Adair, Sir Robert Alexander Shafto
Adair, Sir Robert Alexander Shafto (1811–86), 2nd baronet, Baron Waveney, MP and author, was born 25 August 1811, elder son of Sir Robert Shafto Adair (1st baronet, of Flixton Hall, Suffolk, and Ballymena, Co. Antrim) and Elizabeth Adair (née Strode), and educated at Harrow (1823–8).…...
Alton, Ernest Henry
Alton, Ernest Henry (1873–1952), classical scholar and public representative, was born 21 September 1873 at Marlinstown, near Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, eldest son of James Poë Alton, banker, of Limerick and Marguerite Alton (née Keely). His abiding passion for classical literature was…...
Anster, John Martin
Anster, John Martin (1793–1867), poet, translator of Goethe's Faust, and regius professor of civil law in Dublin University, was born 21 October 1793 in Charleville, Cork, son of John Anster, distiller, and Mary Ann Anster (née Hiffernan). The family was catholic, and…...
Atkinson, Robert
Atkinson, Robert (1839–1908), philologist, was born 6 April 1839 near Gateshead, Co. Durham, the only child of John and Ann Atkinson. He attended Anchorage Grammar School, and entered Trinity College Dublin (TCD) (1856), but spent 1857–8 at Liège, Belgium, and worked as a schoolmaster…...
Baillie (Bailie), James Kennedy
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),…...
Barnes, William
Barnes, William (1801-86), poet and philologist, was born at Bagber Common in the Blackmore Vale, Dorset, England, and baptised on 20 March 1801, son of John Barnes, tenant farmer, and Grace Barnes (née Scott). After a variety of occupations, including the making of woodcuts, he…...
Bastable, Charles Francis
Bastable, Charles Francis (1855–1945), economist and academic, was born in Charleville, Co. Cork, the only son of the Rev. Robert Bastable, rector of Knock Temple and Kilbolane, and his wife Louisa, daughter of a Dr Little of Sligo. Educated at Fermoy College and…...
Beaufort, Daniel Augustus
Beaufort, Daniel Augustus (1739–1821), clergyman, architect, and cartographer, was born 1 October 1739 in London, son of Daniel Cornelius Beaufort and Esther Beaufort (née Gougeon), members of the huguenot community. The family moved to Ireland when Daniel's father became chaplain…...
Bedell, William
Bedell, William (1571–1642), scholar and churchman, was born in late December 1571 at Black Notley, Essex, England, second son of John Bedell and his wife, Elizabeth Elliston, and entered Emmanuel College, Cambridge, in 1584, the year of its foundation. He graduated in 1588, took his…...
Berwick, Edward
Berwick, Edward (1754?–1820), classicist and anglican clergyman, was born in Co. Down, son of Duke Berwick, gentleman. After attending the Rev. Saumarez Dubourdieu's school in Lisburn, Co. Antrim, he entered TCD (1770), gained a…...
Blackley, William Lewery
Blackley, William Lewery (1830–1902), clergyman, social reformer, and linguist, was born 30 December 1830 at Dundalk, Co. Louth, second son of Travers Robert Blackley, physician, and Eliza Blackley (née Lewery). From 1843 to 1845 he was educated in Brussels by Dr Carl Martin…...
Bloomfield, John Caldwell
Bloomfield, John Caldwell (1823–97), landlord and entrepreneur, was born 5 February 1823, eldest son of John Colpoys Bloomfield and Frances Arabella Bloomfield (née Caldwell); there were three other sons and a daughter. His mother, a descendant of Sir John Caldwell, was coheiress…...
Boyd, Henry
Boyd, Henry (1749?–1832), clergyman, poet, and translator, was born in Co. Tyrone, son of Charles Boyd, farmer; nothing is known of his mother. Educated by Mr Davison, he entered TCD as a sizar (June 1770), gained a scholarship (1773),…...
Browne, Arthur
Browne, Arthur (1756?–1805), lawyer, legal and classical scholar, and MP, was born probably in Newport, Rhode Island, North America, the only son of Marmaduke Browne (1731–71), rector of Trinity church, Newport, and later a founding fellow of Rhode Island College (from 1804 Brown…...
Butcher, Samuel Henry
Butcher, Samuel Henry (1850–1910), scholar and politician, was born 16 April 1850 in Dublin, the elder son of Samuel Butcher (qv), clergyman, of Danesfort, Co. Kerry, and his wife, Mary (née Leahy), of South Hill, Killarney, Co. Kerry…...
Charles, Robert Henry
Charles, Robert Henry (1855–1931), Biblical scholar, was born 6 August 1855 at Cookstown, Co. Tyrone, probably in Loy House, fifth of the seven sons of Dr David H. Charles and Annie E. Charles (née Allen). He attended Belfast Academy and won a scholarship to…...
Clarke, Adam
Clarke, Adam (1760/62–1832), methodist minister and scholar, was born at Moybeg, near Maghera, Co. Londonderry, son of John Clarke (fl. 1762), schoolmaster, whose early marriage to a Miss McLean prevented him from completing a degree in…...
Cotter, George Sackville
Cotter, George Sackville (1755–1831), clergyman, poet, and translator, was most probably born in Co. Cork, the fourth and youngest son of Sir James Cotter, MP, created first baronet of Rockforest, Co. Cork, in 1763, and his wife, Arabella (née Rogerson, formerly Cassaubon), coheir…...
Crosbie, Richard
Crosbie, Richard (1756?–1800?), balloonist, was born in Co. Wicklow, second son among five children of Sir Paul Crosbie, 4th baronet and barrack master at Bray, Co. Wicklow, and Mary Crosbie (née Daniel), an Englishwoman. His elder brother was (Sir)…...
Duff, Charles St Lawrence
Duff, Charles St Lawrence (1894–1966) author, barrister and linguist, was born on 7 April 1894 in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, the youngest of ten children to grow to adulthood of John Duff, secretary of the Sligo, Leitrim and Northern Counties Railway, and his wife Anne Marie Duff (…...
Gookin, Vincent
Gookin, Vincent (1616?–1659), surveyor general, MP for Bandon and Kinsale 1654–9, and friend and colleague of William Petty (qv), was the eldest son of Cork settler Sir Vincent Gookin…...
Grierson, Sir George Abraham
Grierson, Sir George Abraham (1851–1941), member of the Indian Civil Service (ICS) and language scholar, was born 7 January 1851 in the parish of Monkstown near Dublin, eldest son of George Abraham Grierson, a TCD graduate and barrister…...
Gwynn, John
Gwynn, John (1827–1917), clergyman and scholar, was born 28 August 1827 in Larne, Co. Antrim, eldest son among four sons and two daughters of the Rev. Stephen Gwynne, rector of Agherton, Co. Londonderry, and Mary Gwynne (née Stevens or Stevenson). Their mother drowned at…...
Hawkey, John
Hawkey, John (1703–59), schoolmaster and editor, may have been born in Cove, Devon, or East Looe, Cornwall, son of John Hawkey, gaoler. Nothing is known of his mother. After schooling from Mr Spare in Liskeard, Cornwall, he entered TCD…...
Holmes, Thomas Rice Edward
Holmes, Thomas Rice Edward (1855–1933), historian and classicist, was born 24 May 1855 at Waterstown House, near Athlone, Co. Westmeath, fifth son of Robert Holmes, farmer and breeder of cows and horses, and Jane Holmes (née Henn). Originally taught by a private tutor, he entered…...