Webb, Maria
Webb, Maria (1804–73), philanthropist and author, was born at Peartree Hill, near Lisburn, Co. Antrim, youngest child among two sons and one daughter of Thomas Lamb and his wife Dorothy, both members of the Religious Society of Friends. She was largely self-educated. In 1828 she…...
Went, Arthur Edward James
Went, Arthur Edward James (1910–80), fisheries biologist and historian, was born 21 January 1910 in London, first child and only son of Edward B. Went and Louisa A. Went of Mitcham, Surrey. He left school at the age of 15 to work in a chemical laboratory but in his spare time…...
Westropp, Thomas Johnson
Westropp, Thomas Johnson (1860–1922), antiquarian, was born 16 August 1860 at Attyflin, near Patrickswell, Co. Limerick, son (and only surviving child) of John Westropp and his second wife and cousin, Charlotte Louisa Whitehead. His father, a substantial landowner with estates in…...
White, (Herbert) Terence de Vere
White, (Herbert) Terence de Vere (1912–94), solicitor and writer, was born 29 April 1912 in Dublin, where his family lived at 61 Marlborough Road, Donnybrook. His father, Frederick Sutton Darley de Vere White, LLD, was then a junior solicitor…...
White, John Davis
White, John Davis (1820–93), publisher and antiquary, was born 22 May 1820 in Conaghy, Co. Kilkenny, youngest son among three sons and two daughters of Benjamin Newport White (1776–1846), landowner, late of the Slieveardagh yeomanry cavalry stationed in Killenaule, Co. Tipperary,…...
White, Stephen
White, Stephen (1574?–1646/7), Jesuit priest, academic, and antiquary, was born in Clonmel, the son of Pierce White. His was a remarkable family, two of his brothers also being priests: James was vicar apostolic of Waterford and Lismore and Thomas…...
Whyte, John Henry
Whyte, John Henry (1928–90), academic, was born 30 April 1928 in Penang, Malaya (Malaysia), son of William Henry Whyte, military officer, and Dorothy Gordon Whyte (née Hibbard), daughter of an American industrial metallurgist; he had one sibling, a younger sister. He was educated…...
Wilde, Sir William Robert Wills
Wilde, Sir William Robert Wills (1815–76), surgeon and polymath, was born in March 1815 at Kilkeevin, Castlerea, Co. Roscommon, youngest of three sons of Thomas Wilde, a local physician, and Emily Wilde (née Fynne). He attended the Royal School, Banagher, and the Diocesan School, Elphin…...
Williams, (Thomas) Desmond
Williams, (Thomas) Desmond (1921–87), historian, was born 26 May 1921 in Dublin, the only child of William John Williams, later professor of education in UCD, and his wife Angela (née Murnaghan), member of a prominent legal and political…...
Wills, James
Wills, James (1790–1868), clergyman and author, was born 1 January 1790, younger son of Thomas Wills of Willsgrove, Co. Roscommon, and his second wife, a daughter of Capt. James Browne of Moyne, Co. Roscommon. He was educated at Dr Miller's school in Blackrock, Co. Dublin, and at…...
Wilson, Charles Henry
Wilson, Charles Henry (c.1755–1808), writer and linguist, was born in Bailieborough, Co. Cavan, son of an anglican clergyman; no other details are known of his family. He received a classical school education and attended TCD before…...
Windele, John (‘Trismagistus MacSlatt’, Seághan Bhindele)
Windele, John (‘Trismagistus MacSlatt’, Seághan Bhindele) (1801–65), antiquarian and collector, was born in Cork city. His family is said to have come from Kerry where their name was spelt ‘Windle’. Working in the sheriff's office in Cork, from an early age and largely self-taught he…...
Windle, Sir Bertram Alan Coghill
Windle, Sir Bertram Alan Coghill (1858–1929), scholar, anatomist, archaeologist, and university president, was born 8 May 1858 at Mayfield, Staffordshire, England, eldest son of the Rev. Samuel Allan Windle and Sydney Katherine Windle (née Coghill). When he was four, the family…...
Witherow, Thomas
Witherow, Thomas (1824–90), presbyterian minister and historian, was born 29 May 1824 in his maternal grandfather's house at Ballycastle, near Limavady, Co. Londonderry, eldest in a family of four children of Hugh Witherow, a prosperous farmer and grazier from Aughlish, near…...
Wolfe, George
Wolfe, George (1859–1941), soldier, landowner, antiquarian, and politician, was born 16 December 1859 at Bishopland, Ballymore Eustace, Co. Kildare, younger son among two sons and one daughter of Theobald George Samuel Wolfe (1815–72), landowner, of Bishopland and Forenaghts, Naas…...
Wood, Herbert
Wood, Herbert (1860–1955), archivist, historian, deputy keeper of the Public Record Office of Ireland, was born on 6 September 1860 at Trinity Square, Lambeth, London, a prosperous residential development for merchants and professionals. He was the sixth of eight children of William…...
Woodlock, Ellen
Woodlock, Ellen (1811–84), philanthropist and social worker, was born 27 January 1811, second daughter among seven sons and four daughters of Martin Mahony (1764–1834) of Cork, woollen manufacturer, and his second wife, Maria (née Reynolds), of Roscreg. The Rev.…...
Wood, Robert
Wood, Robert (1717?–1771), traveller, author, and politician, was born at Riverstown Castle near Trim, Co. Meath, eldest son of the Rev. James Wood of Summerhill, Co. Meath. He matriculated at Glasgow University in 1732 and entered the Middle Temple on 15 November 1736. In 1742–3 he…...
Wright, George Newenham
Wright, George Newenham (1794?–1877), clergyman, schoolmaster, topographical writer and biographer, was born in London probably in 1793 or 1794. He was the youngest of the four sons of Thomas Wright (qv), a surgeon of Great Ship St.,…...
Wright, James Lendrew
Wright, James Lendrew (1816–93), USA labour leader, was born 6 April 1816 to a protestant family in Co. Tyrone, of whom nothing else is known except that the family emigrated first to St John, in the British colony of New Brunswick, and thence to the US, settling in Philadelphia in…...
Yeats, Gráinne
Yeats, Gráinne (1925–2013), harpist, singer, teacher and historian, was born on 14 April 1925 in Dublin, the youngest child of Patrick Sarsfield ('P. S.') O'Hegarty (qv) and Wilhelmina (Mina) Rebecca (née Smyth). Both…...
Yonge, James
Yonge, James (d. p.1425), a Dublin notary of Anglo-Irish extraction, possibly related to the William Yonge who was archdeacon of Meath 1417–37, was commissioned by James Butler (qv), 4th earl of Ormond, to compose a new…...
Young, Mary Ursula
Young, Mary Ursula (1783–1830), Ursuline nun and writer, was born 9 October 1783 at Dublin, the eldest child of Charles Young (qv), merchant, and his wife Margaret Young (née Hervey). They were a devout family: four of Mary's brothers became…...
Zimmer, Heinrich
Zimmer, Heinrich (1851–1910), philologist, historian, and Celtic scholar, was born 11 December 1851 in Castellaun in the Rhineland, Germany, son of a peasant farmer. After pursuing his early education at Kreuznach, he spent some time at the universities of Strasburg, Tübingen, and…...