Edward Ledwich (1738-1823)


Life
son of a Dublin merchant and brewer; nephew of namesake Dean of Kildare; entered TCD, 22 Nov. 1755 and grad. BA, in 1760; BA 1760, and LLB 1763; ordained 170, and served as curate at Rathdowney in Ossory [Queen’s County/Co. Laois]; appt. received a living at Aghaboe, also in the diocese of Ossory, 1772-97, with a protestant congregation of 25 families; supported local development with lime-kilns and a reputed 400 spinning-wheels; contributed The History of Antiquities of Irishtown and Kilkenny, to Charles Vallancey’s Collectanea (1781) as No. IX - but disputed his view of Phoenician origins (while still holding that fire was worshipped in pagan Ireland); published his theory of the Scandanavian origin of the Irish harp in a letter printed as an appendix to J. C. Walker’s Historical Memoirs of the Irish Bards (1786) - later disputed by Sydney Owenson [q.v.] in The Wild Irish Girl (1806); m. Frances Phillips, with whom 8 children; with Vallancey [q.v.], Charles O’Conor [q.v.], and others, estab. the Hibernian Antiquarian Society which shortly foundered over quarrels between Vallancey and Ledwich, 1779-83;
 
issued his own Antiquities of Ireland (Dublin 1790), and soon after edited the Antiquities of Ireland for Francis Grose for the London publisher Hooper, using illustrations commissioned by the printer from Grose [q.v.] - who had ‘written and printed but seven pages of description’ [Pref.] before his sudden death in May 1791; the whole written and edited by Ledwich and ded. to Rt. Hon. Wm. Conyngham; now valued now for its plates only, apart from the critical interest as evidence of the colonial standpoint on early Irish society and the Catholic church in Ireland;
 

Bibl. note: The 2 vols. of Grose’s Antiquities were largely written by Ledwich after Grose’s death 1791 and printed in London in that year with a page-length dedication to the Right Hon. William Conyingham and with introductory essays on “Pagan Antiquities” and “Military Antiquities of Ireland” (Vol. I) as well as An introduction to Ancient Irish architecture” (Vol. 2). A new edition was published in Dublin in 1804, with his earlier History of ... Irishtown and Kilkenny appended, now ded. to the Earl of Ossory with a preface forebearing to apologise for errors in such an undertaking. In his edition of Grose’s Antiquities, Ledwich attempted to demolish the ‘bardic inventions’ which are ‘the oral records of every barbarous society’ (p.1; cf. ‘bardic figments’, p.5), and generally depreciated pre-Norman Irish (i.e., Gaelic) society and culture. Though ignorant of Irish, he advanced hypotheses refuted in the Irish annals about the builders of Irish ecclesiatical monuments. The list of subscribers to this work is virtual almanack of intellectual society of all parties commencing with the Viceroy Duke of York[e].

 

Ledwich rested heavily on the research in the Monasticon Hibernica of Mervyn Archdall [q.v.] and imputed endemic corruption to the Catholic church in Ireland while asserting after James Ussher [q.v.] that the Irish Protestant church was faithful to the Patrician origins of Christian faith in Ireland; joined the Royal Irish Academy as sec. of the Committee of Antiquities some years after its foundation in 1785 - delaying on account of Vallancey’s membership; issued A Statistical Account of the Parish of Aghaboe (1796), with a description of agricultural economy on ‘the main road from Dublin to Limerick’; his study of the antiquities of Salisbury (Antiq. Salisburiensis) appeared anonymously in 1771 with a 2nd edition in 1777; elected FSA (England and Scotland); d. at his home in York St., Dublin, 8 Aug. 1823; the surgeon Thomas Hawkesworth Ledwich was a grandson [see infra]. ODNB DIW RAF [FDA] OCIL RIA

 

[ The article on Ledwich in Dictionary of Irish Biography (RIA 2009) is by Helen Andrews - online. ]

[ top ]

Works

[ Note: The case of Ledwich’s authorship of Grose’s Antiquities of Ireland can be firmly established on the basis of allusions to Grose in the Preface and points of style in the text of the introductory sections. Likewise his authorship of Antiquitates Sarisburiensis [Salisbury] (1770), though printed anonymously, can be discerned from the disparaging and even acrimonious remarks about other historians made in the text of both. The greatest onfusion is caused by the publication of Grose’s Antiquities of Ireland under a title similar to that of his Antiquities of England and Wales (1773-87) and Antiq. of Scotland (1789-91) - while Ledwich himself had just produced a volume called Antiquities of Ireland in 1790. The attempt to resolve all of this confusion has been addressed on the RICORSO the several pages devoted to Ledwich and Francis Grose (q.v.) ]

  • Antiquitates Sarisburienses, or the History and Antiquities of Old and New Sarum [...] (Salisbury: E. Easton 1770-71) [see details]; and Do. [facs. rep.]
  • Forgotten Books 2018], 366pp.

Antiquities of Ireland (Dublin: Printed for Arthur Grueber [No.59 Dame Street] 1790), v, [3],184, [1], 184-473, [13]pp., 39 pls., front. engraved title-page & 37 numbered plates by W. Beauford, A. Cooper, A. Chearnley, Geo. Holmes, S. Hayes, W.L., and R.G., engraved by J. Ford; ded. to Rev. Charles Coote;

  • Antiquities of Ireland [viz., Grose’s Antiquities,] 2 vols. (London: S. Hooper MDCCXCI-MDCCXCV [1791 & 1795]), var. pag.; ill. [247 lvs. of colour-washed pls., 4°.
    • Do. (Printed for S. Hooper & Wigstead, No 212, High Holborn [MDCCXCVII] 1797), 235 pls., 24 plans; 4o. [Pref. dated 1794; setting as in 1791 edn.].
    • Do. as Antiquities of Ireland / Second edition, / with / Additions and Corrections. / To which is added, / A Collection of Miscellaneous Antiquities. / by / Edward Ledwich L.L.D. / and member of many learned societies (Dublin: Printed by and for J. Jones 90, Bride-street / 1804), ill. [40 pls. - 1 folded; 2 maps., 2 plans], add. engrav. t.p. [see details].
  • A Statistical Account of the Parish of Aghadoe in the Queen’s County, Ireland (Dublin: G. Bonham & J. Archer 1796), vi, 95pp., 3pp., ill. [pls., map], 8°.
  • An Essay on the Study of Irish Antiquities - A Dissertation on the Round Towers in Ireland. Memoirs of Dunamase and Shean Castle, in the Queen’s County. History and antiquities of Irishtown and Kilkenny. [With an appendix.]
  • Sermons (London: printed for W. Miller 1793), [6], 154pp.

