Biographia Hibernica/Mervyn Archdall
Rev. MERVYN ARCHDALL,
An exemplary divine and learned antiquary, was descended from John Archdall, of Norsom-Hall, in the county of Norfolk, who came into Ireland in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and settled at Castle Archdall, in the county of Ferinanagh, prior to the year 1692.
The subject of the present memoir was born in Dublin, on the 22nd of April, 1723, and was educated in the university in that city; after which period, his passion for collecting coins, medals, and other antiques, and his research into the monastic history of Ireland, introduced him to the celebrated Walter Harris, the learned editor of Ware's Works; Charles Smith, the author of the Irish County Histories; Thomas Prior (the celebrated patriot), whose relation he married; and, latterly, to Dr. Richard Pocock, Archdeacon of Dublin, who, when he was advanced to the see of Ossory, did not forget the merits of Mr. Archdall, as he bestowed on him the living of Attanah and a prebend, which not only produced him a comfortable support, but enabled him to pursue zealously his Monastic History of Ireland, in which he had already made considerable progress.
It is well known also, that the bishop frequently retired from the incessant noise occasioned by the hurry of visits at his palace in Kilkenny, to Attanah; where he found, in the good sense, learning, and candour of Mr. Archdall, a relaxation rarely to be met with; and there it was that he revised and improved some of his works, and pursued the outline of his Tours through Ireland and Scotland, which Dr. Ledwich informs us are in the British Museum.
Mervyn Archdall, like numberless ingenious men, wanted but the enlivening and maturing warmth of patronage, not only to be highly useful in the different departments of learning, but even to attain eminence in them. The excellent bishop, his patron, whose virtues reflected honour on his exalted station in the church, quitted this transitory life in 1765. Mr. Archdall had, at that period, been so indefatigable in his researches that his collections amounted to nearly two folio volumes, and these on a subject interesting to every man of property in Ireland; as the records relating to the monastic foundations, both from the original donors, and the grants of these by the crown to the present possessors, include more than a third of all the land in the island; and yet, invaluable as these records were, for they were the fruits of forty years intense application, there was found no individual of generosity and patriotism enough, to enable the collector to give them to the world. He was, therefore, obliged to abridge the whole, and contract it within one quarto volume, which he published in 1786, under the title of "Monasticon Hibernicum." It was unlucky for the author, that he existed thirty years ago instead of at the present period, when a refusal of patronage is looked upon in a worse light than heresy; as, instead of his being obliged to abridge his book in a quarto, he would have had (in all probability) to have submitted it to the world in the shape of an elephant folio.
The next of Archdall's literary labours was an enlarged edition of Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, which he extended from four to seven volumes octavo. This he printed in 1789; and, of this work, the following curious anecdote is recorded:—Mr. Lodge had left numerous additions to his work in MS. but written in a cypher declared to be totally inexplicable by all the short-hand writers in Dublin; these MSS. were about to be given up in despair, when Mrs. Archdall, (his surviving relict,) a woman of considerable ability and ingenuity, applied to the arduous task, and after a short time happily discovered the key, and thereby greatly enriched the edition.
Having married his only daughter to a clergyman, he resigned part of his preferments, in the diocese of Ossory, to his son-in-law; but was advanced to the rectory of Slane, in the diocese of Meath, which he did not long enjoy, as he exchanged this life for a better, on the 6th of August, 1791.
As an antiquary, he was profound; as a divine, exemplary; as a husband and parent, affectionate; and as a friend, liberal and communicative.