George Berkeley [Bishop] (1685-1753)


Life
1685: b. 12 March, at Dysart Castle, 2 miles from Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny, where he was brought up; son of William Berkeley; visited Dunmore Cave in spirit of adventure as a boy; ed. Kilkenny College, from 1696, matric. TCD, 1700; schol. 1702; BA 1704, MA and junior fellow, 1707; kept philosophical notebooks of which 2 survived; read ‘the incomparable Mr. Newton’, and recorded that he was ‘sceptical [&] distrustful at 8 years old and consequently by nature disposed for these new Doctrines’; read John Locke’s An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690); developed Immaterialism [later known as “subjective idealism”] after 1707; published in A New Theory of Vision (1709), ded. to Sir John Percival (later Earl of Egmont), and dealing visual phenomena of distance, magnitude, position and with problems of sight and touch; ordained 1709; issued Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge (Dublin, May 1710), and more popularly in Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous (London 1712); visited London and met Swift, Addison, Steele, and Pope; stayed at Oxford, summer 1713;
 
1713: appt. chaplain to the newly-appt. ambassador to Sicily, Lord Peterborough, on recommendation of Swift, autumn 1713; returning to London at death of Queen Anne, Aug. 1714; travelled in Italy as tutor to son of Bishop St. George Ashe, 1716-20 on one of most extensive continental tours of the period, cisiting Turin, Nov. 1716; Paris, 1715 - when he met visit Malebranche and reputedly caused his death by aggrevating a lung complaint in animated conversation; reached Rome, Jan. 1717; then Florence, and Lyons, before returning to London in time to witness the effects of South Sea Bubble in London, Aug. 1720; returned to Dublin and took Holy Orders, 1721; issues De Motu (1721), and awarded DD, TCD, 1721; appt. Divinity lecturer and senior proctor, 1722; conceived his Bermuda scheme for a college and the conversion of natives, 1722; received £3,000 legacy in will of Esther Van Homrigh (Swift’s “Vanessa” - whom he professed not to remember ever having met, May 1723 [or only once by accident at dinner, acc. Mrs Berkeley]; charged also with publishing her letters, giving assurance to Dr. Delany that there was in them ‘nothing which would either do honour to her character, or bring the least reflection upon Cadenus (Swift)’; publication halted by Dr. Sheridan - though later undertaken by the other executor, Rober Marshall (lawyer);
 
1724: appt. Dean of Derry, 1724, with income of £1,500 p.a., but never actually visited; travelled to London, Sept. 1724; raised £3,400 for Bermuda scheme; royal charter for college granted 1725, with a grant of £20,000 from House of Commons, 1726; took house secretly in Dublin; m. Anne Forster, dg. of Speaker of Irish House of Commons, 1728; m. Anne Forster, dg. of John Foster, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, 1728, and sailed for Rhode Island, on salary of £100 p.a., autumn 1728; arrived Newport, Rhode Island, 1729 under aegis of the (Anglican) Society for the Propagation of the Gospel; built ‘Whitehall’ inland on the island; wrote Alciphron, 1729-31; studied New England colonists and corresponded with Samuel Johnson; Bishop Gibson sought information of Walpole as to promised parliamentary grant and advised that Berkeley should expect no rapid payment, 1731; left Boston, autumn 1731 on failure of a grant of £20,000 approved by parliament to materialise, reaching London Feb. 1732 [var. end of 1731]; publ. of Pope’s “To Berkeley Every Virtue Under Heaven” [1732]; issued The Seven Dialogues of Alciphron or The Minute Philosopher (1732);
 