Also contrib. his theory of Scandanavian origins of the early Irish to Joseph Cooper Walker, Historical memoirs of the Irish bards [… &c.] (London: T. Payne & Son 1786).

Miscellaneous
  • Contrib. to Collectanea de rebus hibernicus, ed. Charles Vallancey (Dublin: Luke White 1786- 1786-1790) - viz., An essay on the study of Irish antiquities.
  • Contrib. to J. C. Walker, Historical Memoirs of the Irish Bards (Dublin: Luke White 1786), viz., Appendix II: A letter to Joseph C. Walker ... on the style of the ancient Irish music, from Edward Ledwich.
Related texts
  • Historical Memoirs of the City of Armagh, for a period of 1373 years; comprising a considerable portion of the general history of Ireland, a refutation of the opinions of Dr. Ledwich, respecting the non-existence of St. Patrick; and an appendix on the learning, antiquities, and religion of the Irish Nation, with addenda and plates (Newry 1819), 651pp., 8o.

[ top ]

Antiquitates Sarisburienses: containing, I. A dissertation on the antient coins, found at Old Sarum. II. The Salisbury ballad. III. The history of Old Sarum, from the arrival of the Romans, to its final decay: illustrated with curious medals, found there, and a plan of the ancient city, as it was in the reign of King Stephen. IV. Historical memoirs, relative to the city of New Sarum. V. The lives of the Bishops of Old, and New Sarum, to which is added, some account of the choral bishops; and the riches of the cathedral, at the Reformation. VI. The lives of eminent men, natives of Salisbury (Salisbury: Printed and sold by E. Easton. Sold also by R. Horsfield, and J. White, London 1771), [4], 15, [1]; 28; 247, [5]pp., ill. [2 folded lvs. of pls.; 24 cm/8vo]. Incls. initially ‘The Salisbury ballad: with curious, learned and critical notes, by Dr. Walter Pope.’ (28pp.) with its own full title page bearing imprint: ‘London: Printed in the year MDCCXIII [1713] (Salisbury: reprinted by E. Easton, 1770)’. Anonymous but listed in English Short Title Cat. [ESTC] as a work of Edward Ledwich. Pts. I & II have their own pagination and register with a divisional title page for each section; [4]pp. of advertisements following p.247. [Above details as given in COPAC - online; accessed 05.02.2024.]

[CONTENTS: I: Numismatæ Sarisberia Reperta, or A dissertation on the antient coins found at Old Sarum; II: The Salisbury ballad. III: The history of Old Sarum. IV: Historical memoirs, relative to the City of New Sarum. V: The lives of the bishops of Old, and New Sarum. VI: The lives of eminent men, natives of Salisbury.]

Note on Author: The phrase ‘a patriotic society, in a neighbouring kingdom’ in the Advertisement (1777 Edn.) make be taken as indicating that Edward Ledwich is the author of the whole work (viz., edns. of 1771 and 1777). In several places, the author of Antiq. Sarisburienses writes in very much the reproving manner that Ledwich uses in Antiq. of Ireland when speaking of the neglect of proper study of the Reformation in Ireland - as when he discusses the possible revision of Bishop Godwyn’s Commentary on the Bishops of England in the first-named: ‘The last Edition of the foregoing Commentary bears date 1616; it may seem strange that among so many admirers of and advocates for the Church of England, none of them should apply themselves to continue, improve, and correct this Commentary’. (Antiq. Salisburienses, “Lives of the Bishops [.. &c.”, n.p.) Cf. ‘A diligent perusal of our records, would supply ample materials for an history of the reformation in Ireland; a subject extremely curious and interesting, yet passed over in strange neglect by all our writers.’ (“Monastic Antiquities of Ireland”, in Antiquities of Ireland, Vol. I (1791)

In the Dictionary of irish Biography (RIA 2009), Linde Lunney writes of the Salisbury volume: ‘It appeared at first anonymously, but was attributed to an Edward Ledwich, a curate in Coome and Harnham, Wiltshire. It has generally been assumed that this was the same man as Edward Ledwich, author of the Antiquities of Ireland, though as the latter was a curate in Ossory from 1770 it might have been difficult for him to see the work through the press.’ This itself seems a near-paraphrase of the author’s remarks in the Advertisement to the 2nd edition when he excuses ‘unavoidable’ errors in the first edition due to ‘distance from the Press’ as well as ‘want of materials’. [BS 05.02.2024].

2nd Edn.: Antiquitates Sarisburienses, or the History and Antiquities of Old and New Sarum, Collected from Original Records and Early Writers; with an Appendix; Illustrated with Two Copper plates [‘a new edition’] (Salisbury: E. Easton 1770-71), 15, 28, 247pp., ill. [2 fold. pls], 8°. Advertisement [Preface] to 2nd edition (Printed and sold by E. Easton; sold also by J. Wilkie [St. Paul’s Curchyard; W. Cater [...], and S. Hayes [all in London] 1777).

[Advertisement to the 1777 Edn.] ‘To the Love of National Antiquities, which so peculiarly distinguishes the prefent Age, the Writer ascribes the favourable reception given to the former Edition of this Work. No one can be more sensible of its Errors and Imperfections than he is: some of them were unavoidable from the want of materials, and others were occasioned by his distance from the Press. At present he has endeavoured to correct both, and hopes, that the Appendix will be found a valuable addition.
 ‘For one, who has spent some time in these studies, it may not be impertinent to observe, that a patriotic society, in a neighbouring kingdom, have greatly facilitated the collecting of Antiquities, by transmitting to its Members, and the Clergy, printed Queries, containing the proper objects of  their inquiry, in every Parish. The idea is not new; yet if pursued here, it would excite the attention, and rouse the curiosity of those who are now indifferent to such such subjects, and this branch of learning would soon become valuable,  authentic, and entertaining.’

CONTENTS: Dissertation on the Coins found in Sarum [np;]; Salisbury Ballad, by Dr. Walter Pope [n.p]; History of Old Sarum [1.]; 4. Historical Memoirs Relative to the Cathedral and City of New Sarum [65]; 5. Account of the Earls of Salisbury from the Year 1007 to the Present Time [101]; 6. Lives of the Bishops of Salisbury and of the Choral Bishop [119]; 7. Register of the Riches of the Cathedral , 28 Henry VIII [185]; 8. Lives of Eminent Men, Natives of Salisbury [205]. Appendix: Containing original Characters, and an accurate Description of the Cathedral Chapter House, &c., from actual Survey [248?]. 10. Miscellaneous Antiquities. [There is an html copy at Internet Archive - online; accessed 05.02.2024.]

