Robert Traill (Irish clergyman)
The Reverend Doctor Robert Traill | |
---|---|
Rector of Schull | |
Church | Church of Ireland |
Diocese | Cork, Cloyne and Ross |
In office | 1832–1847 |
Personal details | |
Born | Robert Traill 1793 Lisburn, County Antrim |
Died | 1847 (aged 53–54) Schull, County Cork |
Robert Traill or Trail
Early career
Traill was born in Lisburn, County Antrim, on 15 July 1793 the son of the Venerable Anthony Trail (1755–1831) and his wife, Agnes Watts Gayer.[1]
He earned the degree of Doctor of Divinity and afterward, in 1832, was appointed the rector of Schull, County Cork.[2] He antagonised some local people with his fervent evangelical Christianity.[2][3] He translated some of the manuscripts of Josephus, a first-century Jewish historian, into English.[2]
In 1840 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh his proposer being Thomas Stewart Traill. As an "ordinary" fellow this indicates his physical presence in Edinburgh at that time, possibly to visit his cousin.[4] He probably stayed with Traill at his grand townhouse, 10 Albyn Place on the Moray Estate.[5]
Traill is said to have discovered copper at the Dhurode mine on Mizen Head which first operated between 1844 and 1846. He was a major shareholder in the mine and one of its six shafts was named after him.[2][6]
Traill was involved in the Tithe War, in which many Roman Catholics refused to pay tithes for the evangelical established Church of Ireland, a fellow clergymen was killed within 30 miles of Schull, and Traill lamented that "the ungodly are rising up, and these poor deluded Roman Catholics are caballing to deprive me of my tithes, alas! What wickedness is this?".[7]
Great famine
At the outbreak of the
Traill established a soup kitchen at his home to provide for the needy and wrote that "my house is more like a beleaguered fortress. Ere the day has dawned the crowds are already gathering. My family one and all are perfect slaves worn out with attending them; for I would not wish, were it possible, that one starving creature would leave my door without some-thing to allay the cravings of hunger".[2] In February 1847 he showed Commander James Crawford Caffin of HMS Scourge some of those in the parish affected by the famine. Caffin wrote to a friend that "In no house that I entered was there not to be found the dead or dying ... never in my life have I seen such wholesale misery, nor could I have thought it so complete." Caffin's letter was published in various newspapers, an act which brought some relief efforts from the British Government to Schull. However, by March this appeared to have ended when Traill stated "the distress was nothing in Captain Caffin's time compared with what it is now".[9] Traill is said to have spent most of his income on relief for the needy.[10]
Death and legacy
Traill died of "famine fever" (typhus) on 21 April 1847.
Family
He was married to Anne Hayes (d.1890).[11]
He left a large family including two sons, three-year-old Robert Walter Traill and baby Edmund. The family moved to
References
- ^ "Agnes Watts Traill". Geni.com.
- ^ a b c d e f Newman, Kate. "Robert Traill". Dictionary of Ulster Biography. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-137-04517-1.
- ISBN 0-902-198-84-X. Archived from the original(PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 19 December 2018.
- ^ Edinburgh Post Office Directory 1840
- ^ "Dhurode Mine (Carrigacat Mine), Mizen Peninsula, Co. Cork, Ireland". Mineralogy Database. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
- ISBN 978-1-77070-506-7.
- ^ Foster, Thomas Campbell (1846). Letters on the Condition of the People of Ireland. Chapman and Hall. p. 440.
- Project Gutenburg.
- ISBN 9781476662732.
- ^ "Anne Traill". Geni.com.
- ISBN 9781476662732.
- ^ Saunders, Tristram Fane (2 October 2017). "Victoria: what is the truth about the Irish Famine, and who was Robert Traill?". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 5 October 2017.