volume is 'Jesus the Mercy Seat; or a Scriptural View of Atonement,' &c., 1838, 16mo. he published a few separate sermons; his addresses as 'messenger,' often valuable for their historical details, are in the 'Proceedings' of the assembly, and some were published separately. He wrote frequently on theological topics in the 'Christian Reformer,' the 'Inquirer,' and in baptist periodicals. He contributed to the 'Biographical Dictionary' of the Society for the Diffusion of Christian Knowledge, and to Dr. William Smith's 'Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography.'
[Christian Life, 15 Feb. 1879, pp. 78 sq.; Inquirer, 15 Feb. 1879, pp. 98 sq.; Memoir in Proceedings of General Assembly of Gen. Bapt. Churches, 1880; Monthly Repository, 1814, p. 506; Unitarian Herald, 27 April 1866, p. 137; Means's publications and private correspondence; personal recollection.]
MEARA, DERMOD or DERMITIUS (fl. 1610), author and physician, was a native of the district styled Ormonde, in the county of Tipperary, Ireland. He studied at Oxford, where, Wood tells us, 'he was esteemed a good poet.' 'In all my searches,' added Wood, 'I cannot find him matriculated, or that he took a degree.' An earlier Dermitius Meara, who had studied at Paris and Cambridge, supplicated for the degree of B.C.L. 3 July 1514 (Oxf. Univ. Reg., Oxf. Hist. Soc., i. 93). Meara practised as a physician in Ireland with high repute. In 1615 he published at London a panegyrical poem in Latin on the genealogy and career of Thomas Butler, earl of Ormonde and Ossory [q. v.], who had died in the preceding year. The title was ' Ormonius: sive illustrissimi herois ac domini, d. Thomæ Butleri, Ormoniæ et Osoriæ Comitis, Viscomitia de Thurles, Baronis de Arckelo … commemoratio, heroico carmine conscripta à Dermitio Meara, Ormoniensi Hyberno et insignissimæ Oxoniensis Academiæ quondam alumno.'
The poem is divided into five books, and occupies 144 pages 12mo. Prefixed are dedications to Thomas Butler and Walter Butler, earls of Ormonde and Ossory, with an epistle to the reader. The volume closes with an 'epicedion' by the author, anagrams, acrostics, and chronograms.
Meara in 1619 published at Dublin a volume (sm. 12mo) entitled 'Pathologia hereditaria generalis sive de morbis hæreditariis tractatus spagyro-dogmaticus. In quo generalis eorundem morborum radix natura et therapeutica indicatio ex utriusque medicinæ fontibus investigatur.' This treatise is in twelve chapters, and ends at page 128 with 'epilogus ad lectorem.' It was dedicated to Sir Oliver St. John, lord-deputy of Ireland, and prefixed to the work are two Latin epigrams by John Kelli, in praise of the author.
The precise date of Meara's death has not been ascertained. Edmund Meara [q. v.] was his son. Harris, in his edition of Ware's 'Works,' 1746, stated that Meara's poem on the Earl of Ormonde was translated into English verse by William Roberts, Ulster king-of-arms in the reign of Charles I. No mention of such a work is to be found either in the known writings of Roberts or in any authentic document at present accessible.
[Wood's Athenæ Oxon. ed. Bliss, ii. 275; Gilbert's Hist. of City of Dublin; W. Roberts's manuscript Hist. of House of Ormonde; Facsimiles of National MSS. of Ireland, 1884, vol. iv.; D'Alton's King James's Irish Army List, p. 75.]
MEARA or O'MEARA, EDMUND (d. 1680), physician, son of Dermod or Dermitius Meara [q. v.], was born in Ormond, co. Tipperary, and graduated M.D. at Rheims in 1636. He practised at Ormond and in Dublin, studied medicine at Oxford, where he appears, however, to have taken no degree, and was in December 1664 admitted an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. He published in 1665 'Examen diatribæ Thomæ Willisii Doctoris Medici et professoris Oxoniensis de Febribus … cui accesserunt historiæ aliquot medicæ rariores,' London, 8vo. The work, which contains a fine engraved title, and is dedicated to Sir Kenelm Digby, was keenly resented by Willis's friend and ally, Richard Lower (1631-1691) [q. v.] He at once produced a 'Vindicatio Diatribæ Willisii,' and 'therein,' says Ware, 'handles our Ormondian very coarsely' (Irish Writers, p. 190). This was followed by 'Willisius male vindicatus, sive medicus Oxoniensis mendacitatis et inscitiæ detectus,' Dublin, 1667, which was at least inspired by Meara. Lower's animosity was unextinguished in 1669, when in the dedicatory epistle to his 'Tractatus de Corde' he spoke bitterly of the ignoramuses who amused themselves by obstructing scientific progress with their blundering criticisms, 'inter quos summæ proterviæ et stuporis Meara quidam Hybernus, cæteris omnibus palmam præripere videtur.' Meara subsequently practised with much success in Bristol, where he died in 1680. Among his friends was John Maplet [q. v.], who also practised in Bristol, and in some important cases called in Meara for advice. He left three sons: William, who was also a physician, and prefixed a copy of Latin verses to his father's 'Examen:' Edmund, a Jesuit; and Francis. Francis, the second son, was named a burgess in James II's charter of 1687 to the town of Wicklow, and
