Biographia Hibernica/St. George Ash

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ST. GEORGE ASH,

Once Vice-Chancellor of Dublin university, was a native of the county of Roscommon, and received his education in the university of Dublin, of which he was elected a fellow in 1679, and became provost of it in the room of Doctor Robert Huntington, who resigned on the 2nd September, 1692, being then in the thirty-fourth year of his age. Shortly after this he became vice-chancellor, but, prior to that advancement, was obliged to quit his country, from the tyrannous acts of King James II. He came to England, and engaged himself in the service of the Lord Paget, who was King William's embassador at the court of Vienna, and to whom he was both chaplain and secretary. In these stations he remained several years, nor did he meditate a return to his native country, until after the passing of the Acts of Settlement. He was promoted to the bishoprie of Cloyne, by letters patent, dated July 15, 1695; and was consecrated the same month, in Christ Church, Dublin, by Narcissus, Archbishop of Dublin, assisted by the Bishops of Meath, Waterford, and Lismore, and, at the same time, was called into the privy council. On the 1st of June, 1697, he was translated, by the King's letter, to the see of Clogher, and, during the period he held the bishopric thereof, expended near the sum of nine hundred pounds, in repairing and improving the episcopal houses and lands belonging to that see, which, upon due proof, was acknowledged and allowed him, on the 25th of July, 1700, by Michael, Archbishop of Armagh, his metropolitan, in pursuance of an Act of Parliament of King William, which gives a demand of two-thirds of the sum expended, against the next successor. From this see he was advanced to that of Derry, by letters patent, dated the 95th February, 1716, and died in Dublin, on the 27th February, 1717, and was buried in Christ Church, in that city. By his will, he bequeathed all his mathematical books to the college of Dublin, of which he had been successively fellow an provost. He was likewise a member of the Royal Society, in whose Transactions are several articles of his writing. He published, also, four Sermons, and two Mathematical Tracts, and several other minor productions.

It is recorded, on the authority of Mac Mahon, that, on the death of John Vesey, Archbishop of Tuam, in 1706, our prelate had the offer of being advanced to that see; but this he refused, it not being so profitable, although of more honour than the see of Clogher, to which he was translated.