1734: issued The Analyst (1734), attacking Newton’s mathematics from a Christian standpoint; preferred to see of Cloyne, 1734, calling it a ‘region of dreams and trifles of no consequence’, but engaged in widespread welfare on behalf of the poor of both denominations in his diocese; attracted to tar-water as a means of combating the fever and disease; sought to establish National Bank and produced selection of queries in favour of that proposal; proposed adjustment in Irish currency, issuing The Querist [3 ser.] (1735, 1736, 1737), comprising nine hundred questions and incorporating his view of currency as ‘a ticket or counter’ rather than ‘a standard or measure’ (Q.23); attended House of Lords, Dublin, 1737; issued The Irish Patriot or Queries upon Queries [1737]; issued Siris (1744); suffered the death of his son William in childhood, 1751, being buried under a flag marked “B”; delivered his last sermon (“Thy Will Be Done”);
 
1752: quitted Cloyne for Oxford due to failing health, Aug. 1752, following the admission of his son George to that university, intending to return to Cloyne in due course [var. reputedly commanded that his demesne be left to the poor of Cloyne]; accompanied to Cork by large admiring crowd; settled with his wife and dg. at Holywell [St.], where he died 14 Jan.; bur. Christ Church, Oxford, with a memorial inscription [see infra]; a recumbent figure by Albert Bruce Joy was installed in Cloyne Cathedral, 1890; the economic and political import of his Queries was much admired by nationalists incl. John Mitchel, who reprinted one hundred of these in his Irish Political Economy (1847); there is a portrait by John Smibert in the Irish Portrait Collection and another by an unknown hand in the national Gallery of Ireland, another in the TCD [Senior Common Room], and another by Vanderbank - considered ‘more amusing’ by W. B. Yeats; there is a blue plaque in Derry commemorating his time there as Dean of the Cathedral, 1724-34; his son and namesake was Rev. George Berkeley, LL.D.; an MS of Irish Patriot discovered in 1930 and held at National Library of Ireland [NLI]; RR ODNB JMC DIB DIW DIL FDA OCIL WJM

Name game: The attachment of Bishop Berkeley’s name to the Arts Library at Trinity College, Dublin, was denamed (or cancelled) due to his use and ownership of slaves as household servants at Rhode Island (West Indies) and the wider movement in the 2020s to criticise all historical associates with the slavery trade.

While some argued that his prestige as a philosopher and his signal role in the foundation of the Old Library in Trinity warranted such a form of commemoration, others contended that no place of learning should be commemorate a participant or benefactor of such a cruel and nefarious trade. The move to ‘dename’ the library was fostered by the TCD Student Union and enacted by a commission established for the purpose where all views were heard. His name - which had been attached to the Library in 1978, some time after its erection in the 1960s by the prize-winning architect Koralek.

The decision to strike his name from the title of the New Library was later issued by the Board (June 2024) following a commissioned report stating in the effect that the commemoration of the Irish philosopher in that form was ‘inconsistent with the university’s core values’ in view of the findings that that Berkeley had ‘bought slaves - named Philip, Anthony, Edward and Agnes Berkeley - to work on his Rhode Island estate in 1730-31 and sought to advance ideology in support of slavery in his writings.

A spokesman for the Berkeley campus of the University of California had earlier indicated that the administration had ‘no plans’ to alter its name. A lively controversy features in the pages of the Irish Times during spring of 2023. See report at BBC [online; accessed 21.06.2023; revised 28.06.2024.]

