Third Rathfriland Presbyterian Church
The congregation of third Rathfriland was formed on the 1st of June 1833. It was then known as Second Rathfriland Congregation and was under the care of the Presbytery of Dromore, and in connection with the General Synod of Ulster. Due to the great increase of the Presbyterian population a new place of worship and an additional minister were needed. The Presbytery of Dromore on the 1st of June 1833 erected a number of families under the care and supplied them with regular preaching.
After hearing several probationers, the members of the congregation presented a unanimous call to Mr Joseph Dickie, BA, TCD, a licentiate of the Armagh Presbytery, inviting him to take the spiritual oversight of the newly formed Congregation. After supplying for three months Mr Dickie accepted the call, and on the 17th of June 1834 the Presbytery of Dromore obtained a promise of ground from General Meade, but Captain Scott donated the site. In that year, a committee was formed for the purpose of collecting the stipend that has been promised and for the building of a Meetinghouse.
Until the church was built and open for public worship, the Congregation met on Sabbath days in the Market House, with the exception of Communion Sabbaths, when the sacrament was observed in Mr Tate’s Meeting house, now Second Church. On the 7th of July 1830, a newly elected committee met and received tenders for the work of building the new Meetinghouse.
In 1841 the Congregation was transferred to the newly formed Presbytery of Rathfriland and in 1842 it received its present name of Third Rathfriland. In 1843 there were 106 families in connection with the congregation. On the 6th of October, 1877 a house, the property of Mr John Hutcheson, was purchased from him as a residence for the Minister.
In 1843 John Carey, minister of Brookvale fired shots through the church window at the Rev Dickie who was in his pulpit preaching a sermon. The Rathfriland Presbytery had suspended Rev Carey from office, accusing him of getting money on false documents. He pointed out the money was for his church, not himself, and the Presbytery later restored him against the wishes of the Rev Dickie and the Rev Porter. Rev Carey was furious and sought revenge.
Extract from Belfast Newsletter 1843
Rathfriland, Monday morning, 27 February.
Our town has been thrown into a state of no common excitement, from the Reverend Mr Dickie having been shot last night while in the pulpit, and in the act of offering a prayer after the sermon. The slugs with which the musket was loaded, entered both his arms. Eighteen of the slugs have been taken out of one arm and a number remain which have not as yet been extracted. The wound, it is hoped, will not prove mortal. There has been, as yet no trace of the desperate fellow who perpetrated the diabolical deed. The shot was fired through one of the panes of a window on the east side, nearly opposite the pulpit.
