Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 24.djvu/61

Haliday the terms 'subscribers' and 'non-subscribers.' Haliday continued identified with the latter till his death. A number of members of his congregation were so dissatisfied with the issue of the case that they refused to remain under his ministry. After much opposition they were erected by the synod into a new charge. The establishment of this congregation called forth 'A Letter from the Revs. Messrs. Kirkpatrick and Haliday, Ministers in Belfast, to a Friend in Glasgow, with relation to the new Meeting-house in Belfast,' Edinburgh, 1723. The subscription controversy raged for years, Haliday continuing to take a foremost part in it, both in the synod and through the press. In 1724 he published 'Reasons against the Imposition of Subscription to the Westminster Confession of Faith, or any such Human Tests of Orthodoxy, together with Answers to the Arguments for such Impositions,' pp. xvi and 152, Belfast, 1724. A reply to this having been issued by the Rev. Gilbert Kennedy, Tullylish, co. Down, Haliday published 'A Letter to the Rev. Mr. Gilbert Kennedy, occasioned by some personal Reflections,' Belfast, 1725, and in the following year 'A Letter to the Rev. Mr. Francis Iredell, occasioned by his "Remarks" on "A Letter to the Rev. Mr. Gilbert Kennedy,"' Belfast, 1726. To end the strife the synod in 1725 adopted the expedient of placing all the non-subscribing ministers in one presbytery, that of Antrim, which in the following year was excluded from the body. Haliday also published 'A Sermon occasioned by the Death of the Rev. Mr. Michael Bruce, preached at Holywood on 7 Dec. 1735,' pp. 35, Belfast, 1735. A correspondence between him and the Rev. James Kirkpatrick of Belfast on the one side, and the Rev. Charles Mastertown, minister of the newly erected congregation there, on the other, with regard to a proposal that the two former and their congregations should communicate along with the hearers of the latter, may be found in the preface to Kirkpatrick's 'Scripture Plea,' 1724, p. 5, &c. Haliday married the widow of Arthur Maxwell, who brought him considerable property. He died on 5 March 1739 in his fifty-fourth year (Belfast News Letter, ii. 157).

[MS. Minutes of Laggan; MS. Minutes of Synod of Ulster; Narrative of Seven Synods; Peacock's Leyden Students, p. 45; Reid's Hist. of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, vol. iii.; Witherow's Memorials of Presbyterianism in Ireland, vol. i.]  HALIDAY, WILLIAM (1788–1812), Irish grammarian, born in Dublin in 1788, was son of William Haliday or Halliday, an apothecary, and elder brother of Charles Haliday [q. v.] He was bred a solicitor, and learnt Irish from three Munstermen who lived in Dublin, MacFaelchu, O'Connaill, and O'Cathasaigh; and so despised in his middle sphere of society was the native language of Ireland that Haliday assumed the name of William O'Hara when he began to take lessons from O'Cathasaigh. In 1808 he published in Dublin 'Uraicecht na Gaedhilge: a Grammar of the Irish Language,' under another assumed name, Edmond O'Connell. This is a compilation based upon Stewart's 'Gaelic Gramir.' He was one of the founders in 1807 of the Gaelic Society of Dublin, established for the investigation and revival of ancient Irish literature, and in 1811 published in Dublin the first volume of a text and translation of Keating's 'History of Ireland.' He had begun an Irish dictionary when he died, 26 Oct. 1812. He was an enthusiastic student of Irish literature of the same kind as O'Reilly the lexicographer. Their work is defective in thoroughness, because of their imperfect training, but has been of great service to many more learned persons, and has given much enjoyment to many of the unlearned.

[Webb's Compendium of Irish Biography, 1878; O'Donovan's Grammar of the Irish Language, 1845, preface; O'Reilly's Irish-English Dictionary, 1821, preface; Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Dublin, 1808.]  HALIFAX,. [See 1633–1695.]  HALIFAX,. [See 1661–1715;  1716–1771.]  HALIFAX,. [See 1800–1885.]  HALIFAX, JOHN (d. 1256). [See ]  HALKERSTON, PETER (d. 1833?), Scotch lawyer, received a university education, and took the degree of M.A. He studied law, and became a member of the Society of Solicitors to the Supreme Courts of Scotland. For ten years he acted as one of the examiners of that body, and was their librarian for a still longer period. He also held for some time the office of bailie of the abbey of Holyrood. During his tenure of office he studied the records of the place, and produced in 1831 'A Treatise on the History, Law, and Privilege's of the Palace and Sanctuary of Holyrood House.' Halkerston, who seems to have directed himself rather to the theoretical than the practical side of his profession, received the honorary degree of LL.D., and was also elected an extraordinary member 