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Works
Published titles
  • An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision (Dublin: 1709) [see details].
  • Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge (Dublin: 1710) [see details].
  • Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous (London 1712) [see details].
  • Passive Obedience; or, The Christian Doctrine of not Resisting the Supreme Power, Proved ... In a Discourse Delivered at the College Chappel (Dublin 1712); Do. (London: Clements 1712), 43pp.; Do. [2nd edn.] (1713), 44pp.
  • The Ladies Library; written by a Lady and published by Mr. Steele, 3 vols. (London 1714; 3rd edn. 1722) [actually by Berkeley].
  • Advice to the Tories who have Taken the Oaths (London: R. Burleigh 17150, 23pp.
  • An Essay Towards Preventing the Ruine of Great Britain (Printed and Sold by J. Roberts 1721), 27, [1]pp.
  • De Motu; sive, de motus principio & natura, et de causa communicationis motuum. Auctore G. B.  (London: Impensis Jacobi Tonson 1721) [impensis = at the expense of].
  • A Proposal For the Better Supplying of Churches in our Foreign Plantations, And for Converting the Savage Americans to Christianity [By George Berkeley] (London: printed by H. Woodfall 1724), and Do. [another edn.] (London: Woodfall 1725), 22pp, 8º.
  • A Sermon preached before the Incorporated Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts; at their anniversary meeting ... on ... February 18. 1731. An Abstract of the Proceedings of the Society from February 1730 to February 1731. (London: J. Downing 1732), 78pp., 8º; Do., in T.B., Twelve Anniversary Sermons preached before the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts , 8º.
  • The Seven Dialogues of Alciphron or The Minute Philosopher, in Seven Dialogues (London 1732) [see details].
  • The Theory of Vision Vindicated and Explained (London 1733).
  • The Theory of Vision, or Visual Language, shewing the immediate presence and providence of a Deity, vindicated and explained [in answer to a Letter published in the Daily Post-Boy, Sept. 9, 1732. By the author of Alciphron ... &c., With the Letter, from the Daily Post-Boy] (London: Printed for J. Tonson 1733), 64pp., 8º; and Do. [another edn.] (London & Cambridge: Macmillan 1866), xxiv, 141pp.
  • The Analyst (London 1734).
  • A Defence of Freethinking in Mathematics (Dublin 1735) [see details].
  • The Querist, containing several queries proposed to the consideration of the public (Dublin [1725] 1735-37, & rep. edns.) [see details].
  • The Irish Patriot or Queries upon Queries (c.1737).
  • A Discourse Addressed To Magistrates And Men In Authority. Occasioned by the Enormous License, And Irreligion Of Our Times (Dublin 1738; rep. London); and Do. To which is added, A report from the Lords Committees for religion, appointed to examine into the causes of the present notorious immorality and prophaneness: made by the Earl of Granard, on Friday, the 10th of March, 1737. The second edition[rep.] (London: sold by J. Roberts, 1738), 32pp., 8º.
  • Siris: A Chain of Philosophical Reflexions and Inquiries Concerning the Virtues of Tar Water, by G. L. B. O. C. [(Dublin: Margt. Rhames for R. Gunne 1744), 8o. [see related texts];
  • Authentic Narrative of the Success of Tar-water in Curing a Great Number and Variety of Distempers [2 letters by Berkeley on tar water in Thomas Prior, (Dublin/London 1746).
  • A Word to the Wise; or, an exhortation to the Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland: By a member of the established church (George Faulkner 1749); do. [another edn.] (London 1750); Do., another edn. (Glasgow & London 1751) [see extracts - as infra; and full-text in RICORSO Library > “Irish Classics” - as attached].
  • Maxims Concerning Patriotism (1750).
  • Miscellany (1752) [incl. ‘Verses ... on the prospect of Planting Arts and Learning in America’].
Miscellaneous
  • Also [with Steele,] Ladies Library (1714) [3 vol. anthology].
  • Philip Skelton, A Letter to the Authors of Divine Analogy [Peter Browne], and of the Minute Philosophers [George Berkeley]. From an old officer (Dublin 1733), 23pp., 8º. [signed Veteranus, i.e. Philip Skelton].
