John Thomas Gilbert

“ On this occasion the society by resolutions unanimously condemned the government for measures which they viewed as adverse to the liberties of the people. In further resolutions the meeting deplored the intended war against France, and asserted the necessity for the total emancipation of the catholics of Ireland and for the reform of parliament. In consequence of these resolutions Butler and Bond were summoned before the House of Lords at Dublin, At the bar there, in March 1793, they avowed the publication of the resolutions. ”

“ During the movements which commenced in Ireland in 1641, Clanricarde resided chiefly at his castle at Portumna in the county of Galway, and maintained communication with the administrators of the government at Dublin, some of whom were believed by the Irish to be in the interests of those in England adverse to Charles I. Clanricarde did not join the Irish confederation, of which his heir and several of his relatives were members. Many of the Irish confederates doubted the sincerity of Clanricarde's professions of loyalty to the crown. ”

“ Grey presided over the parliameat in Ireland in 1636-7, in which were enacted the important statutes for the abolition of papal authority, the attainder of the Earl of Kildare, the establishment of Henry VIII as head of the church, and the dissolution of houses of religion. Grey occasionally acted independently of the privy council at Dublin, with many of whose members, and especially with the Earl of Ormonde, he was soon on very bad terms. ”

“ While in Ireland he preached frequently to catholic soldiers and militia, who bitterly complained to him of the severe punishments inflicted on them for not attending services in protestant churches. His exertions in their behalf roused the wrath of the executive at Dublin, and proved abortive, but at the request of the Duke of Portland he protracted his stay in Ireland in order to arrange for the establishment of the Roman catholic college at Maynooth, under act of parliament, and in June 1795 Hussey was appointed, with the approval of government, president of the new college. ”

“ After her death he married, in 1726, Henrietta Boyle, youngest daughter of his relative, Charles, earl of Burlington and Cork. That nobleman entrusted the management of his estates in Ireland to Henry Boyle, who much enhanced their value, and carried out and promoted extensive improvements in his district. In 1729 Boyle distinguished himself in parliament at Dublin in resisting successfully the attempt of the government to obtain a vote for a continuation of supplies to the crown for twenty-one years. ”

“ Kane paid much attention to the development of industries in Ireland, and delivered a course of lectures on the subject in Dublin in 1843. In the next year he collected his materials in a volume, published in 1844, under the title of ‘Industrial Resources of Ireland.’ The work met with much success, and a second edition was published in 1845. Kane here directed attention to the various sources of wealth in the fuel, water-power, mines, agriculture, and manufactures of Ireland, and indicated the most economical modes of working them. ”

“ Thence he was sent as professor to the college newly established for Irish Dominicans at Louvain, where he distinguished himself by his devotion, learning, and energy. He was despatched on college business to the court at Madrid, and was received with consideration by Philip IV, then king of Spain and Portugal. Daly at this time undertook to establish a college at Lisbon for Dominicans of Irish birth, as the harsh laws in force in Ireland proscribed education in or the practice of the catholic religion. ”

“ To the measures adopted by Luttrell was ascribed the preservation of Dublin for the Jacobites against the designs of Schomberg. Luttrell retained the governorship of Dublin till the withdrawal of James II in July 1690. He was one of the Irish representatives who went to France in that year to urge on James II the propriety of removing the Duke of Tyrconnel from the office of viceroy. The Duke of Berwick, who was well acquainted with Luttrell, tells us that he always appeared to him to be an honest man, and that he was of an accommodating disposition. ”

“ As a law official Howard rendered valuable services to government, which were scantily rewarded. He was active in promoting structural improvements in Dublin, having some skill as an architect, and the freedom of the city was conferred on him in 1766. He was among the earliest of the protestant advocates for the partial relaxation of the penal laws against Roman catholics in Ireland, and members of that church presented him with a handsome testimonial. He died in affluent circumstances at Dublin in June 1786. ”

“ Edmund Ludlow, lieutenant-general of the horse, mentions that, in reply to Ireton, Baron answered ‘that it was not just to exclude him from mercy, because he had been engaged in the same cause’ as the parliamentarians ‘pretended to fight for, the liberty and religion of his country.’ Baron was executed at Limerick, and met his fate with great intrepidity. ”

