hath kept me his prisoner in Cripplegate.’ By 1718 he was in very infirm health. He attended the general synod at Belfast on 17 June, when a call to John Abernethy (1680–1740) [q. v.], as his assistant and successor, failed to obtain synodical sanction. He died on 21 July 1718, ‘ætatis suæ 68,’ and was buried on 23 July in the old churchyard of Belfast (site of the present St. George's), where a red marble tombstone, not now extant, bore a Latin inscription which is preserved. Margaret McBride, whose recipe-book, dated 1714, is in the possession of Robert M. Young of Belfast, was probably his wife. For his son Robert, see below. His portrait was sold by mistake with his furniture during his residence in Glasgow; many years after it was recovered in an auction room, and presented to his surviving daughter, Mrs. Dyatt; it is now the property of the first presbyterian church of Belfast; it bears the marks of the ‘sovereign,’ or mayor of Belfast, who thrust his rapier through the cambric band when searching the manse for him in 1705.
He published: 1. ‘Animadversions on the Defence of the Answer to … “The Case of the Dissenting Protestants of Ireland … together with an Answer to a Peaceable and Friendly Address,”’ &c., 1697, 4to (anon.; no place or printer's name; the ‘Defence’ was by Tobias Pullen, bishop of Dromore; the ‘Address’ by Edward Synge, afterwards archbishop of Tuam, who replied). 2. ‘A Sermon before the Provincial Synod at Antrim … by Mr. John Mac-Bride,’ &c., 1698, 4to (no place or printer's name). 3. ‘A Vindication of Marriage as solemnised by Presbyterians in the North of Ireland. … By a Minister of the Gospel,’ &c., 1702, 4to (anon.; no place or printer's name; answers were published in 1704, anon., by Ralph Lambert, afterwards bishop of Meath, and in 1705 by Synge). It has been conjectured that the above three tracts were printed in Belfast; accordingly they are included in Anderson's ‘Catalogue of Early Belfast Printed Books,’ 1890; it seems more probable that they were printed in Glasgow. 4. ‘A Sample of Jet-black Pr——tic Calumny, in answer to … “A Sample of True-blue Presbyterian Loyalty,”’ &c., Glasgow, 1713, 4to (anon.; has been assigned to others [see Jameson, William, fl. 1689–1720]; the ‘Wodrow Correspondence’ proves McBride's authorship; it was in the press in February, and printed by the end of May; the ‘True-blue Presbyterian,’ Dublin, 1709, 4to, was by William Tisdall, D.D., vicar of Belfast). As a controversialist McBride is inferior to Tisdall, and as an historian to Kirkpatrick; his treatise preserves a few important documents.
Robert McBride (1687–1759), son of the above, was born at Clare in 1687. On 28 May 1716 he preached in his father's meeting-house a sermon on George I's birthday, at the request of the Belfast Independent Volunteers. He was ordained on 26 Sept. 1716, by Coleraine presbytery, as minister of Ballymoney, co. Antrim, in succession to Hugh Kirkpatrick, father of James, mentioned above. In the synodical controversies of 1720–6 he took the side of subscription. He died on 2 Sept. 1759, in his seventy-third year, and was buried in Ballymoney churchyard; there is an inscribed tablet to his memory in the parish church. His two sons, David and John, are separately noticed. He published: 1. ‘A Sermon,’ &c., Belfast, 1716, 8vo. 2. ‘The Overtures … in a fair light, in answer to Mr. Higinbotham,’ &c., Belfast, 1726, 4to. (Robert Higinbotham was presbyterian minister of Coleraine.)
[Kirkpatrick's Loyalty of Presbyterians, 1713, pp. 529 sq., 538; Christian Moderator, 1826, pp. 309, 427 sq.; Wodrow Correspondence, 1842, vol. i.; Reid's Hist. Presb. Church in Ireland (Killen), 1867, ii. 474 sq., 500, 520, iii. 2, 45, 397; Witherow's Hist. and Lit. Memorials of Presbyterianism in Ireland, 1879, i. 109 sq., 209 sq.; Historic Memorials of First Presb. Church, Belfast, 1883, pp. 54 sq., 72, 109 sq.; Killen's Hist. Congr. Presb. Ch. in Ireland, 1886, pp. 62 sq., 89; Records of General Synod of Ulster, 1890, i. 15, 17, 110, 122, 143 sq., 419, 458, 486; Young's Town Book of Belfast, 1892, pp. 15, 251, 315.]
MACBRIDE, JOHN (d. 1800), admiral, son of Robert MacBride, presbyterian minister, of Ballymoney, co. Antrim [see under MacBride, John, 1651?–1718], was brother of David MacBride [q. v.] After serving for some years in the merchant service he entered the navy, about 1754, as able seaman on board the Garland, apparently in the West Indies. As ‘A.B.,’ midshipman, and master's mate he continued in her for rather more than three years, and after a few months in the Norfolk, the flagship in the Downs, he passed his examination on 6 Oct., and was promoted to be lieutenant on 27 Oct. 1758 (Passing Certificate). In 1761 he was in command of the Grace cutter, and in August distinguished himself by cutting out a privateer from the roadstead of Dunkirk. On 7 April 1762 he was promoted to the command of the Grampus fireship, from which he was moved on 14 Oct. 1762 to the Vulture, and on 27 May 1763 to the Cruiser, all on the home station. On 20 June 1765 he was posted to the Renown frigate. In 1766 he commanded the Jason in a voyage to the Falkland Islands. In August 1767 he was appointed to the Seaford; in March 1771