  • A Vindication of the Reverend D— B—y [i.e., Dr. Berkeley], from the scandalous imputation of being author of a late book, intitled Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher. To which is subjoined, the predictions of the late Earl of Shaftsbury concerning that book. Together with an appendix and an advertisement.
    London: A. Millar 1734), 104pp., 8º [by Berkeley?].
  • [Anon.,] The Querist, Containing Several Queries, Proposed to the Consideration of the Public (Dublin 1735), [317 queries]; The Querist: Part II (Dublin 1736), [254 queries]; The Querist: Part III (Dublin 1737), [324 queries]; Do. [another edn.], 3 vols.. (London 1735-37) [see further editions, infra.]
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Manuscript Works
  • ‘Of Infinites’ (1707); Journals of Travels in Italy (1717-18).
  • Letter to Peter Browne on Divine Analogy (London 1733).
  • The Philosophical Commentaries, Generally Called the Commonplace Book ... [written c.1744; transcribed and ed. by A. A. Luce (London 1944)].
Collected Works
  • Collected Works of George Berkeley (Dublin & London 1754; rep. 1820, 1837).
  • G. N. Wright, ed., The Works of George Berkeley DD, 2 vols. (London: 1843) [see details].
  • A. C. Fraser, ed. Collected Works of George Berkeley, formerly Bishop of Cloyne, 4 vols. (1871; rep. 1901).
  • George Sampson, ed., The Works of George Berkeley, with a biographical introduction by A. J. Balfour, 3 vols. (London: G. Bell 1897-1898), ports.
  • A. A. Luce & T. E. Jessop, eds., The Works of George Berkeley, 9 vols. (London: Thomas Nelson & Sons 1948-57).
  • Colin Murray Turbayne, ed., Principles, Dialogues and Correspondence (New York: Bobbs-Merrill Co 1965).
  • Bertil Belfrage [transcriber], George Berkeley’s Manuscript Introduction: editio diplomatica (Oxford: Doxa 1987).
  • Michael R. Ayers, ed., Philosophical Works (rev. ed. Everyman 1993), 436pp.
Reprint edns.
  • Maxims Concerning Patriotism [orig. 1750, as Maxims Concerning Patriotism, by a Lady] (Dublin: Trinity Closet Press 1978), 8pp., [edn. of 250 copies].
  • Jonathan Dancy, ed., Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous (London: OUP 1996, rep. 1998), 237pp.
  • M. R. Ayers, intro. & annot., A New Theory of Vision and Other Writings - Philosophical works including the works on vision introduction and notes by
    London : Dent 1980, xxvi, 358 p. : ill. ; 20 cm.; prev. publ. as 1st pub. 1910 as: A new theory of vision and other writings, Bibl. xxv-xxvi.
  • ——, ed., A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge (London: OUP 1996, rep. 1998), 237pp.
Related texts (responses, &c.)
  • [Baron John Hervey], Some Remarks on the “Minute Philosopher”. In a letter from a country clergyman to his friend in London. [2nd Edn.] (London: J. Roberts 1732), 66pp., 8º.
  • [B. de Mandeville,] A Letter to Dion [i.e. G. Berkeley], occasion’d by his book called Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher. By the author of the Fable of the Bees (London 1732).
  • John Walton, The Catechism of the author of the Minute Philosopher [G. Berkeley] fully answer’d [by] John Walton, John Professor of Mathematics in Dublin University (Dublin: printed by J. Roberts [for] William Smith 1735), 32pp., 8º [rep. London].
  • John Walton, A Vindication of Sir Isaac Newton's Principles of Fluxions, against the objections contained in the Analyst [G. Berkeley], by [J.W.] Professor of Mathematics in Dublin University (Dublin: William Smith 1735), 40pp., 8º.
  • James Jurin, The Minute Mathematician: or, the free-thinker no just-thinker. Set forth in a second letter to the author of The analyst; containing a defence of Sir Isaac Newton and the British mathematicians, ... By Philalethes Cantabrigiensis [James Jurin] (London: printed for T. Cooper 1735), [8],112pp., Another title: Geometry no friend to Infidelity ... &c.]
  • Thomas Bayes, An introduction to the doctrine of fluxions: and defence of the mathematicians against the objections of the author of the Analyst, so far as they are designed to affect their general Methods of Reasoning (London: Printed for J. Noon, at the White-Hart, near Mercers-Chapel, in Cheapside MDCCXXXVI. [1736]), 50, [2]pp.

