82 Henry Riddell on 



grand nephew to go to St. Vincent's from Belfast. His 

 brother Alexander was Governor of Montseirat, where he 

 died. He left all his property in Prince Edward's Island to 

 his brother Eobert." 



Mrs. Marshall, a daughter of Alex. Wilson's, continues the 

 story a little — 



"Gordon Thompson returned to Belfast after twelve 

 years' travel. . . . He came to Maryville one evening 

 every week, and delighted us all with his stories of the 

 Rocky Mountains, Andes, &c. It was rumoured that Lady 

 Christian Maule had refused him. Gordon Thompson was 

 in the Belfast Town Council, and received the Queen in 

 1849." 



I may now leave these family histories and finish by saying 

 something about Joseph Black as the man, the teacher, and the 

 friend. 



Joseph Black was born in 1728, the fourth son of the factor 

 and wine merchant, and, up to his twelfth year, was educated by 

 his mother. He was then sent home to Belfast, and became a 

 pupil, it is said, in the old Latin School which had been established 

 and endowed by the then Earl Donegall about 1666. 



This old school was built on ground belonging to the old 

 Corporation Church, which stood practically on the river side, on 

 the site now occupied by St. George's Church. The school stood 

 where is now the junction of Ann Street and Church Lane, in 

 early days known as Schoolhouse Lane. In this school many, if 

 not indeed most, of the well-known early citizens of Belfast were 

 educated. Mr. A. A. Campbell has drawn my attention to an 

 article in the old Belfast Magazine of 1809, in which a friend of 

 the family tells us that Joseph Black was entrusted for his educa- 

 tion to " Mr. Sprott, connected with the well-known family of 

 Maxwell, in Comber, who had educated many of the learned 

 men of Belfast." While this is not contradictory of the tradition 

 as to the Latin School, it at least raises a doubt which I have, 

 up till the present, been unable to solve. I should welcome any 