See also Appendix to the history and antiquities of Old and New Sarum: containing original records, with observations (Salisbury: printed and sold by E. Easton; London: J. Wilkie, and W. Cater 1777), [2], 249-307, [3]p., 8°.

[ top ]

The Antiquities of Ireland(London: S. Hooper 1791-95 [rep. 1797), Introduction [i]-xiii, 1-93pp. [pls.] Note: The edition of 1797 has a preface [by Ledwich] dated 1794 and is said to be an almost line-for-line resetting of the 1791-95 rather than a mere reissue, with the printer’s name given as M. Hooper in the dedication but S. Hooper on the t.p. [See details at COPAC - online]. The work contains 120 plates of buildings from Dunluce Castle (Antrim) to Strancally Castle (Waterford) arranged by county in the table of contents with non-continuous page-numbers attached - e.g., St. John’s Castle (Limerick), p.91, followed by Kilmaine Castle (p.20). A further six plates of architectural details are included in the Introduction and listed finally in the Table of Contents (e.g., Dun Aengus, Glendalough, &c.)

Antiquities of Ireland / Second edition, / with / Additions and Corrections. / To which is added, / A Collection of Miscellaneous Antiquities. / by / Edward Ledwich L.L.D. / and member of many learned societies (Dublin: Printed by and for J. Jones 90, Bride-street / 1804), ill. [40 pls. - 1 folded; 2 maps., 2 plans], add. engrav. t.p. Ded. To the Right Honourable John Earl of Upper Ossory, and Baron Gowran of Gowran, in Ireland, and in England, Baron Upper Ossory of Ampthill and Lord Lieutenant of the County of Bedford, a Judge and a patron of learning and the polite arts, this work is most respectfully inscribed by the Author [with crest of same]. [Nine double-column pages of subscribers listed alphabetically.]

Preface: The view of society and manners in ancient Ireland is, with little variation, the same as that of the most polished nations of modern Europe in remote periods. England, the bulwark of the civilized world, can behold without emotion, or mauvaise honte, her mental and political degradation at the arrival of the Romans, and smile with contempt at the flattering fables of Geoffry of Monmouth. Scotland, celebrated for talents and accomplishments, and rivalling her illustrious sister in her glorious career, assumes no pride from bardic tales, or the pages of Hector Boethius. No longer is the wild romance of Geoffrey Keating, the heraldic registry of the Irish nation: its leaning, its valour, and fame, are recorded in the more durable monuments of true history. When Hibernians compare their present with their former condition; their just and equal laws, with those that were uncertain and capricious; the happy security of peace with the miseries of barbarous manners, their hearts must overflow to the Author of such blessings, nor will they deny their obligations to the fostering care of Britain, the happy instrument for conferring them. / In a work, embracing such a veriety of topics, errors will be found; the learned and candid can best estimate the difficulty of avoiding them, and the degree of indulgence they are entitled to. The Author declines hacknied apologies; in their place he begs leave to conclude with a life of an eminent poet: En adsum et veniam consessus, crimina, posse. [xi]

[Contents of the Essays page
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
X.
XI.
XII.
XIII.
XIV.
XV.
XVI.
XVII.
XVIII.
XIX.
XX.
XXI.
XXII.
XXIII.
XXIV.
XXV.
XXVI.
XXVII.
XXVIII.
XXIX.
XXX.
XXXI.
XXXII.

On the Romantic History of Ireland
Ancient Notices respecting Ireland, and its Name
Of the Colonization of Ireland
Of the Druids, and their Religion
Of the Pagan State of Ireland, and its Remains
Of the Introduclion of Christianity, and of St. Patrick
Anecdotes of early Christianity in Ireland
Origin and Progress of Monachism in Ireland
Of the Irish Culdees, and Antiquities of Monaincha
State of the Irish Church in the Eleventh Century, and after -
Of the Stone-roofed Churches, and Cormac’s Chapel
Of the Round Towers in Ireland
History and Antiquities of Glendalough
Observations on Saxon and Gothic Architecture
Of ancient Irish Coins
Observations on the Harp, and ancient Irish Music
Of ancient Irish Musical Instruments
Of the ancient Irish Dress
The Military Antiquities of Ireland
Political Constitution and Laws of the ancient Irish
On the Ogham Characters and Alphabetic Elements of the ancient Irish
A Review of Irish Literature in the middle Ages
Giraldus Cambrensis illustrated
History and Antiquities of Irishtown and Kilkenny
Appendix of Records to Irishtown and Kilkenny
Abbey and Church of Aghaboe
Abbey of Athasset
Abbey of Devenish
Chapel at Holy-Cross
Abbey of Knockmoy
Old Leighlin
Miscellaneous Antiquities

1
12
21
32
42
54
70
88
102
121
138
155
171
187
211
228
242
259
277
301
322
347
365
382
498
509
516
517
518
520
522
524
—See Google Books copy of 1804 Dublin Edition online.

Note: Antiquities of Ireland [2nd edn.] (Dublin [s.n.] 1803) - so listed in Edinburgh UL; prob. error for 1804, the standard citation for this edn. The 1797 London Edn. is also available in RSI microfilm [Eighteenth Century; Reel 7497, No. 01] (Woodbridge, CT: Research Publs. Inc. 1986), 1 reel, 35mm. The 1804 Edition is available at Google Books online [accessed 27.02.2011 - and note that the text version contains OCR errors in the subscribers’ list].

See also Timothy Heimlich, Reading Places: Local Landscapes and Transnational Culture in Romantic Britain, [PhD Diss] (UC, Berkeley 2019), which cites Ledwich, The Antiquities of Ireland. The Second Edition, with additions and corrections. To which is added, A Collection of Miscellaneous Antiquities (Dublin: John Jones 1804), in note to p.29 [at p.109]; see further under Burke > Commentary - as supra.]

[ top ]

Criticism
Donal Macartney, ‘The Writing of History in Ireland 1800-1830, in Irish Historical Studies, 10, 40 (1957), pp.347-63; Joseph Th. Leerssen, Mere Irish & Fior-Ghael: Studies in the Idea of Irish Nationality, Its Development and Literary Expression Prior to the Nineteenth Century (Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins Pub. Co. 1986), pp.403-05, 435, 424 [et passim]; Clare OHalloran, ‘“The Island of Saints and Scholars”: Views of the Early Church and Sectarian Politics in Late Eighteenth-century Ireland’,in Eighteenth-Century Ireland, V (1990), pp.7-20.

