John Ireland (Anglican priest)

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The Very Reverend

John Ireland
Dean of Westminster
A middle-aged man wearing clerical robes and gown carrying a decorated cushion, upon which rests a large bejewelled crown
Dean Ireland, engraving by James Stow
ChurchChurch of England
In office1816 to 1842
PredecessorWilliam Vincent
SuccessorThomas Turton
Orders
Ordinationc. 1783
Personal details
Born(1761-09-08)8 September 1761
Died2 September 1842(1842-09-02) (aged 80)
NationalityEnglish
DenominationAnglicanism

John Ireland (8 September 1761 – 2 September 1842) was an English

William IV in 1831). Theologically and politically conservative, as shown in his writings, he was generous with the considerable riches that he acquired during his career, making large donations to support education and relieve poverty in his home town. In 1831, as Ireland was "a distinguished Benefactor of the University", Oxford had sought and obtained his permission to put on display a marble bust of him by the sculptor Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey.[1] The bust is now in the Examination Schools of the university.[1] During his lifetime, he established scholarships at the University of Oxford, and in his will, he left money to establish the post of Dean Ireland's Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture
.

Life

Ireland was the son of Thomas Ireland, a butcher from

Master of Arts (June 1810), and Bachelor and Doctor of Divinity (October 1810). After obtaining his first degree, he was ordained as a priest in the Church of England, and was a curate near his home town for a time, before travelling abroad with the son of Sir James Wright, 1st Baronet, acting as the boy's tutor. He was then vicar of Croydon, south of London, between 1793 and 1816.[2]

Westminster Abbey

As well as ministering in Croydon, he was chaplain to the statesman

St Margaret's Church, Westminster in 1813. He was offered, but declined, the position of Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford at this time.[2]

The

Victoria was crowned, and his place was taken by the subdean. Ireland remained Dean of Westminster until his death in 1842.[2]

Wealth and benefactions

Ireland became rich through his ecclesiastical appointments, but he made a number of charitable donations in his lifetime, and was regarded as generous with his money. In 1825, he founded four scholarships at Oxford "for the promotion of classical learning and taste" at a personal cost of £4,000 (approximately £349,000 as of 2024).[3] Westminster School received £500 to institute prizes for Latin verse. A further £2,000 was donated to Ashburton to purchase a house for the schoolmaster, together with money for its repair and an annual fund for the assistance of elderly residents. At his death, he left more than £20,000 (over £2 million as of 2024)[3]; £10,000 went to the University of Oxford to establish the post of Dean Ireland's Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture, and a further £2,000 went to Oriel College. A gift of £5,000 to build a new church in Westminster was later declared to be legally invalid.[2]

Publications

Some of his sermons from his time in Croydon were published in 1796 as Five Discourses... for and against the Reception of Christianity by the Antient Jews and Greeks. Lectures at Westminster School between 1806 and 1808 were published in 1809 as Paganism and Christianity Compared, with a second edition in 1825; his later lectures to the school were not published. On political and religious topics, his works included Vindicae regiae, or, A Defence of the Kingly Office (1797); Letters of Fabius (1801), opposing repeal of the

Test Act in relation to Irish Roman Catholics; and The Claims of the Establishment (1807), a sermon on the levels of tolerance and civil rights to be afforded to those who departed from traditional Anglican doctrines. In 1801, he published anonymously Nuptiae sacrae, or, An Enquiry into the Scriptural Doctrine of Marriage and Divorce, at a time when William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland, was proposing to make it illegal for those who were divorced on the grounds of adultery from marrying their partner in adultery. Ireland proved in the Quarterly Review in 1823 that an 1821 pamphlet was a plagiarised version of his earlier work, which was re-issued in 1830. After two lectures on plagues, addressed to the Royal College of Physicians and published in 1832 and 1834, Ireland did not publish further.[2]

Reputation

One historian of the abbey has said that Ireland was "essentially an eighteenth-century clergyman who lived long enough to feel the winds of change blowing around him".

Foreign Secretary, and founder of the Review) to appoint Ireland as a bishop.[2]

Illness and death

Ireland died in the Deanery at Westminster on 2 September 1842, shortly before his 81st birthday, having been in poor health since 1838. He was buried in Westminster Abbey on 8 September, alongside William Gifford, whose burial Ireland had arranged as executor of his will. A bust by the English sculptor John Ternouth was later erected. Ireland outlived his wife Susannah, who had died in 1826 at the rectory in Islip when she was 71 years old; there were no children of the marriage.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b Peach, Annette (2006). "John Ireland, Dean of Westminster". Portraits in Oxford. University of Oxford. Archived from the original on 8 June 2011. Retrieved 17 February 2010.
  2. ^
    doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/14448. Retrieved 22 January 2010. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  3. ^ a b UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  4. ISBN 978-0-9501018-1-1
    .

External links

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