Rider (Ryder), John
Rider (Ryder), John (1562–1632), Church of Ireland bishop of Killaloe and lexicographer, was born at Carrington, Cheshire, son of Edward de Rythre of Carrington and his wife Emily Periam. In 1576 he entered Jesus College, Oxford, where he graduated …...
Ridgeway, Sir William
Ridgeway, Sir William (1853–1926), classical scholar, was born 6 August 1853, youngest son of the Rev. John Henry Ridgeway, of Ballydermot, King's Co. (Offaly), and Marianna Ridgeway, daughter of Samuel Ridgeway of Aghanvilla, King's Co. His parents may have been cousins; his family…...
Ryves, Elizabeth
Ryves, Elizabeth (1749–97), author, journalist, and translator, was born in Ireland, eldest of three daughters. Her father was probably Robert Ryves who had been a lieutenant in the 31st Regiment of Foot in 1740; no details of her mother are known. The family claimed to be related…...
Sall, Andrew Fitzjohn
Sall, Andrew Fitzjohn (1624–82), scholar and sometime Jesuit, was born into an Old English family in the city of Cashel, Co. Tipperary; nothing is known of his parents. More than five Jesuits bore the name Sall (Sál, Sale). With such a background it is not surprising to find the young…...
Sampson, George Vaughan
Sampson, George Vaughan (1763–1827), clergyman, linguist, survey writer, and agricultural and social reformer, was born in Co. Antrim, though his father, Arthur Sampson, was at the time rector of Templemore, Co. Londonderry. His mother was Mary Mercer, daughter of George Spaight…...
Sampson, John
Sampson, John (1862–1931), scholar and librarian, was born 25 February 1862 in Schull, Co. Cork, third child and eldest of three sons of James Sampson, metallurgical chemist and mining engineer born in Cornwall of a long Cornish lineage, and Sarah Anne Sampson (née Macdermott), who…...
Sedulius Scottus (‘the Irishman’)
Sedulius Scottus (‘the Irishman’) (fl. mid 9th cent.), Irish scholar and poet at the court of Charles the Bald, is a key figure in the later Carolingian renaissance, and an invaluable witness to the learning of the Irish peregrini. Nothing is known of his…...
Senchán Torpéist
Senchán Torpéist (early 7th cent.?), poet and scholar. A few verses relating to Leinster genealogical tradition, apparently early, are attributed to him: one of these is said to derive from the ‘Cocangab Már’ (the great compilation), evidently a collection of lore for which Senchán…...
Shea, Daniel
Shea, Daniel (1777–1836), orientalist, was born in Co. Limerick in 1777, son of Daniel Shea, farmer. He entered TCD aged 16 in June 1793, studying classics, and soon distinguished himself as a student of some ability. In 1797 he was awarded a scholarship. Some of his friends were…...
Singleton, Robert Corbet
Singleton, Robert Corbet (1810–81), clergyman, classical scholar, and hymn-writer, was born 9 October 1810 in Dublin, second son of Francis Corbet, gentleman, of Dublin and Aclare, Co. Meath, and his wife, Frances (d. 1860), daughter of Joseph Deane, MP, of Terenure, Co. Dublin.…...
Smith, Henry John Stephen
Smith, Henry John Stephen (1826–83), mathematician and classicist, was born 2 November 1826 in Dublin, youngest among two daughters and two sons of John Smith (1792–1828), barrister, and his wife Mary, one of fourteen children of John Murphy, country gentleman from Bantry Bay, Co.…...
Sommerfelt, Alf
Sommerfelt, Alf (1890–1965), Celtic scholar and linguist, was born 1890 in Trondheim, Norway, son of secondary school principal Axelsson Sommerfelt. His mother's name and details of his early education are unknown. He matriculated at the University of Oslo in 1911 where he studied old…...
Spillan, Daniel
Spillan, Daniel (1797?–1854), physician and classicist, was born in Cork city, son of Daniel Spillan, woollen draper; nothing is known of his mother. Educated at the school of a Mr Angier, he entered TCD in June 1817, aged 20, graduating…...
Stanford, William Bedell
Stanford, William Bedell (1910–84), classical scholar and senator, was born 6 January 1910 in Belfast, third child and only son (among four daughters) of the Rev. Bedell Stanford, rector of Dundrum, Co. Down, and Susan Stanford (née Jackson). Since the Rev. Stanford declined to…...
Stanihurst, Richard
Stanihurst, Richard (1547–1618), scholar and diplomat, was born in Dublin, eldest among three sons and two daughters of James Stanihurst (qv) (or Stanyhurst), lawyer and politician, and Anne Stanihurst (née Fitzsimon), both of the…...
Starkie, Enid Mary
Starkie, Enid Mary (1897–1970), French scholar, was born 18 August 1897 at Killiney, Co. Dublin, second of six children, and eldest of four daughters, of William Joseph Myles Starkie (qv), resident commissioner of national…...
Starkie, William Joseph Myles
Starkie, William Joseph Myles (1860–1920), classical scholar, last resident commissioner of education under British rule in Ireland, and privy councillor, was born 10 December 1860 at Elsinore Lodge, Rosses Point, Co. Sligo, the fifth son (baptised a catholic, in contrast to his older…...
Steele, Joshua
Steele, Joshua (c. 1700–1796), writer on prosody and reformer, was born in Ireland but there are no details about his early life; indeed the first record of his existence is from 17 October 1750, when he married Sally (or Sarah) Hopkins Osborn, a wealthy heiress with vast…...
Stevens, John
Stevens, John (d. 1726), Jacobite soldier, diarist, and Spanish scholar, was son of a gentleman of the bedchamber to Catherine of Braganza, wife of Charles II, but little else is known of his parentage. He spent three years in the service of the king of Portugal during the reign of…...
Stewart, Maj. Charles
Stewart, Maj. Charles (1764–1837), soldier and oriental scholar, was born in Lisburn, Co. Antrim, eldest son of Capt. Poyntz Stewart, 1st (Royal Scots) Regiment, of Lisburn, and Magdalene Stewart (née Gayer). In 1781 he entered the service of the East India Company, which he left in…...
Stokes, Whitley
Stokes, Whitley (1830–1909), lawyer and Celtic scholar, was born 28 February 1830 in Dublin, the eldest son of Dr William Stokes (qv), heart specialist, and his wife, Mary, daughter of John Black of Glasgow. The Stokes children were raised…...
Strachan, John
Strachan, John (1862–1907), philologist and celticist, was born 31 January 1862 in Keith, Banffshire, Scotland, son of James Strachan, owner of Brae farm, and Ann Strachan (née Kerr). He was educated at Keith grammar school and entered King's College, Aberdeen, in 1877 at the age of…...
Thomson, George Derwent (Seoirse Mac Tomáis)
Thomson, George Derwent (Seoirse Mac Tomáis) (1903–87), classical scholar and writer, was born 19 August 1903 in West Dulwich, London, the eldest of a family of three sons and two daughters born to William Henry Thomson, an accountant, and his wife Minnie (née Clements). Inheriting an…...
Thurneysen, Rudolf
Thurneysen, Rudolf (1857–1940), Celticist, was born on 14 March 1857 in Basel, Switzerland, son of Eduard Thurneysen, silk manufacturer, and Eliza, daughter of Peter Merian, sometimes rector and professor of the natural sciences at the university of Basel. Among his teachers at the…...
Todd, James Henthorn
Todd, James Henthorn (1805–69), librarian and scholar, was born 23 April 1805 at Kildare St., Dublin, eldest son among fifteen children of Charles Hawkes Todd (qv), professor of surgery,…...