#OTD in 1794 – Archibald Hamilton Rowan, United Irishman, is tried on charges of distributing seditious paper.

Archibald Hamilton Rowan, a distinguished United Irishman, was born in London, 12th May 1757; his father, Gawen Hamilton of Killyleagh, was a gentleman of large landed property in Ireland, whose ancestors came over in James I.’s reign. Educated at Westminster and Cambridge, he formed aristocratic acquaintances, travelled on the Continent, and when his means ran […]

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#OTD in 1835 – The coffin of mummy, Takabuti, was opened and the unrolled in Belfast Natural History Society’s museum at College Square North. 

Takabuti was the first Egyptian mummy to be brought to Ireland. After the Napoleonic Wars there was a brisk trade in Egyptian mummies. She was brought to Belfast in 1834 by Thomas Greg of Ballymenoch House, Holywood, Co Down. Her hieroglyphs were deciphered by the a leading Egyptologist from Ireland, Dr Edward Hincks, of Killyleagh, […]

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