Bibliographical details
An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision, by George Berkeley, M.A. Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin (Dublin: Printed by Aaron Rhames, at the Back of Dick’s Coffee-House, for Jeremy Pepyat, Bookseller in Skinner-Row MDCCIX [1709]), xiv, [10], 187, [1]pp., ills.

A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge. Part I, &c. (Dublin: Jeremy Pepyat 1710), iii, 214pp., 8º [publ. as Part I but no others published].

Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous: The design of which is plainly to demonstrate the reality and perfection of humane knowlege, the incorporeal nature of the soul, and the immediate providence of a deity: in opposition to sceptics and atheists. Also, to open a method for rendering the sciences more easy, useful, and compendious[,] by George Berkeley, M. A. Fellow of Trinity-College, Dublin (London: printed by G. James, for Henry Clements, at the Half-Moon, in S. Paul’s Church-Yard MDCCXIII [1713]), [10], 166p.; Do. [another edn.] (London: printed for William and John Innys, at the West End of St. Paul’s M.DCC.XXV [1725]), [10], 166pp.

Jointly as: A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge: Wherein the chief causes of error and difficulty in the sciences, with the grounds of scepticism, atheism, and irreligion, are inquired into. First printed in the year 1710. To which are added Three dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, in opposition to scepticks and atheists. First printed in the year 1713. (London: Printed for J. Tonson 1734), 355pp.

Alciphron: or, the Minute Philosopher. In seven dialogues. Containing an apology for the Christian religion, against those who are called Free-thinkers [with “An Essay towards a new theory of vision.” By George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne] [Second Edition] (London: J. Tonson 1732), 2 vols., 8º; Do. [another edn.] (Dublin: G. Risk 1732), 2 vols.

A Defence of Free-thinking in Mathematics: In answer to a pamphlet of Philalethes Cantabrigiensis, intituled, Geometry no friend to infidelity, or a Defence of Sir Isaac Newton, and the British Mathematicians. Also an Appendix concerning Mr. Walton's Vindication of the Principle of Fluxions against the Objections contained in the Analyst. Wherein It is attempted to put this Controversy in such a Light as that every Reader may be able to judge thereof. By the author of The minute philosopher.[G. Berkeley] (Dublin: printed by M. Rhames, for R. Gunne near the Ram in Capel-Street, MDCCXXXV. [1735]), 70, [2]pp., 8°; Do., [another edn.] (London:

The Querist, Containing Several Queries, Proposed to the Consideration of the Public (Dublin: G. Risk 1735-37), in three parts - all anon.: [1.] The Querist [Part I], Containing Several Queries, Proposed to the Consideration of the Public (Dublin: G. Risk 1735) [containing 317 queries]. [2.] The Querist: Part II (Dublin 1736), [254 queries], and Do. as The Querist: Containing Several Queries, proposed to the consideration of the public. Now first re-printed from the Irish edition, lately publish’d in Dublin. Part II (London: printed for J. Roberts in Warwick-Lane. Where may be had Part I M.DCC.XXXVI [1736), [4],27,[1]pp. [3.] The Querist: Part III (Dublin 1737), [324 queries]; The Querist: Containing Several Queries, proposed to the consideration of the public. Now first re-printed from the Irish edition, lately publish’d in Dublin. Part II (London: printed for J. Roberts in Warwick-Lane); and Do. [anon.], The Querist [.... &c.], 3 vols. (London 1735-37).

Various editions: Do., [2nd edition with additions by the Bishop of Cloyne] (Dublin 1750), [595 queries, 345 of the original queries being omitted and 45 added]; Do., [another edn.] (Dublin 1750); Do., [another edn.] (Dublin 1750); ‘The Querist Containing Several Queries Proposed to the Consideration of the Public’, in A Miscellany, Containing Several Tracts on Various Subjects. By the Bishop of Cloyne (Dublin 1752), pp.117-184, [595 queries], with an ‘Advertisement of the Author’ stating that many of the original queries are omitted and some new ones added (p118); Do. [another edn.] (Dublin/Glasgow 1760); Do., [another edn.] (London 1829); Do. [another edn.] (Dublin 1861).