[ top ]

Commentary
Joseph Th. Leerssen, Mere Irish & Fior-Ghael: Studies in the Idea of Irish Nationality, Its Development and Literary Expression Prior to the Nineteenth Century (Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins Pub. Co. 1986), notes that Ledwich was the anti-Phoenician opponent of Vallancey and his fellow-Gaelic antiquarians [418]. O’Flanagan […] followed in the footsteps of Vallancey, and used every opportunity to denounce Edward Ledwich, Vallancey’s old adversary, as the ‘Anti-Antiquary of Ireland’ whose writings are ‘deliberately designed and barefaced falsehoods’ (O’Flanagan, ed., Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Dublin, 1808, p.227) [435].

[Leerssen - cont.]: ‘Other men, like William Beauford, Edward Ledwich, and Thomas Campbell, who like [Bishop] Percy took a more Nordic and consequently less enthusiastic view of Gaelic antiquity began to deride Vallancey’s “wild reveries” openly in his Collectanea, which consequently became less a forum for Irish antiquarianism than a bear-baiting ground.’ [403-05.] Notes that Ledwich contrasts native barbarism with English civility in the preface to his Antiquities of Ireland: ‘When Hibernians compare their present with their former condition [… &c., as infra]’ [405]. Leerssen also remarks that J. C. Walker, The Historical Memoirs of the Irish Bards stands next to Ledwich’s own Antiquities of Ireland as the work that was to remain most influential into the following century [424]. Leerssen also writes: ‘The reassertion of an anti-Gaelic and pro-British historiography was bolstered by the re-publication of Ledwich’s Antiquities of Ireland in 1804.’ [434].

Robert E. Ward & Catherine Ward, ed., Letters of Charles O’Conor (Washington 1988), ‘Mr Ledwich was complaisant enough to say that I was just in my remarks on his mistakes, and we parted well satisfied with one another [...]’ (p.419). Note that O’Conor uses the var. spelling ‘Achabo’ (p.424); see also remarks on further errors of Ledwich and Beaufort’s ‘Topography’, which appeared in the 11th vol. of Vallancey’s Collectanea [under Beaufort, q.v.].

Michael Scott, ed., Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall, Tour of Ireland, 1840 [condensed edition] (1984): Lynch and Ledwich favoured Danish origin of Irish Round Towers, the latter stooping to misrepresentation of Giraldus Cambrensis, who calls them Irish in origin (in Topographia); ‘elsewhere this inconsistent antiquarian says that Cambrensis saw the Irish in the act of building them’ (Scott, p.456).

Seamus Deane, ‘Cannon Fodder, Literary Mythologies in Ireland’, in Styles of Belonging: Cultural Diversity in Ulster, ed. Jean Lundy & Aodan Mc Poilín (Belfast: Lagan Press 1992): ‘cultural initiative was followed by 50 or 60 years of investigation before it was stopped for a moment by Edmund Ledwidge [sic, for Edward Ledwich], a Protestant archbishop, who recognised very intelligently what the political purpose of all this was’ (… &c.; note errors here and see further in Field Day Anthology, 1991, infra.)

Thomas Heimlich, Reading Places: Local Landscapes and Transnational Culture in Romantic Britain, [PhD Diss] (UC, Berkeley 2019), pp.29-30 [with lith. ill.]: ‘The symbolism of this kind of excavation of violent history is still more pronounced in Francis Grose’s Antiquities of Ireland (1795), in which a picturesque illustration of Carnew Castle in County Wicklow is made to yield gruesome evidence of anti-imperial warfare. Grose’s gloss turns the bucolic view macabre and tersely touches on the colonial source of its hidden violent past. His narration enfolds the violent source of the castle’s present appearance [29] within precise description; the reader-viewer is guided into a careful sort of looking at the castle that makes its hidden history inseparable from its physical form.

[Quotes: ‘CARNEW CASTLE ... belonged to the O’Toole’s, a powerful sept; who, secured in their fastnesses, defied for many centuries the power of the English. The castle is built of a bluish stone and good workmanship. At present there is nothing but its walls. There are turrets, on consoles, on two of the angles. In digging near the walls, the skeletons of several men where [sic.] discovered, with musket-barrels near them, some loaded, the balls of which were of the common size ’ (Grose, The Antiquities of Ireland. The Second Volume, London: M. Hooper, 1795, pp.7-8)

[Heimlich, cont.] Here, antiquarian place reading contravenes established ways of seeing in two senses: by appealing to legible evidence hidden beneath deceptively placid surfaces, it insists not only on the historicity of what otherwise might function as a seemingly timeless memento mori, but also on the lingering traces of a violent past that writers like Burke were eager to move on from. The skeletons, onetime retainers of a powerful native family and testaments to imperial violence, lurk just beneath the surface of the picturesque composition, their still-loaded muskets a potent metaphor for the enduring threat that the past poses to English dominance in the present. The aesthetically pleasing architectural features of the castle—thick walls of “good workmanship,” turrets, and so on - were originally built not to impress tourists but to fend off English invasion.’ (Heimlich, op. cit., available online; accessed 04.03.2024.)

[ top ]

Quotations

Antiquities of Ireland (1791, 1975; another edn. 1797) - Introduction printed equally in Vols. 1 & 2.
Vol. I: Preface

AFTER having so lately experienced indulgence and favour from the Public, it is with reluctance and diffidence, I again obtrude myself on their notice: a few words however seem necessary to explain my connection with this Work, and the manner in which it is executed.

When the late CAPTAIN GROSE had finished the Antiquities of ENGLAND, WALES, and SCOTLAND, he turned his eyes to IRELAND, who seemed to invite him to her hospitable shore, to save from impending oblivion her mouldering monuments, and to unite her, as she ever should be, in closest association with the British Isles. The Captain arrived in Dublin in May, 1791, with the fairest prospect of completing the noblest literary design, attempted in this Century. As I had then just published a large Collection of Essays on the remoter Antiquities of Ireland, he naturally sought my acquaintance on his coming to this City. His good sense, easy manners, and sportive hilarity, always made an instantaneous and decisive impression in his favour; I confess I was pleased and flattered by his application, and permitted him to draw freely on the little stores I possessed. But alas! Death, closed all our pleasing hopes before the end of the month, and left the world to lament the loss of the eminent abilities and social qualities of this amiable and excellent man.

