The well-known ‘Belfast Society,’ which exercised an important influence on the ecclesiastical affairs of the north of Ireland, was founded in 1705, and Kirkpatrick was one of its earliest and most influential members.

In 1706 he resigned his charge at Templepatrick on receiving an invitation from the presbyterian congregation in Belfast to take the place of their minister, John McBride, who had been obliged to retire to Scotland owing to his non-abjuring opinions.

The date of his death is usually given as 1744, but a notice by James Blow, prefixed to Kirkpatrick's posthumous ‘Defence of Christian Liberty,’ shows that he died in 1743.

xv, 564, and index of ten pages, no place or printer's name, 1713), a work undertaken to meet the desire of the general synod to possess a history of their church, and specially called for by the persistent attacks of Tisdall, vicar of Belfast, on the presbyterian body.

It preserves many valuable facts and documents, and gives a good idea of the state of public sentiment in Ireland in the days of Queen Anne.