shortly afterwards made fellow of his college. After several years' residence, he accepted a curacy at Ashbrittle, Somerset, and was afterwards presented with the living of Widdecombe, Devonshire. While there he married. He died near Tiverton, where he was visiting, on 22 May 1815.
After leaving Cambridge he devoted his time to the study of classical and early Christian history, and acquired considerable reputation among scholars. In 1814 he published ‘The History of Tiberius, that incomparable monarch’ (London, 1814, 8vo), a learned work vindicating the character of the Emperor Tiberius. ‘The main object of the work is to prove that Tiberius was a convert to Christianity, and a great patron of it; and, moreover, that the unfavourable character given of Tiberius by Suetonius, Tacitus, and Dion was occasioned entirely by the partiality which the emperor displayed towards the Christians’ (Gent. Mag. 1815, ii. 87). He further attempts to prove that Strabo was the father of Sejanus. Rendle was the author of several papers on biblical criticism in the ‘Orthodox Churchman's Magazine.’
[Gent. Mag. 1815, ii. 86; Dict. of Living Authors, 1816, p. 291.]
RENDLE, WILLIAM (1811–1893), antiquary, son of William Rendle of Polperro, near Fowey, Cornwall, who married, 7 May 1810, Mary, daughter of William and Dorothy Johns of the same place, was born at the village of Millbrook, Cornwall, 18 Feb. 1811. He was trained by his parents in the principles of Wesleyanism. When little more than four he was brought by his father to Southwark in a trader from Fowey, taking six weeks on the passage (Notes and Queries, 7th ser. ii. 201–2). He was educated at the British and Foreign training school, Borough Road, Southwark, and afterwards became its honorary surgeon. When he determined upon a medical career, he was sent to Guy's Hospital, and to the medical school of Edward Grainger [q. v.] in Webb Street, Maze Pond, Southwark.
Rendle passed as L.S.A. in 1832 and M.R.C.S. of England in 1838, and in 1873 he became F.R.C.S. For nearly fifty years he practised in Southwark, and from 1856 to 1859 he was medical officer of health for the parish of St. George the Martyr, Southwark. He lived at Treverbyn, Forest Hill, and died there on 18 Sept. 1893, leaving issue four sons and one daughter.
Rendle was deeply interested in the borough of Southwark, and engaged in laborious researches into its history. His chief works are: ‘Old Southwark and its People’ (1878), and ‘The Inns of Old Southwark and their Associations’ (1888), the last volume being the joint labour of Rendle and Philip Norman, F.S.A., who revised and rearranged the manuscript materials, drew the more important illustrations, and superintended the publication (Notes and Queries, 7th ser. xi. 225). Both works contain much original information. Rendle contributed historical sketches to ‘Etchings of Old Southwark, and a paper on the Bankside, Southwark, and the Globe playhouse to Harrison's ‘Description of England’ for the New Shakspere Society,’ pt. ii. app. i. (1877). The last essay was expanded by him in articles in the ‘Antiquarian Magazine,’ vols. ii., vii., and viii. He contributed to the ‘Antiquary’ (vols. xvii., xix., and xx.) papers of ‘Reminiscences,’ chiefly on Southwark, ‘Early Hospitals of Southwark,’ and ‘Records of St. Thomas's Hospital.’ Articles by him on three Southwark residents—John Harvard, Alleyn, and Henslowe—and on the puritan migration to New England, appeared in the ‘Genealogist,’ vols. i., ii., and iv. of the new series, and in ‘Notes and Queries,’ 7th ser. ii. 401, 442. Many of them were issued separately, that on John Harvard being somewhat amplified in the reproduction (cf. Athenæum, 11 July and 24 Oct. 1885, and 16 Jan. 1886).
[Boase and Courtney's Bibl. Cornub. iii. 1324; Boase's Collectanea Cornub. pp. 187, 793–4.]
RENEHAN, LAURENCE (1797–1857), president of Maynooth College, second son of Laurence Renehan and of Catherine (Borden), was born in 1797 at Longford Pass in the parish of Gurtnahoe, Tipperary. He was educated first at Freshfield, and afterwards at Kilkenny. In September 1819 he entered Maynooth College to study logic, and in 1825 was elected a Dunboyne student. On 15 Sept. of the same year he was appointed junior dean, and a few weeks later was ordained priest. On 27 July 1827 he was elected professor of scripture, and he held this chair till June 1834, when he reluctantly accepted the post of vice-president. From 4 June 1841 to 24 June 1843 he also filled the office of bursar, and succeeded in extricating the college from financial difficulties. In 1845, on the resignation of the Very Rev. Michael Montague, Renehan became president of Maynooth, retaining the position until his death on 27 July 1857. He made a large collection of records in connection with Irish ecclesiastical history, which he bequeathed to Maynooth College. They are now known as the Renehan MSS., and were partly