The worthy and spirited Publisher, who has also paid the great debt of nature, immediately solicited my aid to carry on the work, Captain Grose having written and printed but seven pages of Descriptions. He reminded me of the promise I had made to his deceased friend, and stated the large sums he had already expended in paper and engravings; and that it would be no small instance of patriotism to stand forward on this occasion, I acquiesced; although besides the fatal interruption which this engagement gave to the History of Ireland, on the plan of Dr. Henry’s History of England, in which I had made some progress, I was [iii] well aware of the difficulty of the undertaking. Ireland, the seat of turbulence and discord for five centuries, and attached to barbarous municipal laws and usages, which occasioned a perpetual fluctuation of property, preserved, except imperfect traditions, but few memorials of her ecclesiastical and military structures: those, that survived the ruins of time and internal convulsions, being sparingly scattered in worm-eaten records, and on the pages of History. The labour of collecting these, was greater than those who have not made the experiment, will believe and after all, for the reasons assigned, the result was by no means satisfactory: I speak particularly of the history of our Castles. Imperfect as these accounts are, they will be found of some value to the Antiquary and Historian, while they open an untrodden path to future and more successful Inquirers.

In the introduction to the Pagan and Monastic Antiquities, I have, in a great measure, abridged what I before gave in the Essays, because my most careful researches supplied nothing more apposite or authentic; the Introduction to the Military Antiquities never before appeared. Prefixed to the succeeding volume will be an historical account of our antient architecture and sepulchral monuments. To conclude, I beg leave to join my most grateful acknowledgements, with those of the Publisher, to the Right Honourable WILLIAM CONYNGHAM, who, with unexampled munificence, generosity, and patriotism, bestowed his noble collection of drawings for the use of this work, and at the same time indulged me with free access to his magnificent library, abounding in valuable MSS and books on this subject. The following beautiful views are the truest panegyric on his taste, and love of the arts.

Ante oculos interque manus sunt omnia vestras - Virgil;

 
Vol. I: An Introduction to the Pagan Antiquities of Ireland
Celtic or Druidic Antiquities

POWERFULLY aided by learning and criticism, Antiquities have become an interesting and valuable study: they seem, at present, to have advanced to a greater degree of accuracy and utility than at any ancient or modern period. Minuter attention has been paid to Chronology, to method and discrimination, than heretofore; and to these are probably to be ascribed the successful conclusion of very difficult investigations. When we behold such accomplished writers as Pelloutier, Mallet, and Bruker, lamenting the wild chaos of ancient history, and torturing their ingenuity to reconcile contradictory opinions, we are grieved at the loss of time and erudition, which a few happy distin&tions would have saved.

Though the ancients are far from being accurate in their accounts of uncivilized nations, and particularly confound Celtic. and Scythic practices, we are yet able to approximate the truth, and from a few surviving rays discover the path in the gloom of remote times. [i] The primæval possessors of Ireland were (a) Celtes, who arrived here in an age far beyond the reach of history or conjecture.— Their language, as to its matter and form, was peculiarly their own, and pointed them out as a distinct people. It is strange that ingenious men should stumble at the entrance of these enquiries, and not perceive this self-evident truth, that a difference of language always includes a difference in manners and religion: this is a clue which conducts to the shortest, easiest, and most certain way for discovering the remote Antiquities of Nations.

Druidism was professed by all the Celtic tribes. Its leading feature, as might be expected from a people who received their appellation from their sylvan life, was a veneration for, and a celebration of sacred rites in oaken groves. The concurrent testimony of antient writers, more valid than the childish guesses of modern etymologists or hypothetic reasoning, gives decisive evidence of this fact. Saronides is the name of the Druidic priests in Diodorus Siculus, and is derived from their attachment to the oak. Of the Druids, Lucan sings:

—Nemora alta remotis,
Incolitis lucis.

Pliny, at some length, informs us, they held nothing more sacred than the oak, and from their devotion to it received their name. Tacitus, alluding to the Astii and other Celtic tribes remaining in Germany in his time, says, they thought it unlawful to restrain the immortal gods within walls, or make images of them, but that they consecrated woods and groves to religion.

Few surviving remains can be expected of a people, overwhelmed, so many centuries ago, by a numerous and exterminating swarm of barbarians. Where the Celtes were more numerous than the Scythians their invaders, there more traces of Celtism, as in England and Ireland, are to be found: on the contrary, nothing but Scythism is to be seen on the Continent. A few instances of the {iii}

[Ftn.] (a) The Author begs leave to refer, once for all, to his former Work, The Antiquities Ireland, Dublin, 1790, where the proofs of what is advanced in this Introduction are found: where such proofs do not occur, they are here set down.

[...]

Vol. II: An Introduction to the Ancient Irish Architecture

To look for the arts of peace and civilized life among fierce and roving Barbarians, is a striking instance of mental imbecility. Could a people, like the Irish in remote ages, who protected themselves: from the inelemency of seasons in the gloom of caves,* or beneath the umbrage of forests — who were clothed: with the skins of ani- mals — who- were without commerce,. and whose greatest mechanical exertion was the fabrication of a stone hatchet, or stone f pear-head could they form durable structures, or participate in the comforts of domestication? It is absurd to suppose it. And yet there are Irish Antiquaries, whose quixotism and ignorance are so great (sheltering themselves indeed under the flimsy: plea of patriotism) as to affirm, that we had magnificent palaces in this isle above two thou- sand years ago, wherein regal splendor, elegance and etiquette were conspicuously displayed; and that the court of Tarah continued to {ii} throw a lustre on Irish Monarchy to the year of our Lord, four hundred and twenty-seven.

*The Author begs leave to refer to The Antiquities of Ireland, published by him in Dublin in 1790 [sic], for the proofs of what is advanced in this Introduction: when omitted: there, they are here set down. {ii}


WHERE are the proofs? If any, they a are to be found in the rhapsodies of Bards and Seanachies of the 16th century ; for the internal evidence of the language, with the ideas and practices of that period, decisively mark the æra of their composition. I love my country, and am interested deeply in her honour ; but I never will sacrifice common sense, truth, and my own reputation, at the shrine of popular prejudices. Such facrifices, often and liberally made, have degraded our national understanding and national an- tiquities in the eyes of Europe. It is time to burst the fascinating illusions of romantic fables, and calmly behold our country, rude indeed in its infant state, but in this respe& not more degraded than the proudest monarchies of Europe or Asia. Where our antiquities are supported by authentic records and existing monuments, it may be said with confidence, that they are as curious and valuable as those of any other country. The formation of the Irish alphabet, the analogy and etymology of the language, the state of our litera- ture, from the sixth to the ninth century, our round towers and stone-roofed crypts, the origin and progress of Christianity in Ire- land, our ancient laws and coins, our {kill in metallurgy, the la- pidary's and goldsmith's arts, with the remains of our primitive superstition, all soliciting our attention and illustration by monu- ments every where to be found, are topics which would abundantly exercise the ingenuity and erudition of the philologer, grammarian, architect, theologian, and antiquary.

