, to whom I shall refer later. 



I come now to the Jane Stewart who married Walter 

 Wilson. I have already told you of the old connection, between 

 1740 and 1750, between the Stewart and the Wilson families. 

 Robert Stewart and his wife were visiting Scotland, and as they 

 were near the Wilson property they sent to the house asking for 

 the Laird of Croglin. He was out at the time, but hearing later 

 of the matter, he followed the Stewarts, and found them 

 exceedingly agreeable friends. Some of his daughters were 



