Mervyn Archdall

Life
1723-1791 [var. Archdale]; b. Dublin, 22 [var. 23] April; ed. TCD; domestic chaplain to Richard Pocock, Anglican Bishop of Ossory 1756; and later Meath, 1765; presented to living at Attanagh, and prepend of Cloneamery, 1762 and Mayne, 1764, and afterwards rector of Slane, 1786 - all in Co. Meath; elected MRIA; his encyclopaedic work Monasticon Hibernicum (1786), representing 40 years work, published with 128 subscriptions, and commonly called “The Irish Monasticon” in an allusion to Sir William Dugdale’s Monasticon Anglicanum [see infra], to which it is greatly inferior though valued for the plates; its many errors were subsequently noticed and corrected by John Lanigan in his Ecclesiastical History (1822); a new edition was prepared by Rev. Patrick F. Moran and others in 1871; Archdall also enlarged Lodge’s Peerage of Ireland (7 vols., 1789); d. 7 Aug. 1791 [var. 6]; bur. ancient churchyard in Slane. RR ODNB DIB DIW OCIL

[ The notice in Dictionary of Irish Biography (2009) is by Linde Lunney - online. ]

[ Note: The name Mervyn Archdall (or Archdale) is associated with several distinguished British soldiers of the 18th and 19th c. as well as John Mervyn Archdale, an Elizabeth planter from Norfolk and founder of the estate at Archdale (or Archdall) Castle whose descendant Edward Mervyn Archdale (d.1853-1943) was a distinguished Unionist MP and government minister in first Northern Ireland later serving as Grand Master of the Orange Lodge. The family lost and regained their property in the 1641 Rebellion and at a some point the Archdale name was assumed by a Montgomery who married into the distaff side and thus assumed ownership of the estate. There is an account of the family in the Belfast Newsletter, 9 Jan. 2023 - available online; accessed 09.01.2024. ]

[ top ]

Works

Monasticon Hibernicum: An History of the Abbeys, Priories and Other Religious Houses in Ireland, Interspersed with Memoirs of their Several Founders and Benefactors [ ...] Likewise an Account of the Manner in which the Possessions Belonging to These Foundations were Disposed of, the Present State of Their Ruins (Dublin: printed for RIA by Luke White 1786), ), xxiii, 820pp. [vii errata], 4o., ill. ports [18 pls.]; Do. (London: C. C. & J. Robinson 1786), xxiii, 820pp.; also P[atrick F[rancis] Moran, ed., Monasticon Hibernicum, with many additional notes, Vols. 1 & 2 (Dublin: W. B. Kelly 1873, 1876).
The Peerage of Ireland, or, A Genealogical History of the Present Nobility of that Kingdom. With Engravings of their paternal Coats of Arms. Collected from the public Records - authentic Manuscripts; approved Historians well-attested Pedigrees; and Personal Information. Revised, Enlarged and Continued to the Present Time by Mervyn Archdall, Rector of Slane, 7 vols. (Dublin: Moore; London: printed for G. G. J. and J. Robinson 1789).

Criticism
Richard Ryan’s Biographia Hibernica, or Irish Worthies [...] (1821), Vol. I, pp.17-19; George A Little, Dublin Before the Vikings: An Adventure in Discovery (Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son 1957), pp.105-06 [see infra]; R. E. Ward and C. Ward, eds., Letters of Charles O’Conor of Belanagare (Washington: Cath. Univ. of America Press 1988) [see infra].

[ top ]

Commentary

Edward Ledwich, "Monastic Antiquities of Ireland", in Antiquities of Ireland, Vol. I (London: S. Hooper 1791) - p.xv:

The researches of a late learned and excellent antiquarian, the Rev. Mr. Archdall, discovered eleven hundred and eighty-eight monastic foundations, including chantries, formerly existing in this kingdom. His indefatigable industry, since the publication of his Monasticon Hibernicum, has brought to light some hundreds more; state the amount to be fourteen hundred, that gave above forty-three monastic houses for each of the thirty-two counties in the isle. Amid this apparent diffusion of. external sanctity and learning, the grossest ignorance and superstition prevailed, the worst civil policy, and as the result of both, barbarous and savage manners ; no internal manufactures or foreign trade : when one of our smallest abbies, Monaincha, had above five hundred acres of arable and pasture, with the right of tithes and many advowlons, and the whole worth but forty shillings, in the year 1568, we may form some estimate of what must have been the public revenue, political strength, and real civilization of Ireland, while its religious establishments procured it the appellation of the Island of Saints. Providence, therefore, could not confer a more signal favour on this wretched nation than in bringing about the reformation of religion, and the dissolution of monasteries, which were effected A.D. 1339. The same rule was observed here as in England. The great abbots surrendered upon pensions, and monkish lands were given to different persons for various considerations, as for services, or sums of money, to be held in capite or soccage: in one case a rent was reserved, but none in the other. In Harris’s edition of Ware’s Antiquities, an imperfect account of the grantees and aflignees are given. A diligent perusal of our records, would supply ample materials for an history of the reformation in Ireland; a subject extremely curious and interesting, yet passed over in strange neglect by all our writers.