ALSO: Queries Relating to a National Bank, Extracted from The Querist. Also a Letter Containing a Plan or Sketch of Such Bank, Repubished with Notes (Dublin: George Faulkner 1737), 40pp.; James Harvey ed., Bishop Berkeley On Money: Being Extracts From his Celebrated Querist: To Which is Added Sir John Sinclair on the Return to Cash Payments in 1819, and Mr. Cobden on the Evils of Fluctuation in the Rate of Discount (London: Provost & Co., 1872), 40 pp.; The Querist, in A. C. Fraser, ed., Collected Works, Vol. IV (1901), [595 queries]; Do. [another edn.] (Baltimore 1910); J. M. Hone, ed., The Querist [… &c.] (Dublin: Talbot Press [1935]), 122p.; Joseph Johnston, Bishop Berkeley’s “Querist” in Historical Perspective (Dundalk: Dundalgan Press 1970) [incls. text of The Querist, pp.124-74 and lists queries omitted from editions subsequent to the first, pp.175-204, &c.]

Writings on tar-water ..
  • A Chain of Philosophical Reflexions and Inquiries Concerning the Virtues of Tar-water: And divers other Subjects connected together and arising one from another. By the Rev. Dr. George Berkley, Lord Bishop of Cloyne, and Author of the Minute Philosopher (London: printed for C. Hitch, in Paternoster-Row; and C. Davis, in Holborn, against Gray's-Inn-Gate, MDCCXLIV. [1744]).
  • Siris: a chain of philosophical reflexions and inquiries concerning the virtues of tar water ... The second edition, improved and corrected by the author. A new edition, with additions and emendations (London: W. Innys & C. Hitch; C. Davis 1744)
  • A Letter to T— P—, Esq. [i.e. Thomas Prior]; from the Author of Siris [i.e., Bishop Berkeley]. Containing some farther remarks on the virtues of tar-water, &c. (Dublin: George Faulkner 1744).
  • A Letter to T— P—[i.e. Thomas Prior], Esq; from the author of Siris. Containing some farther remarks on the virtues of tar-water ... Second edition, with amendments.(Dublin: R. Gunne 1744); Do., ... To which is added, An Answer to a supposed physician's Letter to the Right Reverend the Bishop of Cloyne, occasioned by his Lordship's Treatise on the Virtues of Tar-Water (London: M. Cooper 1744).
  • A Cure for the Epidemical Madness of drinking tar-water, lately imported from Ireland by a certain R-t R-d Doctor [G. Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne]. In a letter to his L-p. By T[homas] R[eeve], M.D. (London, 1744).
See also The Bishop of Cloyne defended; or tar-water proved useful, by theory and experiments, in answer to T. R. by Philanthropos (London [1744?]

Philosophical Works of George Berkeley - available at Internet Archive
Edition (by year) Editor Publisher
1820 Edn. [in 4 vols.]: Vol. I [online]; Vol. II [online]; Vol. III [online]; Vol. IV [online] - Clarendon Press Oxford
1843 Edn. [ín 2 vols.]: Vol. 1 [online]; Vol. II [online] Rev. G. N. Wright. Thomas Tegg (London)
1871 Edn. [in 4 vols.]: Vol. I [online]; Vol. II [online]; Vol. III [online]; Vol. IV [online]; Ed. A. C. Frazer  
1901 Edn, [in 4 vols.]: Vol. 1, 1705-21; Vol. 2, 1732-33; Vol. 3, 1734-52; Vol. 4, 1707-50 [limited preview] A. C. Frazer Clarendon Press Oxford
1948-57 Edn [in 9 vols]: Vol. 7 [online; limited preview]. A. A. Luce Nelson (London)

Main Editions of Collected Works

G. N. Wright, ed. & annot., The Works of George Berkeley DD, Bishop of Cloyne, including his Letters to Thomas Prior, Esq., Dean Gervais, Mr. Pope &c.&c., to which is prefized an account of his life [with] Latin essays rendered into English, 2 vols. (London: Thomas Tegg; Glasgow: R. Griffin; Dublin: T. H. Messurier 1843).

