Woods, C. J.

Armstrong, James (1781?–1839), unitarian minister and educationist, was born at Ballynahinch, Co. Down, where his father John Armstrong (1754?–1837) was a merchant; his mother, Margaret (1751?–1836), was a daughter of John Strong (d. 1780), presbyterian minister at Ballynahinch (…

Arthur, Francis (d. 1824), Limerick merchant and developer, belonged to a long-established catholic patrician family in that city. His father, Patrick (1716–99), mainly an importer of wine and timber, was one of the developers of a new suburb, Newtown Pery; he built a quay on the…

Arthur, James (1587/8–1654), Dominican priest, was a son of William Arthur, member of a leading merchant family in Limerick, and his wife, Beatrice (née Creagh). He entered the Irish college, Salamanca, on 5 November 1606 (NS), aged eighteen, and, after entering the Dominican…

Arthur, Margaret (Xavieria) (1674?–1743), abbess of the Benedictine convent at Ypres, was a daughter of Francis Arthur (d. 1712) and his wife Margaret (née Macnamara) (d. 1710). The Arthurs and Macnamaras were catholic patrician families from Limerick and Clare whose politics were…

Arthur, Thomas (1593–1675), physician, was born 24 November 1593 in Limerick city, son of the patrician William Arthur and Anastace Arthur (née Rice). His early schooling is unknown; he studied medicine in Bordeaux and Paris before returning to Limerick to begin (14 May 1619) a…

Ashenhurst, John Talbot (d. 1818), public notary and Volunteer, practised at 2 Exchange Alley, Dublin, from the mid-1770s until the mid-1780s, when he moved to 33 Dame Street. In 1780 he was a lieutenant in the union light dragoons, a Dublin city Volunteer corps; eventually he…

Ashe, Thomas (Tomás Ághas) (1885–1917), republican, was born 12 January 1885 at Kinard, Lispole, near Dingle, Co. Kerry, the fourth son in a family of seven boys and three girls born to Gregory Ashe, farmer, and his wife Ellen (née Hanafin). He attended Ardamore national school (1889–…

Aungier, Francis (c.1632–1700), 1st earl of Longford , politician and property developer, was the eldest son of Ambrose Aungier (c.1597–1654), chancellor of St Patrick's cathedral, Dublin, and of Grisel, younger daughter of…

Aungier, Gerald (c.1640–77), governor of Bombay, was probably born in Dublin, the second son of Ambrose Aungier (d. 1654), chancellor of St Patrick's cathedral, and a younger brother of Francis Aungier (c.1632–1700), 1st earl of…

Austin, John (1717–84), Jesuit priest, was born off Kevin Street, Dublin, on 12 April 1717. He showed promise as a youth, and was said to have come to the attention of Jonathan Swift (qv). He went to France and joined the Society of…

Avaux, Jean-Antoine de Mesmes (1640–1709), Comte d'Avaux , French ambassador to the Jacobite court in Ireland, was born into a noble Béarnais family. He became the most skilled French diplomat of his day, acting as Louis XIV's plenipotentiary at Nijmegen in 1675–8, and then as his…

Aylmer, Charles (1786–1847), Jesuit priest, was born 29 August 1786 at Painstown, near Kilcock, Co. Kildare, the seat of his father, Charles Aylmer (1720?–1801), one of the county's representatives at the Catholic Convention held in 1792, and said in 1798 to be worth £1,600 p.a.…

Aylmer, William (1778–1820), United Irish commander and officer in the Austrian army, was born in March 1778 at Painstown, Co. Kildare, the second son of Charles Aylmer (1720?–1801) but the first son of his second marriage, to Esmay, daughter of William Piers of Castletown, Co.…

Bagenal, Philip Henry Dudley (1850–1927), public official and political writer, was born 18 June 1850, the youngest of the four sons of Philip Bagenal (1796–1856), a landowner, of Benekerry, Co. Carlow, and his wife, Georgiana Thomasina, daughter of James Boyd of Rosslare, Co.…

Baillie (Bailie), James Kennedy (1793?–1864), classicist and protestant clergyman, was the son of the Rev. Nicholas Ward Kennedy, a schoolmaster, and grandson of James Kennedy, a medical man in Co. Down. He entered TCD aged fourteen (1807),…

Bain, John Alexander (1861–1947), presbyterian minister and theologian, was born at Galway 22 June 1861. He was educated at QCG and at Assembly's College, Belfast, and obtained an MA of the…

Baker, John Wynn (1726/7–1775), agricultural improver, was born in New York but lived in Lancashire until about 1761, when he settled in Ireland. In 1763 he took a farm at Loughlinstown, near Celbridge, Co. Kildare. He was the author of several pamphlets, the first of which, …

Ball, Edward Francis Allen Preston (1916–87?), murderer, was born on 9 May 1916 at 40 Upper Fitzwilliam Street, Dublin, the younger son of Charles Preston Ball (d. 1957), a Dublin medical doctor who seems to have been the son of William James Ball (1830?–1895), clergyman, Indian…

Ball, John (1728–1804), silk manufacturer, was probably the John Ball who was the son of Richard and Abigail Ball of Dublin and was baptised at St Catherine's church in April 1728. Richard Ball's forebears lived at Ardee, Co. Louth, and were descended from a Cromwellian officer,…

Ball, Nicholas (c.1540–1610), merchant, mayor of Dublin, and MP, was born in Dublin about 1540, the second of the three sons of Bartholomew Ball, a merchant, and his wife, Margaret (qv) (née Bermingham). He had considerable…

Ball, Walter (c.1538–1598), merchant and philanthropist, was the eldest of the three sons of Bartholomew Ball (d. 1567?), merchant, and his wife, Margaret (qv) (née Bermingham). Prospering in business, Walter Ball drew income…

Barbour, Harold Adrian Milne (1874–1938), promoter of agricultural improvement, was born in July 1874, probably at Dunmurry, Co. Antrim, the son of John Doherty Barbour (1823–1901), a linen manufacturer, and his wife, Elizabeth. He was educated in England (at Elstree, Harrow and…

Barnewall, Sir Christopher (d. 1575), politician and administrator, was the son of Sir Patrick Barnewall (qv), master of the rolls, and his wife, Anne, daughter of Sir Thomas Luttrell, chief justice of the common pleas.…

Barnewall, Sir Patrick (d. 1552), lawyer and MP, was the eldest son of Roger Barnewall of Fieldstown or Fedleston, parish of Clonmethan, north Co. Dublin, and his wife, Alison, daughter of Christopher Barnewall, 2nd Baron Trimleston. After entering Gray's Inn in 1527 he became a…

Barrett, James (1721?–1808), catholic priest, was born probably in 1721, presumably in the diocese of Killaloe (which takes in south and central Clare and north Tipperary), and obtained a licentiate in theology from the university of Paris. From 1762 until his death he was parish…