1844 - Portrait of Rev. William Glendy – early salt paper print

A salt print photograph of the Reverend William Glendy (1752- 1853), taken by Edwin Wilkins Field, London, 1844.
The verso is inscribed (by an unknown person): Rev W. Glendy
Photographed in the infancy of the art by my friend E.W. Field Solicitor of London, in the year 1844.

William Glendy was the son of John Glendy, a Scots-Irish Presbyterian minister from Derry/Londonderry, who was a United Irishman. John was charged with seditious practices, and was forced to move to Baltimore, USA, after being forced from his pastorship of Maghera, Co. Londonderry, following the rebellion of 1798. However William did not travel to America with his family. Following the rebellion of 1798, John and some of his family had to flee to Baltimore, USA. William did not travel to America with his family.
William Glendy graduated from the University of Glasgow in 1806, and became a Presbyterian minister, ordained as the assistant Ballycarry minister in the Synod of Ulster. Glendy considered himself an ‘arian’ Christian, and in 1829, he refused to subscribe to the newly introduced ‘confession of faith’ in the Presbyterian Church. As a result, his congregation split in two; Glendy took a large portion of his congregation and broke from the Synod to create a Non-Subscribing, Unitarian congregation.
This portrait must have been taken while he was part of the Presbyterian Union Committee which sat in London in 1844.
The photographer, Edwin Wilkins Field, was a lawyer and amateur artist, remembered for his pursuit of law reform. A unitarian dissenter, he played a central role in the promotion of the Dissenters’ Chapels Act of 1844. He was also instrumental in setting up the 1862 Fine Arts Copyright Act, the Slade School of Art and was involved in the organisation of the fine arts section of the 1862 International Exhibition in London.

Image courtesy Public Records Office of Northern Ireland Ref: D1558/8/1/1