A. C. Fraser, M.A., ed., The Works of George Berkeley, D.D., formerly Bishop of Cloyne: Including many of his writings hitherto unpublished, with Prefaces, Annotations, His Life and Letters, and an Account of his Philosophy, by Alexander Campbell Fraser M.A., Professor of Logic and Metaphysics in the University of Edinburgh, in Four Volumes, (Oxford: Clarendon Press M.DCCC.LXXI [1871]).

A. A. Luce and T. E. Jessop [both of Trinity College, Dublin] The Works of George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne (London: Nelson 1948-57) - of which: -
  • [...]
  • Vol. 6 contains Passive obedience; Advice to Tories who have taken the oaths; An Essay towards Preventing the Ruin of Great Britain; The Querist; A Discourse Addressed to Magistrates; Two Letters on the Occasion of the Jacobite Rebellion 1745; A Word to the Wise; Maxims Concerning Patriotism, edited by T.E. Jessop. (London 1953).
  • Vol. 7 contains Sermons; A Letter to John James; Primary Visitation Charge & an address on Confirmation; Essay in the Guardian; A Proposal of Berkeley's Petition; Verses on America, edited by A. A. Luce DD Litt. D. Berkeley Professor of Metaphysics Trinity College, Dublin. (London: Nelson 1955; rep. 1964).

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Criticism
 
See biographical introductions to various collected editions of the Works incl. M. R. Ayers, 1910; rep. Dent 1980); Rev. G. N. Writing (1843), A. C. Frazer (1871), and A. A. Luce (1953).
Early biography

