Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 35.djvu/192

Mackonochie with Hubbard. Before he was appointed a strong protest was made by a neighbouring clergyman, and as he gradually added to the ceremonies he was subjected to a long series of lawsuits promoted by the Church Association. Lord Shaftesbury, who visited St. Alban's in 1866, made a note on the service in his diary, 'In outward form and ritual it is the worship of Jupiter or Juno;' others regarded Mackonochie as a Jesuit in disguise. In 1865 Mackonochie had become chaplain to the sisterhood of Haggerston. The former chaplain had become a Roman catholic, and shortly after Mackonochie assumed office the superior and several of the sisters went over also.

Throughout the prosecutions to which Mackonochie was subjected the plaintiff was Mr. Martin, a solicitor, who was technically a parishioner. The first trial took place on 15 June 1867, the disputed points being matters of ritual (mixed chalice, altar lights, &c), and in the judgment, given 28 March 1868, by Sir Robert Phillimore [q. v.], several points were decided in favour of Mackonochie, and others against him. No order was made as to costs. On appeal to the privy council, however, practically all the points were decided against Mackonochie, and he had to pay all costs. On 19 Jan. 1869 a monition was issued directing him to obey the judgment, and on 2 Dec. 1869 a further decision was given against him because he had not obeyed the first judgment, and on 25 Nov. 1870, for continued disobedience, he was suspended for three months. Meanwhile he was inhibited from preaching in the Ripon diocese by its bishop, and at the Liverpool Church Congress Dean Hugh McNeile [q. v.] refused to appear on the platform if Mackonochie's name were on the programme. In 1870, however, Lord Eliot, as a mark of sympathy, made him his domestic chaplain. A fresh suit was commenced in 1874, and on 12 June 1875 he was suspended for six weeks. A further prosecution followed in 1882, but on 1 Dec. 1882 he resigned his living, chiefly to please the dying Archbishop of Canterbury (Tait). In January 1888 he became vicar or St. Peter's, London Docks, but in face of threats of fresh litigation he resigned 23 Dec., and went back to St. Alban's, where he lived and worked unofficially for the rest of his life. In December 1887, being in weak health, he went on a visit to the Bishop of Argyll and the Isles at Ballachulish, and, going out for a walk over the hills, was found dead, 17 Dec. 1887, in the deer forest of Manore, twenty miles from Ballachulish. On 13 Feb. 1888 a memorial fund was inaugurated at St. Alban's, with which additions are being made to the church. Mackonochie was an excellent organiser, and practised the strictest self-denial. The points for which he strove have been generally allowed since. His litigation did much to settle church law, or at all events to show the necessity for settlement.

Mackonochie wrote 'First Principles v. Erastianism,' a number of sermons, London, 1876, 8vo.

 McKOWEN, JAMES (1814–1889), Ulster poet, was born at Lambeg, near Lisburn, co. Antrim, on 11 Feb. 1814, and received an elementary education at a local school. After working as a boy at a thread manufactory he entered Messrs. Richardson's bleach works, Belfast, and remained there during the whole of his active life. About 1840 he had begun to contribute racy poems to the ‘Northern Whig’ and other Ulster papers, generally over the signature of ‘Kitty Connor,’ and he also wrote a little for the ‘Nation,’ using the signature of ‘Curlew.’ One of his pieces, ‘The Old Irish Cow,’ became very popular throughout his native province, while another, ‘The Ould Irish Jig,’ a humorous effusion, is known throughout Ireland. He died on 22 April 1889. His poems have secured him a place in several Irish anthologies, where his name is sometimes misspelt McKeown. Like many other popular Irish poets, his writings have not yet been collected, but there are nine of his poems in ‘The Harp of Erin,’ a collection of Irish verse edited by Ralph Varian (‘Duncathail’), Dublin, 1869.

 MACKRETH, ROBERT (1726–1819), club proprietor, began life as a billiard-marker at White's Club. With money put by as a waiter in the same club he acquired a vintner's business in St. James's Street, and became a valued assistant of Robert Arthur, the original proprietor of White's, who on his death, 6 June 1761, left the property to Mackreth, then about to marry his only child, Mary Arthur (the wedding took place in October). Mackreth apparently retained this property until his death, but managed the club through an agent, a near relation of his whom he calls 'Cherubim' 