Reported On This Day 280 Years Ago (June 12 1739): Gentlemen and ladies turn out for Viscount and his lady in Belfast
From News Letter of June 1 1739 (June 12 in modern date):
BELFAST.
Tuesday night the right hon. Clotworthy Lord Viscont Massereene and his Lady, with several other persons of great distinction, honour’d our Assembly with their presence, on which occasion there was a most splended appearance of the Gentlemen and Ladies in and about town.
The same night Lady Massereene was chosen by one of the Directresses of the said Assembly, which Direction she was graciously pleased to accept of.
[This is a reference to Clotworthy Skeffington, the 5th Viscount Massereene, who was aged 24 in 1739. He had succeeded to the title the previous year, on the death of his father, the fourth viscount. Taking his seat in the Irish House of Lords, he later — in 1756 — also became 1st Earl of Massereene. His wife at this time was Anne Daniel. His mother, Lady Catherine Chichester, was daughter of Arthur Chichester, a descendant of the Elizabethan aristocrat, Sir John Chichester]
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• Does any reader know which assembly this report is referring to? Is it a group that runs the city? Is it a Presbyterian title? The report predates the Exchange and Assembly rooms by a number of decades. Phone 028 9089 7713 or email [email protected]