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 BLACK 101 for many years disturbed the peace and happiness of the kingdom. After the death of Edward Bruce, he again encountered the Scots, and defeated their army with a very great slaughter. In reward of his services, he was created Earl of Louth, and had lands bestowed upon him to support his rank.He afterwards suppressed various baoditti, who, with the aid of the Scots, were harassing the kingdom. He manifested his regard for religion in the manner of that age, by founding the Franciscan Friary of Thetnay, in King's County. He was afterwards mur- dered by a combination of families, who hated his virtues, and envied his honours and possessions. JOSEPH BLACK. Ir would be an act of flagrant injustice, not only to the individual, but to posterity, to exelude the imperishable name of BLAcK, from the trivial circumstance of Ireland not having been the spot of his birth: a chemist, the mere record of whose discoveries is sufficient to entitle him both to the admiration and esteem of all succeeding ages. He was born in France on the banks of the Garonne*, in 1728. His father, Mr. John Black, was a native of Belfast, and descended from a Scotch family which had been settled there for many years. His connections with tlhe wine trade induced him to reside at Bourdeaux, where he formed a matrimonial connection with a daughter of Mr. Robert Gordon, of the family of Halhead, in Aber deenshire, who was also engaged in the same trade at that place. Mr. Black was a man of considerable information, which he communicated with so much candour and libe- rality, that bis acquaintance and conversation were eagerly Walsh, however (in his History of Dublin) states, " that it is generally believed that Belfast was the place of his birth."