PROTESTANT DISSENTERS 1775

STRABANE TOWN AND NEIGHBOURHOOD

Protestant Dissenters (Presbyterians) were barred from holding public office because of their beliefs. Presbyterian congregations across Ireland petitioned the parliament in Dublin for repeal of the Test Act that required all office holders i.e. magistrates, burgesses etc to be communicant members of the Established Church. Clearly, not all members of the Presbyterian congregation in Strabane signed: some may have been beholden to a landlord belonging to the Established Church. Very few such petitions have survived.