his wife. The date of his death is usually given as 1744, but a notice by James Blow, prefixed to Kirkpatrick's posthumous ‘Defence of Christian Liberty,’ shows that he died in 1743. A copy of his portrait is in the vestry of the first presbyterian church in Belfast.
Kirkpatrick is best known by his ‘Historical Essay upon the Loyalty of Presbyterians in Great-Britain and Ireland from the Reformation to this present year 1713, &c.’ (4to, pp. xv, 564, and index of ten pages, no place or printer's name, 1713), a work undertaken to meet the desire of the general synod to possess a history of their church, and specially called for by the persistent attacks of Tisdall, vicar of Belfast, on the presbyterian body. It preserves many valuable facts and documents, and gives a good idea of the state of public sentiment in Ireland in the days of Queen Anne. It was published anonymously. Kirkpatrick also wrote: 1. ‘A Vindication of the Presbyterian Ministers in the North of Ireland, subscribers and non-subscribers, from many gross and groundless aspersions cast upon them in a late scandalous libel entitled “An Account of the Mind of the Synod,”’ Belfast, 1721, 8vo (anon.; by ‘A Lover of Truth and Peace’). 2. ‘A Scripture Plea against a fatal rupture and breach of Christian Communion amongst the Presbyterians in the North of Ireland,’ Belfast, 1724, 8vo. 3. ‘An Essay upon the Important Question whether there is a Legislative Proper Authority in the Church,’ Belfast, 1731, 8vo (anon.; by several hands, probably edited by Kirkpatrick). 4. ‘An Account of the Success of Mrs. Stephens's Medicines for the Stone; in the case of James Kirkpatrick, Doctor of Divinity, M.D., &c.,’ Belfast, 1739, 8vo. 5. ‘A Defence of Christian Liberty, by a Member of the General Synod,’ Belfast, 1743, 4to (unfinished).
[Witherow's Historical and Literary Memorials of Presbyterianism in Ireland; Reid's Hist. of the Presb. Church in Ireland; Scott's Fasti; Records of General Synod of Ulster, 1890, vol. i.; Catalogue of Early Belfast Printed Books; Disciple, 1882, pp. 171 sq.; information kindly supplied by the Rev. Alexander Gordon.]
KIRKPATRICK, JOHN (1686?–1728), antiquary, born about 1686, was son of a native of Closeburn, Dumfriesshire, who had settled in the parish of St. Stephen, Norwich. He was apprenticed in the parish of St. Clement, and subsequently established himself in business as a linen merchant in St. Andrew, in partnership with John Custance. In 1726 Kirkpatrick was appointed treasurer of the Great Hospital in St. Helen's. He died without issue on 20 Aug. 1728, aged 42, and was buried in St. Helen's Church, Norwich (mon. inscr. in Blomefield, Norfolk, 8vo ed. iv. 379). He married the youngest daughter of John Harvey, great-grandfather of Lieutenant-colonel Harvey of Thorpe Lodge, Norwich, where his portrait was preserved. It has been engraved by W. C. Edwards (Evans, Cat. of Engraved Portraits, ii. 234). On 18 Feb. 1719 Kirkpatrick was elected F.S.A. (Gough, Chron. List of Soc. Antiq. 1798, p. 3).
Kirkpatrick accumulated copious materials for the history of Norwich. These he bequeathed, after the death of his brother Thomas, to the corporation of Norwich, together with his coins and many of his printed books. Of the manuscripts, which Kirkpatrick fondly hoped would be completed and published, eleven were safe in the custody of the corporation about 1815, but all are now dispersed, except some notes on the tenure of houses in Norwich. A thick quarto volume, devoted to the ‘History of the Religious Orders and Communities, and of the Hospitals and Castle, of Norwich,’ compiled by Kirkpatrick about 1725, was published at the expense of Hudson Gurney, under the editorship of Dawson Turner, in 1845. Turner, in an interesting preface, gives a list of the missing manuscripts. Extracts from Kirkpatrick's papers are cited in Robert Fitch's historical introduction to John Ninham's ‘Views of the Gates of Norwich,’ published by the Norfolk and Norwich Archæological Society in 1861.
Peter Le Neve was Kirkpatrick's intimate friend, and they mutually exchanged their collections for Norwich. Blomefield acknowledged the great assistance which he derived from their labours.
Kirkpatrick was a good draughtsman. In 1723 he published a large north-east prospect of Norwich, in two sheets, engraved by E. Kirkall, which he exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries, together with a plan and Saxon coins found at Norwich. In the previous year his friend Le Neve had shown the society a draft and description of Burgh Castle, Suffolk, by him. His north-east view of Norwich Cathedral was engraved by J. Harris in 1742, and his three views and a ground-plot of the gatehouse of St. Bennet in the Holm Abbey were published by the Society of Antiquaries in ‘Vetusta Monumenta.’ A list of his drawings is given in Gough's ‘British Topography’ (ii. 10, 14, 30, 34, 252).
[Dawson Turner's Preface referred to above; Nichols's Illustr. of Lit. iii. 418, 421, 433, 434; Norfolk Archæology, v. 233; Blomefield's Norfolk, 8vo ed. iv. 379–80; (John Chambers's) Norfolk, ii. 1181, 1208.]
