In consequence of ill-health, which distressed him through life, he was transferred to the country mission of Slindon, Sussex (the seat of the Newburgh family), where he remained for two or three years. In 1824 he became the chaplain of Bernard Edward Howard, twelfth duke of Norfolk [q. v.], and from that time forward he resided at Arundel. He now had ample leisure to devote to historical and antiquarian studies. On 7 Feb. 1833 he was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and on 25 July 1841 a fellow of the Royal Society. He was also a corresponding member of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. On the formation of the Sussex Archæological Society in 1846 he became its local secretary, and in 1850 he also joined the committee. He supervised many papers for the society, and contributed in 1849 to vol. iii. of its ‘Proceedings’ ‘Notices of Recent Excavations in the Collegiate Church of Arundel,’ and in 1860 to vol. xii. ‘An Account of the Discovery of the Remains of John, seventeenth earl of Arundel.’
For many years he was a member of the ancient chapter of England, and when the diocese of Southwark was erected by Pope Pius IX in 1852, he became the first canon penitentiary of the cathedral chapter. Throughout life he was an opponent of Cardinal Wiseman and of undue interference on the part of the pope. He died at Arundel on 19 Feb. 1862, and was buried in the Fitzalan chapel. He left all his manuscripts to Thomas Grant [q. v.], bishop of Southwark, but his printed books were sold by Sotheby & Co., 1–4 Dec. 1862.
Tierney's chief work was a new edition of the Rev. Charles Dodd's ‘Church History of England … chiefly with regard to Catholics … with notes, additions, and a continuation,’ 5 vols. London, 1839–43, 8vo. Tierney's edition is unfortunately incomplete, ending with the year 1625, and no portion of the projected continuation appeared. Most of the documents printed in the valuable notes to this edition were collected by John Kirk, D.D. [q. v.], of Lichfield. Tierney contributed a ‘Life of Dr. John Lingard’ to the ‘Metropolitan and Provincial Catholic Almanac,’ 1854, which was afterwards prefixed to vol. x. of the sixth edition of Lingard's ‘History of England,’ London, 1855, 8vo, and aided largely in Dallaway's ‘History of the Western Division of Sussex.’
Tierney also published: 1. ‘Letter to the King on Catholic Emancipation,’ 1825. 2. ‘Correspondence between the Hon. and Rev. E. J. Turnour on Charges against the Catholic Religion,’ Chichester, 1830. 3. ‘The History and Antiquities of the Castle and Town of Arundel,’ with plates, London, 1834, 4to. 4. ‘Correspondence between the Messrs. Bodenham and the Rev. M. A. Tierney,’ relating to a conversation about the Jesuits, privately printed (London), 1840, 8vo. 5. ‘A Letter to G. Chandler, D.C.L., Dean of Chichester … containing some remarks on his sermon preached in the Cathedral Church of Chichester … on the occasion of publicly receiving into the Church a convert from the Church of Rome,’ London, 1844, 8vo. 6. ‘Reply to Cardinal Wiseman's Letter to his Chapter,’ 42 pp. (1858), 8vo; this was carefully suppressed.
[Bowden's Life of Faber, p. 494; Catholic Mag. 1839, iii. 822; Downside Review, vi. 141; Dublin Review, 1839, vi. 401; Gent. Mag. 1862, pt. i. p. 508; Lower's Worthies of Sussex, p. 341; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. vi. 29, 57; Times, 24 Feb. 1862; Ward's Hist. of St. Edmund's College, p. 343; Ward's Life of Cardinal Wiseman, 1897, i. 515, ii. 61, 251.]
TIERNEY, Sir MATTHEW JOHN (1776–1845), physician, eldest son of John Tierney and his wife Mary, daughter of James Gleeson of Rathkinnon, co. Limerick, was born at Ballyscandland, co. Limerick, on 24 Nov. 1776. After medical study at the then united hospitals of Guy and St. Thomas in Southwark, he was appointed surgeon to the South Gloucester regiment of militia by Earl Berkeley, with whom he had become acquainted. Edward Jenner, whose house was close to the walls of Berkeley Castle, had convinced its lord of the utility of vaccination, and thus Tierney learnt the value of the procedure, and throughout life did all he could to spread the knowledge and practice of this protection against smallpox. In 1799 he entered as a student of medicine at the university of Edinburgh, and having heard the famous Professor James Gregory (1753–1821) [q. v.] deliver in lecture ‘a severe and unqualified opinion against cow-pock,’ he called upon him and so thoroughly convinced him of the error of this view that the professor asked Tierney to vaccinate his son, and this was done with vaccine virus obtained from Jenner. In 1801 Tierney migrated to Glasgow, and there graduated M.D. on 22 April 1802, reading a dissertation ‘De Variola Vaccina.’ He began practice as a physician at Brighton in 1802, and by the influence of Earl Berkeley was appointed physician to the household of the Prince of Wales at Brighton. On 30 Sept. 1806 he was admitted a licentiate of the College of Physicians of London, and in 1809 he was appointed physician extraordinary to the Prince of Wales. On 28 Jan. 1816 he became physician in ordinary to the