LITERARY memorials testify, that the progress of architecture among the Irish kept pace with their civilization. The Celtes, the primeval inhabitants, were, as their name indicates, woodlanders: in groves and forests they found houses, food, and security. Occupied in the chace, and supported by the spontaneous produce of the earth ; and above all, living as hunters ever do, in families, and {iii} these widely dispersed, they never dreamed off stone edifices,- or felt the want of them. They had their pallice “ or peillice, a temporarx booth or tent, made- of earth- and- branches' of trees; and covered: by the skins of beasts. These were nearly the same as the Shealin, the extemporaneous hut of the Scottish Highlanders.

The Firbolgs, or Belgic colonies, who succeeded the Celtes; were a very different and more improved people. Like their brethren in Germany, they dwelled a great part of the year either in natural or artificial Souterrains: the number of the latter discovered - in Ireland, evinces, that they well knew how to form antrile cham- bers of dry stones, and cover them with long projecting flags. In these the Firbolgian Priests instructed their disciples, and practised divination; and they always adjoined their stone temples, as at Roscarbury, Killofly, and many other places. At length they became the Cemeteries of illustrious chiefs and warriors, and as at New Grange, had conical. mounts raised over them, surrounded at top and bottom by circles of pondrous uprights; Skilled in the manipulation of metals, the Firbolgs could easily have squared and polished wood and stone, and erected neat and convenient houses; but: their rude state of society prevented the proper i an cation of their knowledge.

At the arrival of the Christian Mifffoners, the Irish had emerged from their subterraneous recesses, and inhabited houses of wood.

Then commenced the Irish style of building: The learned reader will probably smile at this ufe and application of the term, STYLE; but he will find it-not capricioussy adopted, but founded in fact. Palladius, in four hundred and thirty-one, erected three wooden Oratories. Concubran, describing the old chapel of St. Monenna, at Kilslive, in the county of Armagh, A. D. 630, tells it was made of smoothed timber, according: to the. Irifh fashion; “juxla morem [iii] Scotticarum gentium.”

* O’Brien’s Irish Dict. in voce 422.

[...]

[On Glendalough:] SAMUEL Hayes, Esq. Representative in Parliament for the borough of Wicklow, searching, a few years ago, among the ruins of Glendaloch, not far from his beautiful seat of Avondale, fortunately difcovered a fmall arched chapel, of which there was no memory, it having been buried for ages under the ruins of a neighbouring church. Its western portal and only entrance was adorned with sculptures, and the room, about 14 feet by 10, was almost entirely occupied by the tomb. of St. Kevin, the Patron of Glendaloch. Mr. Hayes, who to the finest understanding, improved by elegant and useful learning, joins a most perfect knowledge of ancient and modern architecture and love of antiquities, felt the strongest emotions of pleafure on this difcovery ; he carefully collected the sculptures, made accurate drawings of them, and most obligingly communicated them to me. (vi)

[...]

See longer extracts from Antiquities of Ireland (Vol. I: 1791, Vol. II: 1795) - as attached.

Scraps

Antiquities of Ireland (1791), Preface to Vol. I: ‘I was well aware of the difficulty of the undertaking. Ireland, the seat of turbulence and discord for five centuries, and attached to barbarous municipal laws and usage, which occasioned a perpetual fluctuation of property, […] preserved […] but few memorials of her ecclesiastical and military structures: those that survived […] being sparingly scattered in worm-eaten records […]’. (Q.p., Cited in De Burca Catalogue, 44, 1997, p.23.)

Antiquities of Ireland (1791), Preface to Vol. I: ‘When Hibernians compare their present with their former condition; their just and equal laws, with those that were uncertain and capricious; the happy security of peace with the miseries of barbarous manners, their hearts must overflow to the Author of such blessings, nor will they deny their obligations to the fostering care of Britain, the happy instrument for conferring them.’ (2nd edn. [1804], p.[iv]; quoted in Joep Leerssen, op. cit., 1986, p.405.)

Antiquities of Ireland (1804 Edn.)
“On the Romantic History of Ireland”

‘[...] Our mythologists [Keating, p.18-46] inform us that three Spanish fishermen arrived here before the flood, and soon after that awful event, the Formoraigh or Africans [Keating, p.11] subdued the Isle, or others from the continent of Africa frequently visited it, and that it was finally colonized by [the Milesians]

Pinkerton has the following curious note: “Nennius knew nothing of Milesius, but only mentions Miles quidem Hispanus, a certain Spanish soldier. Of this Miles the Irish made Milesius, as of Julius Caesar they made Caesara, Noah’s neice.” [History of Scotland, V, a, p.6.] Milesius, a Spaniard. Nennius relates that these Spaniards in their voyage saw a tower of glass, which endeavouring to take, they were drowned in the attempt. This tower is a sure mark of an oriental fancy, and [3] similar to the tower of glass, said to be built by Ptolemy, and Boyardo’s wall of glass made by an African magician, and the pillars of Hercules erected on magical looking glasses.

The Milesians, when they landed, had various battles [Keating, p.55] with the Tuatha de Danans, a nation of enchanters and magicians, whom they at length subdued by superior skill and bravery.

In our Legends the same spirit of romantic fiction abounds. [...]’ (Ledwich, op. cit., pp.3-4.)

Source: These excerpts appear to be copied from Joseph Th. Leerssen, Mere Irish & Fior-Ghael: Studies in the Idea of Irish Nationality, [...] (1986) - using the 1804 edition which contains some alterations from the former edition of 1791. The later edition does not appear to be available on internet. [BS]


“Monastic Antiquities of Ireland”, in Antiquities of Ireland, Vol. 1 (1791)—

WHEN the English obtained firm footing in this Isle, their piety set them on constructing many magnificent fabricks, whose noble remains at this day evince their pristine extent and splendour. The Cistertian order, from its wealth and possessions, procured for its abbots ſeats in the national council.

