Lindesay, Thomas (DNB00)
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LINDESAY, THOMAS (1656–1724), archbishop of Armagh, son of John Lindesay, vicar of Blandford in Dorset, and reputed to be the last representative of the Lindsays of Kinnettles, was born at Blandford in 1656, and was educated probably at Blandford grammar school, where William Wake, afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, was his schoolfellow. He was admitted a commoner of Wadham College, Oxford, on 12 July 1672; became a scholar in 1673, and fellow in 1679; graduating B.A. in 1676, M.A. 1678, B.D. and D.D. 1693. He was rector of Woolwich from 1692 to 1695, but in June 1693 went to Ireland as chaplain to Lord Capel of Tewkesbury, one of the lords justices of that kingdom. Here he was promoted by the crown (the see of Dublin being vacant) to the deanery of St. Patrick's, Dublin, 6 Feb. 1693, and on 2 March 1695 he was consecrated bishop of Killaloe, was translated to Raphoe in May 1713, and to the archbishopric of Armagh (as successor to Narcissus Marsh [q. v.]) in January of the next year. Lindesay was a benefactor to his cathedral of Armagh, to which he gave an estate for the maintenance of the choir. His private charity was very great. Swift was among his friends. He died unmarried in Dublin, 13 July 1724, and was buried in the crypt of Christ Church Cathedral. Hearne describes Lindesay as a man of good parts, but little or no learning, and ‘of loose life but ready wit’ (Coll., Oxf. Hist. Soc., i. 187, ii. 49). A portrait was in the palace at Armagh. A sermon preached ‘before the Anniversary Meeting of the Dorsetshire Gentlemen in the Church of St. Mary Le Bow, London, on 1 Nov. 1691,’ was published (London, 1692).
[Gardiner's Wadham College, p. 296; Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss; Foster's Alumni Oxon. 1500–1714, s.n. ‘Lyndesay;’ Monck Mason's St. Patrick's Cath. Dubl. bk. ii. pp. 213 seq.; Cotton's Fasti Eccl. Hib. iii. 23; Mant's Church of Ireland, ii. 299 sq.; Lindsay's Lives of the Lindsays, ii. 283–4.]
