William Reeves (bishop)

William Reeves (16 March 1815 – 12 January 1892) was an Irish antiquarian and the Church of Ireland Bishop of Down, Connor and Dromore from 1886 until his death. He was the last private keeper of the Book of Armagh and at the time of his death was President of the Royal Irish Academy.

Early life

Born at Charleville, County Cork, on 16 March 1815, Reeves was the eldest child of Boles D'Arcy Reeves, an attorney, whose wife Mary was a daughter of Captain Jonathan Bruce Roberts, land agent to the 8th Earl of Cork. This grandfather had fought at the Battle of Bunker's Hill, and Reeves was born at his house in Charleville.[1]

From 1823, Reeves was educated at the school of John Browne in Leeson Street, Dublin, and after that at a school kept by the Rev. Edward Geoghegan. In October 1830, he entered Trinity College, Dublin, where he quickly gained a prize for Hebrew. In his third year he became a scholar and went on to graduate BA in 1835. He proceeded to read medicine, won the Berkeley Medal, and graduated MB in 1837. His object in taking his second degree was that he intended to become a clergyman and to practice the medical profession among the poor of his parish.[1][2][3]

Life and work

In 1838, he was appointed Master of the diocesan school in Ballymena, County Antrim, and was ordained a deacon of Hillsborough.[2] The next year, he was ordained a priest of the Church of Ireland at Derry.[3]

In 1844, Reeves rediscovered the lost site of Nendrum Monastery when he visited Mahee Island in Strangford Lough, County Down, searching for churches recorded in 1306, and recognised the remains of a round tower.[4][5]

By 1845, Reeves was corresponding with the Irish scholar John O'Donovan, and an archive of their letters between 1845 and 1860 is preserved at University College, Dublin. In July 1845, Reeves visited London.[6]

Reeves's career was furthered by his learned work. His first book, published in 1847, was his Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Down, Connor and Dromore, but by then he was already a member of the Royal Irish Academy.[7] By the time he published his Acts of Archbishop Colton (1850) he was also a Doctor of divinity.[8] In 1850, as in 1847, he was Perpetual Curate of Kilconriola.[7][8]

Reeves resided in Ballymena from 1841 to 1858,[9] when he was appointed vicar of Lusk following the success of his edition of Adomnán's Life of Saint Columba (1857), for which the Royal Irish Academy had awarded him their Cunningham Medal in 1858. [10] He had worked on this with Dr James Henthorn Todd, who was patron of the living at Lusk.[2] Reeves's edition of Adomnán's Life of Columba has been called "the best and fullest collection of materials on the early Irish Church in one volume".[3] With regard to the Celtic Church, Reeves himself described Adomnán's work as –

...an inestimable literary relic... perhaps, with all its defects, the most valuable monument of that ancient institution which has escaped the ravages of time.[11]
A folio of the Book of Armagh

In 1853, Reeves bought from the Brownlow family the important 9th-century manuscript known as the Book of Armagh, paying three hundred pounds for it. He sold the book for the same sum to Archbishop Beresford, who had agreed to present it to Trinity, Reeves's alma mater.[12][13]

Crockford's Clerical Directory for 1868 gives him as "Reeves, William, DD, Rural Dean, Rector of Tynan, Librarian Armagh Library (Armagh)".[14]

Reeves was a friend of Margaret Stokes and with his colleague Todd is credited with setting off her interest in Irish antiquities.[15]

The author and antiquarian Samuel Ferguson wrote of Reeves in 1867:

It is in order and presentation of his facts that this great master of Scottish topographical history – using the word Scottish in its old acceptation – excels all who have gone before him.[16]

In 1875 Reeves was appointed Dean of Armagh,[17] a pposition he held until 1886 when he was appointed as Bishop of Down, Connor and Dromore.[18] In 1891 was elected as President of the Royal Irish Academy.[2] As bishop, he resided at Conway House, Dunmurry, County Antrim, and signed his name "Wm. Down and Connor".[19][20]

Reeves died in Dublin on 12 January 1892, while still President of the Academy.[19][21] At the time of his death, he was working on a diplomatic edition of the Book of Armagh, by then in the Trinity College Library. The work was completed by Dr John Gwynn and published in 1913.[2][22]

