Brooke, Stopford Augustus
Brooke, Stopford Augustus (1832–1916), clergyman and author, was born 14 November 1832 at ‘Glendoen’, near Letterkenny, Co. Donegal, eldest of eight children of the Rev. Richard Sinclair Brooke, the local curate, and Anna Brooke (née Stopford). When his maternal grandfather and…...
Bruce, Michael
Bruce, Michael (1686–1735), presbyterian minister, was born 27 July 1686, eldest son among ten children of James Bruce (qv), minister of Killyleagh, Co. Down, and Margaret Bruce (née Traill). His brother was William Bruce (d. 1755);…...
Butt, Mahmood (‘Mike’)
Butt, Mahmood (‘Mike’) (1927–88), restaurateur, was born 7 May 1927 in Nairobi, Kenya, into an Islamic Indian family of one daughter and five sons of Ahmed Butt, railway engineer, and Zakia Butt. He was educated at a catholic school in Nairobi. After running a fleet of hire cars…...
Carnduff, Thomas
Carnduff, Thomas (1886–1956), writer, was born 30 January 1886 in Sandy Row, Belfast, youngest among six children of James Graham Carnduff (1842?–1900), an invalided army schoolteacher, and his second wife Jane (née Bollard; d. 1891). The family were poor, and living on their father…...
Carr, George Whitmore
Carr, George Whitmore (1780–1849), clergyman and temperance pioneer, was born in New Ross, Co. Wexford, eldest son of the Rev. Edward Carr, rector (1802–15) of Kilmacow, Co. Kilkenny, and Sarah Carr (née Foster) of Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny. Educated at the John Ivory endowed…...
Carson, Alexander
Carson, Alexander (1776–1844), nonconformist minister, was born c.September 1776 at Annahone, near Stewartstown, Co. Tyrone, eldest son of William Carson. His mother's name and his father's occupation are unknown. Intended for the ministry at an early age, he was…...
Charters, John
Charters, John (1796–1874), millowner and philanthropist, was born 24 June 1796 in Gobrana, near Crumlin, Co. Antrim, son of Alexander Charters and Eleanor Charters (née Mackey). He possibly attended the Belfast Academical Institution; in 1836, with two partners, he established…...
Cohen, Isaac
Cohen, Isaac (1914–2007), chief rabbi of the Republic of Ireland (1959–79), was born 26 July 1914 in Llanelli, Wales, one of three children born to shopkeeper parents of Lithuanian birth. Growing up amongst a community of fifty or so orthodox Jewish families, Cohen retained rich…...
Cohen, Joseph Wolfe
Cohen, Joseph Wolfe (1780–1869), president of the Dublin Hebrew Congregation, was born September 1780 in Poznan, Poland (soon to become a Prussian possession as ‘Posen’). After living in Birmingham, he settled in Dublin c.1819. One of the principal founders of the revived…...
Cole, John Morrison
Cole, John Morrison (1927–2013), journalist and broadcaster, was born into a working-class presbyterian family on 23 November 1927 in Whitewell Road, Belfast, the son of George Cole, a small electrical contractor of Whitewell Road, and his wife Alice (née Morrison). Growing up in…...
Cole, Sir William
Cole, Sir William (1571?–1653), English soldier and planter, was the only son of Emmanuel Cole, third son of Thomas Cole of London, and appears to have been raised in Devonshire. He may have studied at Cambridge, graduating BA and…...
Cooney, Edward
Cooney, Edward (1867–1960), evangelist, was born 11 February 1867 in Enniskillen, Co. Fermanagh, one of twelve children of William Rutherford Cooney, a prosperous anglican draper, and his methodist wife Emily (née Carson). He was educated at Enniskillen Model School and Portora…...
Cousins, James Henry Sproull
Cousins, James Henry Sproull (1873–1956), writer, teacher, and theosophist, was born 22 July 1873 in Cavour Street, Belfast, the eldest child of James Cousins, a deep-sea mariner of Glastry, Co. Down, and Susan Cousins (née Davey), of Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim. Educated at a local…...
Cowan, Adrian William David
Cowan, Adrian William David (1919–96), dentist, was born 26 August 1919 in Dublin, eldest among four sons and two daughters of Alfred Cowan (fl.1890s–1960s), dentist, and ‘Lib’ (Elizabeth?) Cowan (née Nurock). He was educated in Dublin at St Andrew’s College (1928–34),…...
Cromwell, Henry
Cromwell, Henry (1628–74), soldier and administrator, was born 20 January 1628 at Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, England, fourth son of Oliver Cromwell (qv) and Elizabeth Cromwell (née Bourchier). He fought only in the closing stages of…...
Cromwell, Oliver
Cromwell, Oliver (1599–1658), lord protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland, was born 25 April 1599 in Huntingdon, fifteen miles (24 km) north-west of Cambridge, England, the eldest son of Robert Cromwell, younger son of a knight, and his wife Elizabeth Steward. His two brothers died…...
Cronin, Edward
Cronin, Edward (1801–82), missionary, was born in Cork city, son of a Roman Catholic father and protestant mother whose names are unknown; he had cousins whose names were Drury. He came to Dublin c.1826 to train as a doctor at the Meath Hospital and was at first welcomed…...
Crossley, Francis (‘Frank’) William
Crossley, Francis (‘Frank’) William (1839–97), engineer and evangelist, and his brothers Sir William John (1844–1911), engineer, and (Thomas) Hastings (Henry) (1846–1926), classical scholar, were sons of Maj. Francis Crossley of the East India Company, governor of the Andaman Islands…...
Crossley, Hastings
This is a co-subject for the entry on Crossley, Francis (‘Frank’) William. View the original entry....
Crossley, William John
This is a co-subject for the entry on Crossley, Francis (‘Frank’) William. View the original entry....
Cuffe, Ellen Odette
Cuffe, Ellen Odette (1857–1933), countess of Desart, philanthropist, and senator, was born 1 September 1857 in London into a Jewish family, eldest daughter of Henri Louis Bischoffsheim (1829–1908), millionaire banker, and Clarisse Bischoffsheim (née Biedermann), and educated privately.…...
Darby, John Nelson
Darby, John Nelson (1800–82), religious leader and writer, was born 18 November 1800 in Great George's St., London, sixth and youngest son of John Darby and Anne Darby (née Vaughan); there were also three daughters, one of whom married (1806)…...
De Blacam, Aodh (Hugh Saunders Blackham, Aodh Sandrach de Blacam)
De Blacam, Aodh (Hugh Saunders Blackham, Aodh Sandrach de Blacam) (1891–1951), journalist and politician, was born Hugh Saunders Blackham in London on 11 December 1891, son of William George Blackham, a Newry-born apothecary, and his English wife Elizabeth (née Saunders). He was…...
Delaune, Thomas
Delaune, Thomas (d. 1685), nonconformist writer, was born in Brinny, Co. Cork, son of a poor catholic tenant farmer. Maj. Riggs (fl. 1650–95), landowner and one of the earliest supporters of the baptists in Cork, was impressed by his ability and sent him to a friary at…...
Delmonte, (Simeon) Koert
Delmonte, (Simeon) Koert (1913–82), portrait and landscape painter, was born 15 April 1913 in van Mierlestraat, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, eldest of three children of Solomon Delmonte, banker, and his wife Nanetha, daughter of Simon Speyer, diamond merchant. His younger brother…...