O'Beirne, Thomas Lewis (1772-1791)

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In VENN
Adm. as a ‘Ten-year man’ at TRINITY, June 10, 1773. [Eldest s. of Lewis, a Roman Catholic farmer. B. c. 1748 at Farnagh, Co. Longford. Educated at the Diocesan School, Ardagh, and at the R.C. College of St Omer. Afterwards became a Protestant.] ' Matric. Lent, 1783; B.D. (Stat. Eliz.) 1783. D.D., Trinity College, Dublin, 1795. Ord. deacon (Peterb.) Trinity Sunday, 1772; priest, June 6, 1773, both times in Trinity College Chapel. V. of Grendon, Northants., 1774-6. Naval Chaplain under Lord Howe, 1776. R. of West Deeping, Lincs., 1779-83. Chaplain and private secretary to the Duke of Portland, Viceroy of Ireland, 1782-3. On the last day of his office, in 1783, the Duke gave him the two valuable livings of Whittingham and [p.578] Stamfordham, Northumberland, which he resigned in 1791 on obtaining from the Archbishop of Tuam, through the Duke of Portland, the benefices of Templemichael and Mohill, Co. Longford, 1791-5. On the defeat of the Portland Ministry, dwelt for a time at Aubigny. Accompanied Lord Fitzwilliam to Ireland as his first Chaplain and Private Secretary, 1794. Bishop of Ossory, 1795-8. Bishop of Meath, 1798-1823. ‘In his dioceses he found churches in ruin, glebes without residences, and an apathetic clergy; during his Episcopacy of Meath 57 churches and 72 glebe homes were built; he appointed vacant benefices on the ground of merit, enforced personal residence, aided in the revival of the office of Rural Deans and insisted on the stricter examination of candidates for ordination.’ Married, at St Margaret's, Westminster, Nov. 1, 1783, Jane, only surviving child of the Hon. Francis Stuart, 3rd s. of the 7th Earl of Moray. Author of numerous Whig pamphlets and of Sermons and Poems. Numerous letters from him in the earlier volumes of the Castlereagh Correspondence relate to projects for more closely uniting the Churches of England and Ireland. Died Feb. 17, 1823, at Lee House, Ardbraccan, Co. Meath. Father of Francis L. (1806). (T. W. Tweed; D.N.B.; Al. Dubl.; Northants. Clergy; First Fruits, Durham; Mant, Hist. of the Church of Ireland, II. 736-41; G. Mag., 1783, II. 978.)

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