“ He was called to the bar in Ireland in 1781, and in that year he married Anne Western Temple, daughter of Robert Temple, an American loyalist who had settled in Ireland. Emmet attained eminence as an advocate; he possessed a highly poetical imagination, remarkably retentive memory, and a vast amount of acquired knowledge of law, divinity, and literature. Under the chancellorship of Lord Lifford, Emmet was advanced to the rank of king's counsel in 1787. His death occurred in February 1788, while he was on circuit in the south of Ireland, and his widow died in the following November. ”

“ Hartry subsequently joined the Cistercians in Ireland in their missionary labours, and endeavoured to investigate the history of the Irish branch of the order. Some of the materials thus obtained he transmitted to the Cistercian historiographers on the continent, and they refer to him under the name of ‘Artry, natione Hibernus.’ He appears to have remained in Ireland till 1651, and to have died soon after in Flanders. ”

“ Kildare and Grey respectively asserted rights as governors, and presided over rival parliaments of the English settlement in Ireland. After the termination of the contest Kildare was, in 1481, appointed as deputy in Ireland for the viceroy, Richard, duke of York, and during the closing years of Edward IV advanced much in wealth and influence. He married Alison, daughter of Sir Rowland Fitzeustace, baron of Portlester, and formed alliances with the most important Irish and Anglo-Irish families. ”

“ PATRICK (d. 1084) , bishop of Dublin, also known as Gillapattraicc, was an ostman of good family, who became a priest. In 1074 the clergy and people of Dublin chose him to fill the see of that city, vacant by the death of Donatus. He received consecration at St. Paul's Church, London, from Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury, to whom he made a vow of spiritual obedience. It was part of William I's Irish policy to bring the Irish church under the control of the archbishop of Canterbury. For many years after Patrick's time the bishops of Dublin were consecrated by archbishops of Canterbury. ”

“ Under a compact with the government at Dublin, an annual subvention was long paid to the head of the Cavanagh sept for protection which he agreed to afford to the English settlers in their district. In connection with this subvention, which occasionally remained unpaid, disputes from time to time arose between the governmental officials and MacMurchad. By native writers he was extolled as courageous, liberal, and hospitable. He married Elizabeth Veele, who, as heiress to Anglo-Norman settlers, was entitled to lands of considerable value in Leinster. ”

“ The Scots, with their Irish allies, took possession of the town of Carrickfergus, laid siege to its strong citadel, and Bruce was crowned as king of Ireland. Edward Bruce encountered and defeated on several occasions the forces of the English government in Ireland. Robert Bruce having arrived with reinforcements from Scotland, he and his brother, early in 1317, marched from Ulster to the south of Ireland. After the return of King Robert to Scotland, Edward Bruce continued at Carrickfergus as king of Ireland. ”

“ Serious complaints of Grey's conduct were sent to the king's advisers in England by discontented officials at Dublin, who alleged that Grey's temper was ungovernable, and that his main objects were the rapid acquisition of wealth and the re-establishment of the fortunes of his sister and other relatives and adherents of the attainted Earl of Kildare. ”

“ BINDON, FRANCIS (d. 1765) , painter and architect, was born of a respectable family of Limerick, towards the close of the seventeenth century. He travelled on the continent, and acquired reputation in Ireland both as an architect and a painter. Bindon was more than once employed by the Duke of Dorset, lord-lieutenant of Ireland in 1734 to paint his portrait, and entries of the payments made to him appear in an unpublished Account-book of that viceroy. In 1735 Bindon painted a portrait of Swift, who sat for it at the request of Lord Howth. ”

“ In April 1649 the appointment of Boate as doctor to the hospital at Dublin was referred by the council of state at London to Oliver Cromwell, who in the preceding month had been appointed commander-in-chief for Ireland. The treasurer-at-war in the following September paid Boate fifty pounds ‘on account of his entertainment as physician for Ireland.’ Boate arrived in Ireland at the latter end of 1649, while Cromwell was in command there, but he survived only a short time. ”

“ Isidore's College, Rome, for Irish Franciscans. The family of Baron was one of the numerous offshoots of that of the FitzGeralds, or Geraldines, of Munster. Baron, under the guidance of his uncle Wadding, entered the order of St. Francis, in Italy, about 1636, and assumed the name of Bonaventura in honour of that celebrated Franciscan doctor of the church, writer, and cardinal. With Wadding he took up his residence at Rome in the college of St. Isidore, the home of the Irish Franciscans. Baron acquired eminence as a theologian and by his Latin compositions both in prose and verse. ”

