Abbott, Thomas Kingsmill

Abbott, Thomas Kingsmill (1829–1913), scholar and clergyman, was born 26 March 1829 in Dublin, son of Joseph Abbott, clerk of the peace, and his wife Jane Kingsmill. Thomas entered TCD 9 June 1846 as a sizar (his father being dead), graduated (BA 1851), and became a fellow (1854) and BD (1879). He was professor of moral philosophy (1867–72), Biblical Greek (1875–88), and Hebrew (1879–1900), and was awarded a DD h.c. by Glasgow University, and a D.Litt (1891) by Dublin. He was also college librarian (1887–1913) and published very extensively: he translated Kant's ethical works (1879); wrote Elements of logic (1883), Elementary theory of the tides (1888), Essays on the original texts of the Old and New Testaments (1891), Notes on St Paul's epistles (1892), and numerous papers on metaphysics, linguistics, and theology; and produced editions of Codex rescriptus Dubliniensis (1880) and Evangeliorum versio Ante-hieronymiana (1884). His catalogues of the coins, manuscripts, and incunabula in TCD library were of importance for many years after 1900, and several of his books were standard texts: his translation of Kant reached six editions. Abbott was a careful scholar, almost a polymath, but reclusive, intimidating, and an austere and uninspiring teacher: it was fortunate for him, and perhaps for the college, that an efficient deputy librarian took care of the actual running of the library. He died 18 December 1913 in Killiney, and was buried in Dean's Grange, Co. Dublin. He married (1859) Caroline Kingsmill, daughter of a clergyman, and probably a relative, who predeceased him; they had four sons and a daughter. Some of his papers are in TCD, MSS H.7, 5–8.