Belfast Parish in the Early Nineteenth Century

The parish, according to the Ordnance survey, contains 19,559 statute acres, and was anciently called Shankill, but no church having existed at the latter place for more than two centuries, it is now generally designated the parish of Belfast. The living is a vicarage, in the diocese of Connor, and province of Armagh, and in the patronage of the Marquess of Donegal, to whom the impropriate rectory belongs: the entire parish is under the tithe composition act, and, with the exception of a portion, called the Upper Falls, pays £950 per annum, of which £600 belongs to the lay impropriator, and the remainder to the vicar, who has also a glebe-house near the church, and 20 acres of land. The parochial church, dedicated to St. Anne, was erected in 1778, at the expense of the late Marquess of Donegal: it consists of a nave and chancel, with a lofty Ionic tower surmounted by a Corinthian cupola covered with copper, forming an interesting and conspicuous object for many miles round; the portico, which was inferior in character to the rest of the building, has been replaced by one of loftier elevation. About 1830 the late Board of First Fruits gave £666 for the repair, and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have recently granted £375 for the improvement, of the church.

St. George's church, or chapel of ease, was erected in 1812, on the site of a former edifice, called the corporation church, which had been built on the ruins of the ancient castle: it is a splendid structure, consisting of a nave and chancel, with a magnificent and highly enriched portico of six noble columns and four fluted pilasters, supporting a cornice and pediment, in the tympanum of which are the arms of the united sees of Down and Connor, and of the town, in alto relievo; this splendid specimen of Corinthian architecture was removed from the front of a palace built by the late Earl of Bristol, when Bishop of Derry, on the shore of Lough Beg, the materials for which were quarried from the Derry mountains, and worked by Irish artists, and after that noble prelate's decease purchased, on the demolition of the palace, by Dr. Alexander, then Bishop of Down and Connor, and now of Meath, and by him presented to this church: the Ecclesiastical Commissioners have recently granted £123. 6. 7. for the repair of the building.

The living is a perpetual curacy, in the patronage of the Vicar, and was endowed by the late Board of First Fruits with £3000, laid out in the purchase of the tithes of Naas, in the county of Kildare, producing under the composition act £126 per ann., and further endowed by the vicar with a portion of the tithes of the Upper Falls, now producing to the curate, under the same act, £50 per annum. Christchurch, containing 1000 free sittings, and situated near the Royal Institution, was erected by the late Board of First Fruits, aided by subscription, and was opened for divine service in 1833: the living is a perpetual curacy, endowed with £50 per ann. by the Board, together with the rents of the pews, and in the patronage of the Vicar. It is also in contemplation to erect a church, or chapel, in the townland of Upper Malone, in this parish, about three miles south of the town.