John Lodge

Life
1692-1774; archivist; ed. Cambridge, MA 1730; Deputy Keeper of the Bermingham Tower Records; later Deputy Keeper of the Rolls, 1759; chief work, The Peerage of Ireland, 4 vols. (1754) [var. 5], published with 330 subscribers, and reissued in 1789 with additions by Mervyn Archdall; nearly all the records consulted by Lodge were destroyed in the Four Courts in 1922; also Desiderata curiosa Hibernia (1772). ODNB.

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Works
  • The Peerage of Ireland: or, A Genealogical history of the Present Nobility of that Kingdom Collected from Public Records by John Lodge, 4 vols. (London: William Johnston 1754), pls. (coats of arms), 4°; Do. [microfiche version] (Fort Collins, Colorado: Andrew J. Morris, ?1989.)
  • The Peerage of Ireland: or, A Genealogical History of the Present Nobility of that Kingdom / by John Lodge; revised, enlarged and continued to the present time by Mervyn Archdall, 7 vols. (London: printed for G. G. J. & J. Robinson 1789), pls., 8°., and Do. [another edn.], John Lodge, Esq. The Peerage of Ireland, or A Genealogical History of the Present Nobility of that Kingdom. With Engravings of their paternal Coats of Arms. Collected from the Public Records; authentic manuscripts; approved Historians; well-attested Pedigrees; and personal Information. Revised, enlarged, and continued to the present time by Mervyn Archdall, Rector of Slane. With list of subscribers. 7 vols. (Dublin: Moore 1789).

Note: Lodge made abstracts from 16th & 17th-century Patent Rolls, the Convert Rolls - 1703-72, Ecclesiastical Appointments 1660-1775, and Articles with Irish Chiefs in the 16th century, &c. His manuscripts are described in the 55th Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Dublin Records (1928), pp.116-22.

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References
De Burca Books (Cat. No. 44, 1997), lists The Peerage of Ireland [… &c.; as supra], recent full buckram; Earl of Shannon’s copy with his label on the f.e.p.; v. good; v. scarce [£1,250]; first published as Peerage of Ireland, 4 vols. (1754). [See Notes, infra.]

Belfast Central Public Library holds Peerage of Ireland 7 vols. (1789).

Belfast Linenhall Library holds Lodge, John, Peerage of Ireland, 4 vols. Dublin (1754); revised M. Archdall, 7 vols. (1789).

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Quotations
The Peerage of Ireland: A Genealogical History of the Present Nobility of that Kingdom (Dublin: Moore 1789); introduction states: ‘The work then, in itself, is the History of all the noble Families, which, at present, compose the Peerage of Ireland, together with those of their descendants, whether exciting or extinct, and, as many of their ancestors, from time to time have had a notable share in the government and transactions of the kingdom, the history thereof, so far as they were engaged, naturally fell within my intended compass, and is faithfully stated’.

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Notes
De Burca Books (Cat. 44; 1997): Charles O’Conor calls Lodge as ‘a very diligent, as well as able, antiquarian’; see also Dr. Reeves: ‘In the department of Genealogy he was the most distinguished compiler that Ireland has produced’. Mervyn Archdall is to Lodge, what Harris was to Ware, in as much as he revised and greatly expanded the work from four to seven volumes taking four years to complete his edition; many of Lodge's valuable notes were left in cipher, and the credit for decoding them lies with Mrs. Archdall, a remarkable woman, who enabled her husband to carry out his extension of this work; Mr. Rowley Lascelles in his compilation of the Liber Munerum drew largely from John Lodge’s collection of manuscripts of the Patent and Close Rolls.’ (p.34.)

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