In November 1889, Reeves had bought the important collection of Irish manuscripts of Robert Shipboy MacAdam (1808–1895), a Belfast business man and archaeologist. In 1892, after Reeves's death, this collection was bought for the Royal Irish Academy by the Rev. Maxwell Close and is still held by the Academy, under the name of 'The Mac Adam and Reeves Collection'.[23]

Mary, Lady Ferguson, the widow of Reeves's friend Sir Samuel Ferguson, published a biography in 1893, The Life of the Right Rev. William Reeves, DD, Lord Bishop of Down, Connor and Dromore, and this reproduces a portrait of him.[2][24][25]

A Catalogue of the Library of the Late Right Rev. William Reeves (1892) contains sections relating to the Royal Irish Academy, Scotland, Ireland, the Athanasian Creed, the Utrecht Psalter, the Old Testament, and 'Household Furniture'.[26]

In 1941 Reeves's papers, including some in the Irish language, were donated to Marsh's Library by Dean Webster.[2]

Reeves's Notices of Certain Crannogs... in the Counties of Antrim and Londonderry (1860) and his The Culdees of the British Islands (1864) both appeared in new editions in 1994.[27][28]

Publications

Bibliography

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2  "Reeves, William (1815–1892)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 2.9 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 (Rev.) William Reeves biography at Ricorso
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Cleeve, Brian, & Anne Brady, A Dictionary of Irish Writers (Dublin: Lilliput, 1985)
  4. Macdonald, Philip, Monitoring at Nendrum, Mahee Island, Co. Down 2003 at qub.ac.uk, web site of Queen's University, Belfast (pdf file)
  5. Nendrum Monastery at theoldschoolhouseinn.com
  6. Hastings, Angela, University College Dublin Library Special Collections John O'Donovan/William Reeves correspondence, undated, at ucd.ie (pdf file)
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 Reeves, William, Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Down, Connor and Dromore, consisting of a Taxation of those Dioceses (1847) title page online at books.google.com
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 Reeves, William, Acts of Archbishop Colton title page online at books.google.com
  9. 9.0 9.1 William Reeves by John Ernest Leonard Oulton, title details at books.google.com
  10. "An Historical Account of the Cunningham Fund". JSTOR. Retrieved 1 November 2014.
  11. Quoted in Dunn, Waldo H., English Biography (New York: Dutton, 1916, new edition by Read Books, 2007, ISBN 1-4067-0189-0, ISBN 978-1-4067-0189-0) page 5 online at books.google.com
  12. Book of Armagh in the Catholic Encyclopedia online at newadvent.org
  13. "In 1855, through the intervention of William Reeves, the Book of Armagh was presented to TCD": Gwynn, John, ed., Liber Armachanus (1913)
  14. Crockford's Clerical Directory (Church of England Church Commissioners, 1868), p. 771
  15. Falkiner, C. Litton (1901), "Margaret McNair Stokes", in Lee, Sidney, Dictionary of National Biography, III of the Supplement, London: Oxford University Press, pp. 362–3
  16. Ferguson, Samuel, Congal (1867), p. 154
  17. Armagh Cathedral web-site
  18. Births, Deaths, Marriages and Obituaries The Belfast News-Letter (Belfast, Ireland), Wednesday, January 13, 1892; Issue 23877
  19. 19.0 19.1 Reeves, William 1815–1892 in Dictionary of Ulster Biography, 'R' biographies online at ulsterbiography.co.uk
  20. Letter from William Reeves to Rev. C. Watson dated 4 December 1890, quoted in Watson, Charles, Glenavy, Past and Present online at lisburn.com
  21. Barry, Terry, A History of Settlement in Ireland (Routledge, 1999, ISBN 0-415-18208-5, ISBN 978-0-415-18208-9), p. 78, note 107 at books.google.com
  22. "... the Rev. Dr Bernard, F.T.C.D., who is engaged with Dr Gwynn in completing the labours of the late Bishop Reeves on the Book of Armagh...": from Lady Ferguson's Sir Samuel Ferguson in the Ireland of his day, p. 77
  23. The Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts in the Royal Irish Academy online at ria.ie (pdf file)
  24. Lady Ferguson, Sir Samuel Ferguson in the Ireland of his day, title page at archive.org
  25. Lee, Sidney, Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, Vol. II, p. 18 online at books.google.com