See Edward Ledwich, q.v.; available at Internet Archive - online.

R. E. & C. Ward, eds., Letters of Charles O’Conor of Belanagare (Washington: Cath. Univ. of America Press 1988): ‘I am very thankful ... for the copy you sent me of our friend Mr Archdall’s proposals for an Irish Monasticon he is equal to the work and to my knowledge has been long collecting and digesting the best materials for it [...] I shall order Mr White to put down my name for one of his subscribers.’ [Letter, Charles O’Conor to Joseph C. Walker, 22 Dec. 1784, p.451]; ‘The extent of his oriental learning and skill in modern languages is vast. In my last to him I ventured to predict that his last performance [Monasticon] will draw on him the attention of all the academics in Europe ... it is from the conflict and collision of authorities and opinions that the truth will come out at last on every question [echoing Augustine, cited in Latin in a previous letter] [Letter, Charles O’Conor to Joseph C. Walker, 15 Aug. 1786; p.471]; reports to Thomas O’Gorman that ' I once had a good drawing of the arms and inscriptitons of the monument of O’Conor of Sligo in the Dominican Abbey of that town. It is now in the hand of the Reverend Mr. Mervin [sic] Archdall, author of the Irish monasticon, and if that gentleman has not mislaid it, he can furnish you with a copy of it.’ [Letter, Charles O’Conor to Thomas O’Gorman, 26 May 1789; p.495] [See also under Charles O’Conor [q.v.] for details given by Ward of the O’Conor monument.]

Richard Ryan, Biog. Hibernica, or Biographical Dict. of Irish Worthies (1819; 1822), Vol. I, pp.17-19.

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 Fermanagh, prior to the year 1692. [...]

Mr. Archdall had, at that period [1765, when Bishop Pococke died], 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. [...]

The next of Archdall’s literary labours was an enlarged edition of Lodge’s Peerage of Ireland, which be 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. (p.18.)

See full copy in RICORSO > Library > Criticism > History > Legacy - via index, or as attached.

John Bernard Trotter (Walks in Ireland, 1819) mentions an Anglican clergyman called Archdall in relation to Tintern Abbey in Co. Wexford. Though the man mentioned was probably a relation of the subject of this entry (since the latter was already dead some twenty years), Trotter neither mentions him nor his famous book about the monasteries of Ireland: ‘Mr. Archdall’s rural church then appeared, and the church-yard, the silent abode of departed mortality!"

Further: We have employed seyeral days in enjoying the beauties of Tintern and its environs, and experienced much civility from Lady Colclough, the present venerable lady of the abbey mansion; from her worthy agent, and from the clergyman of Tintern, Mr. Archdall, and also from the friendly priest of this parish, Mr. Doyle. Mr. A[archdall] inhabits a beautiful and tasteful cottage near this, and in the bosom of a charming family, and the most exemplary performance of his duty, leads a respectable life, well meriting, however, amore exalted situation in the church. This hospitality, and pleasing converse, have left an im-pression not to be erased. We have heard him too in his modest church, impressive, and eloquent, so that those of his rural audience (a small one no doubt) that “Came to scoff remained to pray.” His church is absolutely buried in trees and is highly picturesque. Mr. Archdall lives here in modest seclusion, as a gentleman and clergyman, and is beloved by every one in the vicinity. His kindness has completed the charm of Tintern." (Letter of 27 June, 1811; Walks .. &c., 1819, p.110; available at Internet Archive - online.) A little later there is a second allusion in the form of a topographical note: ‘Mr. Archdall’s rural church then appeared, and the church-yard, the silent abode of departed mortality!" - and this likewise takes no account of the more famous bearer of the Archdall name.

[Note: “Came to scoff ...” - the quotation is from Goldsmith’s The Deserted Village. The smallness of Rev Archdall’s Protestant congregation compared with the over-size of Fr. Doyle’s - of which the amiable priest vocally complains - gives point to the question of shrinking communities dealt with in Goldsmith’s “Enclosure” poem. Goldsmith himself must have known all about scanty Protestant parishes surrounded by numerous Catholic natives in his rural childhood as a vicar’ son. Trotter’s application of the verse to a similar, if later, Protestant parish reflects a form of collective anxiety mitigated by his own non-sectarian and engagement with the campaign for Catholic Emancipation which shows up so many times in his writings and forms the overt topic of some pamphlets. Trotter does not indicate what is the sectarian complexion of the younger Archdall#146;s religious faith but does attest that Protestant clergymen do much good in the Irish countryside. BS 23.02.2024.]

