Kilbride Church of Ireland

For over 250 years, from the early seventeenth century to 1864, Kilbride and Donegore were united parishes within the Church of Ireland. During this time there was never a church in use in Kilbride parish, the old pre-Reformation church having been allowed to fall into ruin.

A nineteenth-century act of parliament provided a basis for a restructuring of the parish network within the Church of Ireland and, with specific reference to this area, for the separation of Donegore and Kilbride. However, this would not take place until the death of the existing incumbent, Rev. George Henry McDowell Johnston.

Rev. Johnston was the son of William Johnston of Ballywillwill, County Down, and his wife Rebecca, daughter of Rev. George Vaughan, rector of Dromore, also County Down.

Educated at Trinity College, Dublin, he became vicar of Donegore and Kilbride in 1814 and rector of those parishes in 1831. He married his cousin, Lady Anne Maria Annesley in 1811. Rev. Johnston acquired a house at Ballyhamage as his residence in the parish, though he seems to have lived at his mansion at Ballywillwill a great deal of the time.

In the Ordnance Survey memoir of the parish from the late 1830s, it is observed that Rev. Johnston ‘comes here merely on Saturday, attends church on Sunday and departs to his residence in the county Down on Monday’ (Ordnance Survey Memoirs, vol. 29, p. 141).

It is said that on those Sundays he preached at Donegore he would transport some of his parishioners from Kilbride across to the church there in his carriage. Those whom he transported over had to walk back, while those who walked over were given a ride in his carriage.

In the early 1830s some provision was made for the Anglicans of Kilbride for in 1832 it was reported that the rector had recently begun holding services in the schoolhouse beside Kilbride graveyard Ordnance Survey Memoirs, vol. 29, p. 135).

By the early 1850s Rev. Johnston had built an extension to his home at Ballyhamage which he intended to use as a church for Kilbride. He did not reveal his plans to Richard Mant, Bishop of Connor, hoping that it would a pleasant surprise for him when he was invited to consecrate however. The Bishop, however, was rather annoyed with Rev. Johnston for not consulting him about this beforehand.

He was also rather concerned when he learned that the intended church abutted Johnston’s home, which was the rector’s private property, and that a door connected the two. Reportedly furious with Rev. Johnston, Bishop Mant refused to consecrate the church, but was willing to licence it for public worship (Cox, History of the Parish of Kilbride, pp 15-16).

Thus, it became a kind of chapel of ease and is marked on the Ordnance Survey map as such. Rev. Johnston held regular services in it until his death on 22 May 1864. He was clearly a wealthy man for at his death his estate was valued at just under £4,000.

With Rev. Johnston’s passing Donegore and Kilbride were now formally separated. The new rector was Rev. Francis Charles Young, the previous rector’s nephew and heir. As Kilbride was now a charge in its own right, it was necessary for it to have a parish church.

An elevated site in the townland of Ballyhamage, 20 yards south of its boundary with the townland of Kilbride, was secured from the Marquess of Donegall. The expense of building the church was met by a grant from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and through subscriptions raised by the rector. The new church was consecrated on 9 June 1868 as St Bride’s Church.