Belfast Charitable Society’s First President: Arthur Chichester, 1st marquess of Donegall

2024-08-14T13:38:11+00:00

Belfast in the late 1750s was entering a critical period in its development. It was still a relatively small town, one of the Ulster plantation’s lesser centres, yet it was growing. A visiting judge in 1759 was so struck by the number of new merchants and traders that he wrote ‘[Belfast] seems to me to be the London of the North of Ireland.’ This was in stark contrast to 1752 (the year in which the Belfast Charitable Society was formed) when the town was in danger of losing its trade as its physical fabric had been deteriorating. It was in this [...]