First Rathfriland Presbyterian Church

History

The congregation dates from 1662. A meeting house was erected in 1679, the year the Rev Alexander Gordon was installed as minister. In 1708 the congregation was divided in two, forming the separate congregations of Rathfriland and Ballyroney, and in 1711 the Rev Robert Gordon was installed, serving for 51 years.

The Rev Samuel Barber was ordained in 1763 and was appointed Moderator of the General Assembly in 1790, remaining minister until his death in 1811. John Wesley visited the town in 1787 and preached in the church.

The building

The present building was completed in 1775, on property held under a permanent lease obtained from Lord and Lady Clanwilliam in 1768. A lecture hall was built in 1894.

Notable features

The ground immediately surrounding the church was set aside as the congregation's first graveyard. The date at which burials began is not known, and the congregation's history credits the Rev Samuel Barber, minister from 1763 to 1811, with having the ground set aside.

One of the oldest readable gravestones, to the rear of the church, is the monument raised by the congregation to Barber, who died on 6 September 1811 in the 74th year of his age and the 49th of his ministry. The graves of three later ministers also stand there: the Rev John White, who died in 1836 aged 48, the Rev William Rossborough, minister from 1837 to 1858, and the Rev James Wilson, who was born in 1840 and died in 1914.