[Here lists 24 monastic foundations in two columns.] [p.xv]

The researches of a late learned and excellent antiquarian, the Rev. Mr. Archdall, discovered eleven hundred and eighty-eight monastic foundations, including chantries, formerly existing in this kingdom. His indefatigable industry, since the publication of his Monasticon Hibernicum, has brought to light some hundreds more; state the amount to be fourteen hundred, that gave above forty-three monastic houses for each of the thirty-two counties in the isle. Amid this apparent diffusion of external sanctity and learning, the grossest ignorance and superstition prevailed, the worst civil policy, and as the result of both, barbarous and savage manners; no internal manufactures or foreign trade: when one of our smallest abbies, Monaincha, had above five hundred acres of arable and pasture, with the right of tithes and many advowsons, and the whole worth but forty shillings, in the year 1568, we may form some estimate of what must have been the public revenue, political strength, and real civilization of Ireland, while its religious establishments procured it the appellation of the Island of Saints. Providence, therefore, could not confer a more signal favour on this wretched nation than in bringing about the reformation of religion, and the dissolution of monasteries, which were effected A.D. 1339. The same rule was observed here as in England. The great abbots surrendered upon pensions, and monkish lands were given to different persons for various considerations, as for services, or sums of money, to be held in capite or soccage: in one case a rent was reserved, but none in the other. In Harris’s edition of Ware’s Antiquities, an imperfect account of the grantees and assignees are given. A diligent perusal of our records, would supply ample materials for an history of the reformation in Ireland; a subject extremely curious and interesting, yet passed over in strange neglect by all our writers. [End Intro.]

pp.xv-xvi; available at Internet Archive - online.

[ top ]

References
Dictionary of National Biography also lists Thomas Hawkesworth Ledwich (1823-1858), anatomist, a grandson of the above and author of The Anatomy of the Human Body (1852) with his br. Dr. Edward Ledwich; succeeded Sir Philip Crampton as surgeon at Meath Hospital. DIW follows ODNB. RAF, b.1737 or 1738; collaborated with Vallancey and Walker [err.]; 2nd ed. Antiquities (1790, 1804).

Patrick Rafroidi, Irish Literature in English: The Romantic Period, 1789-1850 (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe 1980), Vol 1, contains bare reference to Antiquities of Ireland (1790), viz.: ‘James Stuart (1764-1840?) wrote a History of Armagh (1819) which includes a ‘refutation of the opinions of Dr. Ledwich concerning the non-existence of St. Patrick’ [under Stuart].

Seamus Deane, gen. ed., The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 3, quotes remarks in Oliver MacDonagh, States of Mind, 1983): ‘Modern Irish historiography was born in 1790 with the publication of Rvd Edward Ledwich’s Antiquities of Ireland. Ostensibly, Ledwich wrote as an enlightenment man, bent on dissipating by eighteenth-century sunlight what he called the bardic fictions which had enveloped early Irish history. In fact, as the subsequent controversies about his work revealed, he was signalling the fact that the Irish past had become an additional arena for current Irish political conflict. His real target was rising papists like Charles O’Connor [sic for O’Conor] and Thomas Wyse, founders of the Catholic Committee in 1760, who had combined agitation for Catholic relief with attempts to preserve the traditional Gaelic culture […;] with warm encouragement of] Anglo-Irish liberals [of the RIA] using the remote past to support their claims to social and civic parity […] Ledwich however thought he had seen through the upstarts design in canvassing pre-conquest Ireland. He was not deceived as to their ulterior purpose. He had discerned a dangerous association of Gaelic, Catholic and radical political views, and was proceeding to take his counter-measures. The Antiquities of Ireland was the opening shot of a campaign’. [619-20] (See also Deane, ‘Cannon Fodder, Literary Mythologies in Ireland’, in Styles of Belonging [...], ed. Lundy & Mac Poilín, 1992 - supra, and Deane’s remarks under Charles O’Conor, infra.)

British Library holds The Antiquities of Ireland, edited and mostly written by E. Ledwich, 2 vol. (London: S. Hooper 1791, 1797). 4o.; Do. [second edn.] (Dublin: Printed for the Author 1790). 526pp., 4o., and Do. (Dublin: J. Jones 1804). 4o. [Contribs. to Vallancey’s Collectanea incl.] Inquiries concerning the ancient Irish Harp: A letter […] on the style of the ancient Irish Music; [7] Some observations on Irish Antiquities with a particular application of them to the Ship temple near Dundalk Vol. 3 (1786). 8o.; The history and antiquities of Irishtown and Kilkenny [n.details]; A Statistical Account of the Parish of Aghaboe, in the Queen’s County. Ireland, etc. Dublin: Archer 1796), vi, 95pp., 8o.; An essay on the study of Irish Antiquities - A Dissertation on the Round Towers in Ireland. Memoirs of Dunamase and Shean Castle, in the Queen’s County. History and antiquities of Irishtown and Kilkenny. [With an appendix.]; Antiquitates Sarisburienses, etc. [by E. L.]; Historical Memoirs of the City of Armagh, for a period of 1373 years; comprising a considerable portion of the general history of Ireland, a refutation of the opinions of Dr. Ledwich, respecting the non-existence of St. Patrick; and an appendix on the learning, antiquities, and religion of the Irish Nation, with addenda and plates (Newry 1819), 651pp., 8o.

COPAC lists:

1] The antiquities of Ireland [Grose’s antiquities] (London : Printed for S. Hooper 1791-97), 2 vols., ill. [plans]; 30 cm. [note: Grose's name on t.p. of Vol. 1 only; completed and publ. by Edward Ledwich after his death, having ‘written and printed but seven pages of description,’ (Preface, Vol. I, p.[iii]]. [T.p. of Vol. cites S. Hooper and dates MDCCXCI [1791] but cites M. Cooper as the publisher and author of the Dedication to Right Honourable Lord Conyngham [...] a Lord of the Treasury of Ireland.]

2] The antiquities of Ireland : a supplement to Francis Grose [by] Daniel Grose [1766-1838], ed. & intro. by Roger Stalley (Dublin: Irish Architectural Archive 1991), xxiv, 214pp., ill. (some col.) [28cm.] [Note: previously unknown supplement to Antiquities of Ireland, 1791-95; incls. bibl. refs. pp.213-14.]

3] The antiquities of Ireland: by Francis Grose Esqr: F. A. S. The first volume [Eighteenth Century Collections Online] (London: printed for Hooper & Wigstead No. 212, High Holborn MDCCXCVII. [1797]), 2 vols., ill. [plates] [Note: Edited and for the most part written by Edward Ledwich; Pref. dated [18 Jan.] 1794; engraved t.ps.; setting of 1791 edn. [i.e. 1795?].