  26. Catalogue of the Library of the Late Right Rev. William Reeves title details and summary of contents at books.google.com
  27. 27.0 27.1 27.2 Reeves, William, Notices of Certain Crannogs, or Artificial Islands, Which Have Been Discovered in the Counties of Antrim and Londonderry (1860, new edn. 1994) title details at books.google.com
  28. 28.0 28.1 28.2 Reeves, William, The Culdees of the British Islands (1864, new edn. 1994) title details at books.google.com
  29. Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork, Queen's University, Belfast, Monitoring at Nendrum, Mahee Island, Co. Down 2003 at qub.ac.uk (pdf file)
  30. Reeves, William, Five Chromolithographic Drawings, Representing an Irish Ecclesiastical Bell... (1850), title details at books.google.com
  31. Reeves, William, Description of the Codex Maelbrighte (1851) title details at books.google.com
  32. Garstin, J. R., Bibliography of the works of William Reeves (1893)
  33. Reeves, William, Papers on the Ancient Abbatial Succession in Ireland (1857) title details at books.google.com
  34. Reeves, William, The Life of St. Columba, founder of Hy; written by Adamnan, ninth Abbot of that Monastery (Dublin University Press, 1857) title page online at books.google.com
  35. Reeves, William, Memoir of the Church of St. Duilech (1859) title details at books.google.com
  36. Reeves, William, On Marianus Scotus, of Ratisbon (Royal Irish Academy, 1860) title details online at books.google.com
  37. Reeves, William, The Ancient Churches of Armagh (1860) title details online at books.google.com
  38. Reeves, William, On the Townland Distribution of Ireland (1861), title details at books.google.com
  39. Reeves, William, Memoir of the Book of Armagh, title details at books.google.com
  40. Reeves, William, Memoir of Stephen White, title details at books.google.com
  41. Reeves, William, 'On the Island of Sanda', title details at books.google.com
  42. Reeves, William, 'On Some Ecclesiastical Bells in the Collection of the Lord Primate', title details at books.google.com
  43. The Martyrology of Donegal: A Calendar of the Saints of Ireland (1864) title page at books.google.com
  44. Reeves, William, On the Céli-dé, Commonly Called Culdees (1864) title details at books.google.com
  45. Reeves, William, A Sermon Preached at the Consecration of the Church of St. Patrick of Ardagh, title details at books.google.com
  46. Reeves, William, Analysis of the United Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough, title details at books.google.com
  47. Garstin, op. cit.
  48. Reeves, William, Book of Common Prayer title details at books.google.com
  49. Reeves, William, Memoir of Octavian del Palacio, Archbishop of Armagh, title details at books.google.com
  50. Reeves, William, On a MS. Volume of Lives of Saints, chiefly Irish... (1877) title details at books.google.com
  51. Reeves, William, 'A historical and descriptive memoir of the Clog an edachta, commonly known as St. Patrick's bell or the bell of Armagh' (1877) title details at books.google.com
  52. Reeves, William, The Primacy of Ireland: Resident in the See of Armagh for Fourteen Centuries (1886) title details at books.google.com
  53. Reeves, William, Irish Form of Consecration of Churches title details at books.google.com
  54. Reeves, William, A Lecture on the Antiquities of Swords (1898), title details at books.google.com
  55. History of the Parish of Tynan in the County of Armagh by John J. Marshall, William Reeves (1932), title details at books.google.com
  56. Reeves, William, On the Townland Distribution of Ireland (new edition, 1992), title details at books.google.com
  57. Meade, William E., A Bishop in the Church of God (1886) title details at books.google.com
  58. Catalogue of the Library of the Late Right Rev. William Reeves (1892), title details at books.google.com
  59. Garstin, John Ribton, Bibliography of the Works of William Reeves, title details at books.google.com
  60. Ferguson, Mary Catharine Guinness, Life of the Right Rev. William Reeves, DD (1893) title details at books.google.com
  61. Garstin, John Ribton, Descriptive Catalogue of a Collection of Manuscripts Formerly Belonging to and Mainly the Handiwork of William Reeves... (1899), title details at books.google.com

External links