Sir James Ware - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Sir James Ware was an Irish

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

historian

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

Early life

Born at Castle Street, Dublin, Ware was the eldest son of James Ware, who arrived in Ireland in 1588 as a secretary to Lord Deputy FitzWilliam. His father was knighted by King James I

James I of England

James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...

, was elected M.P.

Member of Parliament

A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

for Mallow

Mallow, County Cork

Mallow is the "Crossroads of Munster" and the administrative capital of north County Cork, in Ireland. The Northern Divisional Offices of Cork County Council are located in the town....

in 1613, and served as auditor-general for Ireland till his death in 1632, in which capacity he was succeeded by his son. James graduated from Trinity College Dublin in 1616, having received a good education in Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

and Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

. Becoming interested in Irish history, he began assembling a very fine collection of Irish manuscripts, and made transcriptions from works held in other collections, including that of his close friend James Ussher

James Ussher

James Ussher was Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland between 1625–56...

, Bishop of Meath

Bishop of Meath

The Bishop of Meath is an episcopal title which takes its name after the ancient Kingdom of Meath. In the Roman Catholic Church it remains as a separate title, but in the Church of Ireland it has been united with another bishopric.-History:...

1626 to 1639

Knighted in 1629, Sir James was elected Member of the Irish Parliament (M.P.) for the University of Dublin in 1634. In 1638 he, with Sir Philip Perceval

Philip Perceval

Sir Philip Perceval , was an English politician. He was knighted, 1638: obtained grants of forfeited lands in Ireland to the amount of , and lost extensive property in Ireland owing to the rebellion of 1641...

obtained the monopoly of granting licenses for the sale of ale and brandy.

Publications 1626 to 1639

Ware's first book, published in 1626, was Archiepisco Porum Cassiliensium & Tuamensium Vitae, followed by Caenobia Cistertientia Hiberniae and De Praesulibus Lageniae, both in 1631. In 1633 he published three edited works: Edmund Spenser

Edmund Spenser

Edmund Spenser was an English poet best known for The Faerie Queene, an epic poem and fantastical allegory celebrating the Tudor dynasty and Elizabeth I. He is recognised as one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy, and one of the greatest poets in the English...

's 'View of the State of Ireland'; Meredith Hanmer

Meredith Hanmer

Meredith Hanmer was a Welsh clergyman, known as a controversialist, historian, and translator. He was considered embittered, by the Lord-Deputy William Russell, 1st Baron Russell of Thornhaugh; but he appears now as a shrewd observer of the Protestant and nonconformist life of Ireland as founded...

's 'History of Ireland'; and Edmund Campion

Edmund Campion

Saint Edmund Campion, S.J. was an English Roman Catholic martyr and Jesuit priest. While conducting an underground ministry in officially Protestant England, Campion was arrested by priest hunters. Convicted of high treason by a kangaroo court, he was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn...

's 'History of Ireland'. His book of 1639, De Scriptoribus Hiberniae was to be the last published for fifteen years, due to his involvement in Irish and British politics.

Royalist activities

Ware was an ardent royalist during the 1640s, during the Irish Confederate Wars

Irish Confederate Wars

This article is concerned with the military history of Ireland from 1641-53. For the political context of this conflict, see Confederate Ireland....

, which was part of the conflict known as the Wars of the Three Kingdoms

Wars of the Three Kingdoms

The Wars of the Three Kingdoms formed an intertwined series of conflicts that took place in England, Ireland, and Scotland between 1639 and 1651 after these three countries had come under the "Personal Rule" of the same monarch...

, which consumed much of Ireland and Britain during the 1640's. He was a strong supporter of James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde

James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde

James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde PC was an Irish statesman and soldier. He was the second of the Kilcash branch of the family to inherit the earldom. He was the friend of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, who appointeed him commander of the Cavalier forces in Ireland. From 1641 to 1647, he...

. His activities led to his imprisonment in the Tower of London

Tower of London

Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...

for a year; following his release he returned to Dublin, only to be taken prisoner and hostage on the city's surrender to Colonel Michael Jones

Michael Jones (soldier)

Lieutenant-General Michael Jones fought for King Charles I during the Irish Confederate War but joined the English Parliamentary side when the English Civil War started....

in June 1647. He was expelled to England that year, returned, and was expelled again in 1649. He spent some eighteen months exiled in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

before travelling to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

where he spent most of the 1650s.

Return to scholarship

Ware's first new book since the 1630s was De Hibernia et Antiquitatibus eius Disquisitones, published in London in 1654, and in a second edition in 1658. This was followed in 1656 by Opuscula Sancto Patricio Adscripta.

Following the restoration of Charles II

Charles II of England

Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...

, Ware returned to Dublin where he was re-elected as M.P. for Dublin University. He remained on close terms with Ormond, who frequently visited him for consultations at his home in Castle Street.

1664 saw the publication of Venerabilis Bedae Epistolae Duae and Rerum Hibernicarum Annales ab Anno Domini 1485 ad Annum 1558. In the following year, which saw the publication of De Praesulibus Hiberniae Commentarius, he began a brief though fruitful collaboration with Dubhaltach MacFhirbhisigh. It was later stated that "He always kept in his House an Irish Amanuensis

Amanuensis

Amanuensis is a Latin word adopted in various languages, including English, for certain persons performing a function by hand, either writing down the words of another or performing manual labour...

to interpret and translate the Language for him, and at the Time of his Death one Dubley Firbisse served him in that Office.

Family and death

Ware's children include James (died 1689), Robert (died 1696) and Mary (died 1651). Mary married Sir Edward Crofton in 1647, he being a nephew of Thomas Crofton of Longford, Tireagh, Co. Sligo (another Thomas Crofton, of this family, killed Mac Fhirbhisigh in January 1671). A first cousin of Thomas Crofton of Longford was Catherine Crofton, daughter of John Crofton of Lisdorne, Co. Roscommon; Catherine was married to Reverend Joseph Ware, Dean of Elphin

Elphin

In Welsh mythology, Elffin ap Gwyddno was a son of Gwyddno Garanhir, 'Lord of Ceredigion'. The earliest example of the name occurs in several of the mythological poems attributed to Taliesin in the Book of Taliesin. The date of their composition is uncertain but probably predates the Norman...

, who is believed to have being a younger brother of Sir James.

Ware died on Saturday 1 December 1666, aged seventy-two years and five days. He was buried in St Werburgh's Church

St Werburgh's Church

-England:*St Werburgh's Church, Bristol *St Werburgh's Church, Derby*St. Werburgh's Church, Spondon, Derby, Derbyshire*St Werburgh's Church, Warburton, Greater Manchester...

, Dublin.

His works were republished by his son Robert and by the husband of his great-granddaughter Mary - Walter Harris

Walter Harris (historian)

Walter Harris was an Irish historian and writer.Harris was educated at Kilkenny Grammar School and Trinity College, Dublin. He married Elizabeth Ware, great-grand-daughter of Sir James Ware, the historian, in 1716 and became vicar-general to the Archbishop of Meath in 1753.In the 1730s, along with...

, the first serious historian of Dublin.

External links

http://members.cox.net/wdegidio/ware/WaresofIreland.htm

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