[ Note that the Antiquities of Ireland is generally 1790 in common sources when it is attributed to Edward Ledwich with corresponding bibliographical details from library and booksellers" catalogues. ]

Internet Archive holds:
The Antiquities of Ireland, Vol. 1 (1791) [online]; Do., Vol. 2 (1791) [online]; Do., Vol. 1 (1797) [online]; Do., Vol. 2 (1797) [online]

COPAC lists Antiquities of Ireland (Dublin: Printed for Arthur Grueber [No.59 Dame Street] 1790), v, [3],184, [1], 184-473, [13]pp., 39 pls., front. engraved title-page & 37 numbered plates by W. Beauford, A. Cooper, A. Chearnley, Geo. Holmes, S. Hayes, W.L., and R.G., engraved by J. Ford; ded. to Rev. Charles Coote; also The antiquities of Ireland By Francis Grose Esqr. F.A.S Publisher: London: Printed for S. Hooper MDCCXCI-MDCCXCV [1791-95], 2 fol. vols., plates & plans [Grose’s name does not appear on title-page of Vol. 2; Pref Vol. 2, ‘Printed for M. Hooper’]; Statistical Account of the Parish of Aghaboe in the Queen’s County, Ireland (Dublin: G. Bonham & J. Archer 1796), vi, 95pp., 3pp. pls (1 folded): ill., map.

COPAC also lists a copy of Bibliotheca ittigiana, cum indice alphabetico. Cujus haec prior pars libros theologicos ... continens, die XIII seqq. Julii an. M DCC XI. Pars vero posterior libros philosophicos ... comprehendens post festum Michaelis demum die XIX seqq. Octobris, anni ejusdem Lipsiae in aedibus ittigianis praesenti pecunia pluris licitantibus cedet ([Lipsiae]: apud haeredes Tarnovii [1711]), 8° - of which Edward Ledwich was a former owner - held in Durham UL.

University of Ulster Library (Morris Collection) holds Antiquities of Ireland (Dublin: Printed for A. Grueber 1790) 473pp., and Antiquities of Ireland [i.e., Grose’s Antiquities], Vol. 1 (1791), Vol. 2 (1797).

De Burca Catalogue, 44 (1997), lists Antiquities of Ireland [by Francis Grose; ed. by Ledwich], 2 vols. ([printed for] S. Hooper 1791), fol., 250 pls. ALSO, The Antiquities of Ireland. Two volumes. London, Hooper, 1797. Pages (1) iv, viii, xlviii, [8], 88, 138 (plates) (2) iv, vi, [2], xiii, 98,122pp., with pls.; large 4o. [£650]. Quotes from the Preface [of Vol. I]: ‘I was well aware of the difficulty of the undertaking. Ireland, the seat of turbulence and discord for five centuries, and attached to barbarous municipal laws and usage, which occasioned a perpetual fluctuation of property, […] preserved […] but few memorials of her ecclesiastical and military structures: those that survived […] being sparingly scattered in worm-eaten records […]’. (De Burca, p.23.)

BELFAST LIBRARIES
Belfast Central Public Library holds The Antiquities of Ireland (London 1791), with Edward Ledwich. Belfast Linenhall Library holds Antiquities of Ireland [1790].

[ top ]


Notes
Bishop Percy: Ledwich informed Bishop Thomas Percy (of Reliques of Ancient English Poetry fame), in a letter of 12 Nov. 1796, that two Dublin editions of his Antiquities of Ireland had sold 2,300 copies. (Cited in Richard Cargill Cole, Irish Booksellers and English Writers, 1740-1800, 1986, p.18.)

No St. Patricks?: Ledwich is made the particular target of attacks in Anon. [pres. Patrick Lynch, q.v.], Life of St Patrick (Dublin: Fitzpatrick [printer to RC College, Maynooth] 1810), where his denial of the probable existence of St. Patrick and general hostility to the Irish annalists and historians attracts vituberative comments on his work, Eccles. History, which like Lot’s wife, is said to exist ‘as a monument to the author’s disgrace’ on account of the ‘venom he vents on Keating, O’Flaherty, O’Connor [sic], Vallancy’ [p.14]. Note that Ledwich is also rebuked for his denial of St. Patrick in James Wills, Lives of Illustrious and Distinguished Irishmen (1839), Vol. 1, p.70 [Thoemmes Facs. Rep. Edn. 6 vols., 1997].

Ordinance Survey: John O’Donovan found the doorway only of Our Lady’s Church in Glendalough still standing and regretted that Ledwich, who saw it intact, had not given a fuller description. (“Irishman’s Diary”, Irish Times, q.d., 2001.)

Kith & kin: His grandson was Thomas Hawkesworth Ledwich (1823-58), a distinguished surgeon and author of works incl. The descriptive and surgical anatomy of the inguinal and femoral regions, considered in relation to hernia (London: Fannin & Co 1884), 92pp., 8o.; The practical and descriptive Anatomy of the Human Body [2nd edn.] rev. and enl. by T.H. Ledwich (Dublin 1852), 12o., and Do. [3rd edn.] (Dublin: 1864), 8o., and Do. [?new edn.] (Dublin 1877). 8o.

Hedgeward Ledwich?: Linde Lunney writes in the RIA Dictionary of Irish Biography (2009) that Edward Ledwich Jnr. was first educated by a Mr Shiels beforing entering Trinity College, Dublin, in 1755. It is possible that Shiel was a Catholic - as his family name might suggest - and therefore a teacher in the tradition of the Irish hedge-schools rather than the English grammar-schools in Ireland. If so, that significantly complicated Ledwich"s interest in demolishing the credit of the Catholic church in Ireland in his subsequent writings. (See Lundy, ‘Edward Ledwich’, in Dict. of Irish Biog. - online.)

Richard Ryan: Ryan’s Biographia Hibernica, or a Dictionary of Irish Biography, 2 vols. (1819-21) does not include a life of Ledwich but does begin with prefatory remarks on the art of biography and its place in national life.

‘Biography is of all narratives the most valuable. The revolutions of empires would be but a fairy tale to us, if they were not capable of supplying additional principles for our knowledge of human nature. Biography, like all things else, becomes more important as the influence of its subjects has been more extensive; for the future fates of a nation are made by its character, and its character is made by its celebrated men. But the deepest and holiest interest is thrown round Biography, when it is appealed to as the vindicator of an unhappy people; when the fallen are forced to bring in the dead to plead their cause, and find their only trophies in the tomb.’ (Preface, Biog. Hib., Vol. I, 1819, p.iv; see See full copy in RICORSO > Library > Criticism > History > Legacy - via index, or as attached.)

By coincidence or otherwise, Ledwich’s study of the “Lives of the Bishops of Salisbury” in Antiq. Salisburienses (1771; 2nd. edn. 1779) also commences with remarks about biography - as follows: ‘Biography, though a study affording much entertainment and solid instruction, has been by no means cultivated in the manner it deserved; The soil is far from being barren, and the labour by no means of a disagreeable kind. The present and last ages have exerted a laudable industry, in rescuing from Oblivion the actions and merits of many eminent men ...’ (n.p.; available online.)

[ top ]