Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 56.djvu/48

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cation to Henry, prince of Wales, ' A Logicall Analysis of Twentye Select Psalmes performed by W. Temple ' (London, by Felix Kyngston for Thomas Man, 1605). He is apparently the person named Temple for whom Bacon vainly endeavoured, through Thomas Murray of the privy chamber, to procure the honour of knighthood in 1607-8 (Spedding, iv. 2-3). But soon afterwards his friends succeeded in securing for him a position of profit and dignity. On 14 Nov. 1609 he was made provost of Trinity College, Dublin. Robert Cecil, earl of Salisbury, the chancellor of the university, was induced to assent to the nomination at the urgent request of James Ussher [q. v.] Temple was thenceforth a familiar figure in the Irish capital. He was appointed a master in chancery at Dublin on 31 Jan. 1609-10, and he was returned to the Irish House of Commons as member for Dublin University in April 1613. He represented that constituency till his death.

Temple proved himself an efficient administrator of both college and university, attempting to bring them into conformity at all points with the educational system in vogue at Cambridge. Many of his innovations became permanent features of the academic organisation of Dublin. By careful manipulation of the revenues of the college he increased the number of fellows from four to sixteen, and the number of scholars from twenty-eight to seventy. The fellows he was the first to divide into two classes, making seven of them senior fellows, and nine of them junior. The general government of the institution he entrusted to the senior fellows. He instituted many other administrative offices, to each of which he allotted definite functions, and his scheme of college offices is still in the main unchanged. He drew up new statutes for both the college and the university, and endeavoured to obtain from James I a new charter, extending the privileges which Queen Elizabeth had granted in 1595. He was in London from May 1616 to May 1617 seeking to induce the government to accept his proposals, but his efforts failed. His tenure of the office of provost was not altogether free from controversy. He defied the order of Archbishop Abbot that he and his colleagues should wear surplices in chapel. He insisted that as a layman he was entitled to dispense with that formality. Privately he was often in pecuniary difficulties, from which he sought to extricate himself by alienating the college estates to his wife and other relatives (Stubbs, Hist. of the University of Dublin, 1889, pp. 27 sq.)

Temple was knighted by the lord-deputy, Sir Oliver St. John (afterwards Lord Grandison), on 4 May 1622, and died at Trinity College, Dublin, on 15 Jan. 1626-7, being buried in the old college chapel (since pulled down). At the date of his death negotiations were begun for his resignation owing to 'his age and weakness' His will, dated 21 Dec. 1626, is preserved in the public record office at Dublin (printed in Temple Prime's 'Temple Family,' pp. 168-9). He was possessed of much land in Ireland. His wife Martha, daughter of Robert Harrison, of a Derbyshire family, was sole executrix. By her Temple left two sons Sir John [q. v.], afterwards master of the rolls in Ireland, and Thomas with three daughters, Catharine, Mary, and Martha. The second son, Thomas, fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, became rector of Old Ross, in the diocese of Ferns, on 6 March 1626-7. He subsequently achieved a reputation as a puritan preacher in London, where he exercised his ministry at Battersea from 1641 onwards. He preached before the Long parliament, and was a member of the Westminster assembly. He purchased for 450l. an estate of 750 acres in co. Westmeath, and, dying before 1671, was buried in the church of St. Lawrence, Reading. By his wife Anne, who was of a Reading family, he left two daughters (Temple Prime, pp. 24-5).

[Authorities cited; Cole's Manuscript History of King's College, Cambridge, ii. 157 (in Addit. MS. 5815); Lodge's Peerage, s. v. 'Temple, viscount Palmerston,' iii. 233-4; Temple Prime's Account of the Family of Temple, New York, 3rd edit. 1896, pp. 23 sq., 105 sq.; Mind (new ser.), vol. i.; Ware's Irish Writers; Parr's Life of Ussher, pp. 374 et seq.; Ebrington's Life and Works of Ussher, 1847, i. 32, xvi. 329, 335.]

S. L.

TEMPLE, Sir WILLIAM (1628–1699), statesman and author, born at Blackfriars in London in 1628, was the grandson of Sir William Temple (1555–1627) [q. v.], provost of Trinity College, Dublin, and formerly secretary to Sir Philip Sidney. His father, Sir John Temple [q. v.], master of the rolls in Ireland, married, in 1627, Mary (d. 1638), daughter of John Hammond, M.D. [q. v.], and sister of Dr. Henry Hammond [q. v.], the divine. William was the eldest son. A sister Martha, who married, on 21 April 1662, Sir Thomas Giffard of Castle Jordan, co. Meath, was left a widow within a month of her wedding, and became a permanent and valued inmate of her eldest brother's household; she died on 31 Dec. 1722, aged 84, and was buried in the south aisle of Westminster Abbey on 5 Jan. 1723.