the terms 'subscribers' and 'non-subscribers.'
Haliday continued identified with the latter
till his death. A number of members of his
congregation were so dissatisfied with the
issue of the case that they refused to remain
under his ministry. After much opposition
they were erected by the synod into a new
charge. The establishment of this
congregation called forth 'A Letter from
the Revs. Messrs. Kirkpatrick and Haliday,
Ministers in Belfast, to a Friend in Glasgow,
with relation to the new Meeting-house in
Belfast,' Edinburgh, 1723. The subscription
controversy raged for years, Haliday
continuing to take a foremost part in it, both
in the synod and through the press. In 1724
he published 'Reasons against the Imposition
of Subscription to the Westminster Confession
of Faith, or any such Human Tests of Orthodoxy,
together with Answers to the Arguments for
such Impositions,' pp. xvi and
152, Belfast, 1724. A reply to this having
been issued by the Rev. Gilbert Kennedy,
Tullylish, co. Down, Haliday published 'A
Letter to the Rev. Mr. Gilbert Kennedy,
occasioned by some personal Reflections,' Belfast,
1725, and in the following year 'A Letter to
the Rev. Mr. Francis Iredell, occasioned by
his "Remarks" on "A Letter to the Rev. Mr.
Gilbert Kennedy,"' Belfast, 1726. To end
the strife the synod in 1725 adopted the
expedient of placing all the non-subscribing
ministers in one presbytery, that of Antrim,
which in the following year was excluded
from the body. Haliday also published 'A
Sermon occasioned by the Death of the Rev.
Mr. Michael Bruce, preached at Holywood
on 7 Dec. 1735,' pp. 35, Belfast, 1735. A
correspondence between him and the Rev. James
Kirkpatrick of Belfast on the one side, and
the Rev. Charles Mastertown, minister of the
newly erected congregation there, on the
other, with regard to a proposal that the two
former and their congregations should
communicate along with the hearers of the latter,
may be found in the preface to Kirkpatrick's
'Scripture Plea,' 1724, p. 5, &c. Haliday
married the widow of Arthur Maxwell, who
brought him considerable property. He died
on 5 March 1739 in his fifty-fourth year
(Belfast News Letter, ii. 157).
[MS. Minutes of Laggan; MS. Minutes of Synod of Ulster; Narrative of Seven Synods; Peacock's Leyden Students, p. 45; Reid's Hist. of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, vol. iii.; Witherow's Memorials of Presbyterianism in Ireland, vol. i.]
HALIDAY, WILLIAM (1788–1812), Irish grammarian, born in Dublin in 1788, was son of William Haliday or Halliday, an apothecary, and elder brother of Charles Haliday [q. v.] He was bred a solicitor, and learnt Irish from three Munstermen who lived in Dublin, MacFaelchu, O'Connaill, and O'Cathasaigh; and so despised in his middle sphere of society was the native language of Ireland that Haliday assumed the name of William O'Hara when he began to take lessons from O'Cathasaigh. In 1808 he published in Dublin 'Uraicecht na Gaedhilge: a Grammar of the Irish Language,' under another assumed name, Edmond O'Connell. This is a compilation based upon Stewart's 'Gaelic Gramir.' He was one of the founders in 1807 of the Gaelic Society of Dublin, established for the investigation and revival of ancient Irish literature, and in 1811 published in Dublin the first volume of a text and translation of Keating's 'History of Ireland.' He had begun an Irish dictionary when he died, 26 Oct. 1812. He was an enthusiastic student of Irish literature of the same kind as O'Reilly the lexicographer. Their work is defective in thoroughness, because of their imperfect training, but has been of great service to many more learned persons, and has given much enjoyment to many of the unlearned.
[Webb's Compendium of Irish Biography, 1878; O'Donovan's Grammar of the Irish Language, 1845, preface; O'Reilly's Irish-English Dictionary, 1821, preface; Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Dublin, 1808.]
HALIFAX, Marquis of. [See Savile, George, 1633–1695.]
HALIFAX, Earls of. [See Montagu, Charles, 1661–1715; Dunk, George Montague, 1716–1771.]
HALIFAX, Viscount. [See Wood, Charles, 1800–1885.]
HALIFAX, JOHN (d. 1256). [See Holywood.]
HALKERSTON, PETER (d. 1833?), Scotch lawyer, received a university education, and took the degree of M.A. He studied law, and became a member of the Society of Solicitors to the Supreme Courts of Scotland. For ten years he acted as one of the examiners of that body, and was their librarian for a still longer period. He also held for some time the office of bailie of the abbey of Holyrood. During his tenure of office he studied the records of the place, and produced in 1831 'A Treatise on the History, Law, and Privilege's of the Palace and Sanctuary of Holyrood House.' Halkerston, who seems to have directed himself rather to the theoretical than the practical side of his profession, received the honorary degree of LL.D., and was also elected an extraordinary member