[ top ]

Quotations
Kilmallock: ‘formerly a town of great note, being walled, and the houses beautifully and elegantly built of hewn stone; it is now in ruins, yet has a greater share of magnificence even in that miserable state than any town in Ireland.’ [Cited in Brian De Breffny, ed., The Irish World: The History and Cultural Achievements of the Irish People, London: Thames and Hudson 1977, p.90.)

King Sitric, following a pilgrimage to Rome, granted in 1038 a.d. certain voltae or cells to Donat, first Danish archb. of Dublin, upon which he built his cathedral, ‘these vaults or crypts still remain, but embellished by subsequent archbishops. [...] For the practice of those ages we know, that it was usual to build small oratories, and to arch that part in which the shrine of the Saint, or other sacred deposit, was placed. The stone roofing prevented accidents from fire, and at the same time preserved a reference to those cryptical monastic cells, then held in general veneration. When a large edifice was constructed, as was particularly the case in Cashel, these ancient vaulted oratories were religiously preserved, and were looked on as indubitable proof of the antiquity and holiness of the church. For this explanation an instance, a doubt cannot be entertained of these arches being the foundation of an ancient oratory, which the donations of Sitric enlarged and furnished with convenient and necessary offices; for so the words sufficienter ad aedificandam ecclesiam cum tota cura are to be interpreted.’ ((Monasticon Hibernicum, ed. Carey, Vol. VI, p.1148; also Archdall, Monasticon Hibernicum, 1873, ed. [Patrick] Moran, Dublin Vol. 1, p.324-25; quoted in George A Little, Dublin Before the Vikings: An Adventure in Discovery, Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son 1957, pp.105-06.).

[ top ]

References
British Library holds Monasticon [sic] Hibernicum (London: C. C. & J. Robinson 1786), xxiii, 820pp.; also P[atrick F[rancis] Moran, ed., [Monasticon Hibernicum], with many add. notes, vols. 1, 2 (Dublin: W. B. Kelly 1873, 1876) [no further volumes]; also Monasticon Hibernicum, or the Monastical History of Ireland, &c. [by John Stevens.] (London: W. Mears 1722), 416pp., 8o. [See note on John Stevens, infra.]

University Libraries: TCD Library holds [Monasticon Hibernicum], An History of the Abbeys, priories and other religious houses in Ireland, interspersed with memoirs of their several founders and benefactors ... likewise an account of the manner in which the possessions belonging to these foundations were disposed of, the present state of their ruins. (Dublin; printed for Luke White 1786), 827pp. ill. ports [18 pls.]. University of Ulster Library ( Morris Collection), holds Monasticon Hibernicum (1786).

De Burca Catalogue (1977) lists Mervyn Archdall, Monasticon Hibernicum; or, An History of the Abbies [... &c.] Suppression. With engravings of the several religious orders and military habits and a map illustrating the history (Dublin: Luke White 1786), xxiii, 820pp., vii errata 4to. (Bradshaw item 2150; Gilbert, Hist. of Dublin, p.30); The Peerage of Ireland, or, A Genealogical History of the Present Nobility of that Kingdom. With Engravings of their paternal Coats of Arms. Collected from the public Records - authentic Manuscripts; approved Historians well-attested Pedigrees; and personal Information. Revised, enlarged and continued to the present time by Mervyn Archdall, Rector of Slane. With list of subscribers. Seven volumes. (Dublin: Moore 1789)

Hyland Catalogue [No. 214] lists John Stevens, trans. and enlarged, Monasticon Hibernicum, or the Monastical History of Ireland; 1st English language ed., 1722; Moll map, 7 pls., [8 called for in Bradshaw 7301; contemp. calf blind panelled front & rear.]

[ top ]

Notes
Monasticon Anglicanum, the model for Archdall’s book, was produced under direction of Sir William Dugdale in (Vol. 1, with Roger Dodsworth, 1655; 2nd Vol., 1661; Vol. 3, 1673). It’s authoritative status is indicated by the fact that it was admitted as circumstantial evidence in the courts at Westminster in 1677 (see ODNB, under Dugdale.) The work is concerned with the history and character of the monasteries of English which were confiscated in the reign of Henry VIII and granted to his favourites; similarly in Ireland, as much as one-third of all land was held by the monastic foundations (acc. Richard Ryan, 1819, p.18).

John Stevens: The Library also holds Monasticon Anglicanum, transl. by John Stevens, with additional material, viz., Memoirs of the Antiquities of Great-Britain, Relating to the Reformation, &c. [...] To Which is Prefix’d a Preface, with Some Remarks on Mr. Stevens’s First Additional Volume to Sir William Dugdale’s Monastichon Anglicanum, in defence of the late Bishop Burnet London: H. Tracy 1723), xii, 139pp, 12o. [BL]. Stevens is also accredited with a volume dealing with Irish monasteries, Monasticon Hibernicum, or the Monastical History of Ireland, &c. (London: W. Mears 1722), 416pp., 8o., a copy of which is held in the British Library.

[ top ]