“ The most important public incident in the career of Gahan was in connection with John Butler (d. 1800) [q. v.] , Roman catholic bishop of Cork, with whom he had intimate and confidential relations since 1783. Butler, in his seventieth year, on the death of his nephew, Pierce, became twelfth Lord Dunboyne in the peerage of Ireland, and possessor of the ancestral estates. Anxious to prevent the extinction of the direct line of his family, he resigned the bishopric of Cork, and sought a papal dispensation to enable him to marry. ”

“ After his withdrawal from Ireland, Clanricarde resided at his seat at Somerhill, Kent, where he died in July 1657, and was buried at Tunbridge. Having left no direct male heir, Clanricarde's title devolved upon his cousin Richard, eldest son of his uncle William, who became sixth earl of Clanricarde under Charles II. Clanricarde was eulogised for his loyalty by his contemporary Clarendon, and by Carte. A different estimate of the acts and character of Clanricarde was entertained by a large proportion of the Irish royalists. ”

“ In 1745 'The Earl of Westmoreland,' a tragedy by Brooke, was produced at Dublin, and in 1748 his operatic satire styled 'Jack the Giant-Queller' was performed there. The dramatis personæ consisted of the giants of Wealth, Power, Violence, and Wrong, and 'the family of the Goods,' comprising John, Dorothy, Grace, and the Princess Justice. The repetition of the performance was prohibited by the government on the ground of political allusions which it was alleged to contain. ”

“ In 1621 Bolton published at Dublin, in a folio volume, a selection of statutes passed in parliaments held in Ireland, under the title 'The Statutes of Ireland, beginning the third year of King Edward the Second, and continuing untill the end of the Parliament begunne in the eleventh year of the reign of our most gratious Soveraigne Lord King James and ended in the thirteenth year of his raigne of England, France, and Ireland. ”

“ He displays scrupulous accuracy throughout, and is a trustworthy guide to the history of the Irish kings. His work was the first in which Irish history was placed in a scholarlike way before readers in England, and it found its way into many good English libraries of its period. In a dedicatory epistle to James, duke of York, O'Flaherty mentions the old connection between Ireland and Scotland, and traces the descent of the royal family of England to the ancient monarchs of Ireland. ”

“ As chairman of the corporation committee for a new supply of water to Dublin, Gray actively promoted the Vartry scheme, in face of formidable opposition. On the occasion of turning the Vartry water into the new course in June 1863, Gray was knighted by the Earl of Carlisle, lord-lieutenant. In 1865 Gray was elected M.P. for Kilkenny city. He advocated the abolition of the Irish protestant church establishment, reform of the land laws, and free denominational education. Through the ‘Freeman's Journal’ he instituted a commission into the condition of the protestant church in Ireland. ”

“ On the title-pages of his above-mentioned works Gilbert is designated 'bachelor of divinity and minister of the gospel at Limerick in Ireland.' In 1659 the commissioners of the revenue in Ireland were directed by government to provide a house for Gilbert while preaching in Dublin. After the Restoration Gilbert appears to have become connected with the established church in Ireland, and to have settled in Belfast as a friend of Arthur Chichester, first earl of Donegal, who in his will made him a bequest. ”

“ Kildare acted as governor of Dublin under the parliamentarian colonel, Michael Jones, in 1647, and in 1649 he received a pension of 46s. weekly from the government. In a subsequent petition to the chief justice of Munster Kildare stated that during eleven years he and his family had been driven to great extremities and endured much hardship in England and Ireland through his constant adherence and faithful affection to the parliament of England ”

“ Malone was for some time superior of the jesuits at Dublin, whence in 1635 he was summoned to take the office of president of the Irish College at Rome, founded by Cardinal Ludovisi. In 1641 Malone petitioned to be relieved from this post, but without success, as he was deemed pre-eminently qualified for it, from his intimate knowledge of Ireland and the Irish. In December 1647 Malone was appointed superior of the jesuits in Ireland, but his position there was rendered specially onerous owing to the conflict of opinions among both laity and clergy on political questions. ”

“ In the following year the queen granted him permission to wait upon her, and to return to Ireland, where he sat in the parliament at Dublin in April 1585. He died in London on 16 Nov. following, and was interred at Kildare. He is stated by contemporaries to have been an expert horseman, valiant, small of stature, slender of person, very courteous, but hard and angry at times, a great gatherer of money, and addicted to gambling. ”