Joseph Stock, An Account of the Life of George Berkeley, D.D. Late Bishop of Cloyne in Ireland (London: J. Murray, 1776), prepared by David Wilkins, is available in various formats at TCD Maths - online.
Modern studies
  • hilosophical works : including the works on vision / George Berkeley ; introduction and notes by M.R. Ayers.A new theory of vision and other writings
    London : Dent 1980, xxvi, 358 p. : ill. ; 20 cm.; prev. publ. as 1st pub. 1910 as: A new theory of vision and other writings, Bibl. xxv-xxvi.George Dawes Hicks, Berkeley [Leaders in Philosophy] (London: E. Benn 1932).
  • A. A. Luce, Berkeley and Malebranche (London: OUP 1934).
  • Ellen Leyburn, ‘Bishop Berkeley, The Querist’, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy Vol. 44 (1937-8), Section C, pp.75-98.
  • J. M. Hone & Mario M. Rossi, Bishop Berkeley: His Life, Writings and Philosophy (London: Faber 1931), containing ‘The Irish Patriot or Queries upon Queries’ from newly-discovered manuscript with ‘Berkeley: An Introduction’, by W. B. Yeats, pp.xv-xxix [rep. as ‘Bishop Berkeley’ in Essays and Introductions (London: Macmillan 1961), pp.396-411].
  • A. A. Luce, Dr. Berkeley and Immaterialism: A Commentary on his Principles of Human Knowledge (London: Nelson 1945).
  • A. A. Luce, The Life of George Berkeley (London: Nelson 1949).
  • G. J. Warnock, Berkeley (London: Pelican 1953).
  • H[arry] M. Bracken, The Early Reception of Berkeley’s Immaterialism, 1710-1733 (Hague: Martinus Nijhoff 1959; rev. edn. 1965).
  • C. M. Turbayne, Myth or Metaphor (Yale UP 1962).
  • Joseph Johnston, Bishop Berkeley’s “Querist” in Historical Perspective (Dundalk: Dundalgan Press 1970), pp.5, 34 [also incl. text of The Querist, pp.124-74, lists queries omitted from editions subsequent to the first, pp.175-204, &c.].
  • T. E. Jessop, A Bibliography of George Berkeley ... with Inventory of [his] Manuscript Remains 2nd edn.] (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff 1973).
  • Ian C. Tipton, The Philosophy of Immaterialism (London 1974).
  • H. M. Bracken, Berkeley (London: Macmillan 1974).
  • Geoffrey Keynes, A Bibliography of Berkeley (Oxford: Clarendon 1976).
  • George Pitcher, Berkeley (London: Routledge & Keegan Paul 1977).
  • David Berman, ‘A Note on Berkeley and his Catholic Countrymen’, Long Room, Nos. 16 & 17 (Spring-Autumn 1978), pp.26-36.
  • Edwin S. Gaustad, George Berkeley in America (New Haven/London: Yale UP 1979).
  • David Berman, ‘Rational Theology and Emotive Mysteries in Berkeley’s Alciphron’, Proceedings of the RIA, Vol. 81 (1981), pp.219-29.
  • Bertil Belfrage, ‘The Constructivism of Berkeley’s New Theory of Vision’, in Phillip. D. Cummins & Gunther Zoeller, eds., Minds, Ideas and Objects: Essays on the Theory of Representation in Modern Philosophy, Vol. 2 (NAKS Studies in Philosophy] (CA: Ridgeview 1982) [q.pp.].
  • [?] Grayling, Berkeley: The Central Arguments (London: Duckworth 1986).
  • Kenneth P. Winkler, Berkeley: An Interpretation (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
  • David Berman, George Berkeley: Idealism and the Man (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1993).
  • David Berman, ‘The Jacobitism of Berkeley’s Passive Obedience’, in Journal of The History of Ideas, Vol. XLVII (1986), pp.309-19 [Berkeley Newsletter, since 1977].
  • Harry Bracken, ‘George Berkeley, the Irish Cartesian’, in Richard Kearney, ed., The Irish Mind (Dublin: Wolfhound Press, 1985), pp.107-18.
  • Denis Donoghue, ‘We Irish’, in We Irish: Essays in Irish Literature and Society (California UP 1986), pp.3-18.
  • Peter Walmsley, The Rhetoric of Berkeley’s Philosophy (Cambridge: CUP 1990).
  • David Berman, George Berkeley, Idealism and the Man (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1993; rep. 1996), 230pp.
  • David Berman, Berkeley: Experimental Philosophy (London: Phoenix 1997), 57pp.
  • [...]
  • Stephen H. Daniel, ed., New interpretations of Berkeley’s thought [JHP Books Ser.] (Amherst, N.Y.: Humanity Books 2008), 319pp. [see contents].

See also R. F. Foster, Modern Ireland: 1600-1972 (London: Allen Lane 1988), p.170; Maureen Wall, Catholic Ireland in the 18th Century, ed. Gerard O’Brien (Dublin: Geography Publications [1989]).

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Bibliographical details

Stephen H. Daniel, ed., New Interpretations of Berkeley’s Thought [JHP Books Ser.] (Amherst, N.Y.: Humanity Books 2008), 319pp. CONTENTS: Charles J. McCracken, ‘Berkeley’s realism’; Daniel Flage, ‘Berkeley’s epistemic ontology: The Three Dialogues’; Martha Brandt Bolton, ‘Berkeley and mental representation: why not a Lockean theory of ideas?’; Margaret Atherton, ‘The objects of immediate perception’; Robert Muehlmann, ‘Strong and weak heterogeneity in Berkeley’s New theory of vision’; Jeffrey Barnouw, ‘The two motives behind Berkeley’s expressly unmotivated signs: sure perception and personal providence’; Talia Mae Bettcher, ‘Berkeley on self-consciousness’; Stephen H. Daniel, ‘Berkeley’s stoic notion of spiritual substance’; Geneviève Brykman, ‘On human liberty in Berkeley’s Alciphron VII’; Douglas Jesseph, ‘Faith and fluxions: Berkeley on theology and mathematics’; Timo Airaksinen, ‘The path of fire: the meaning and interpretation of Berkeley’s Siris’; Sébastien Charles, ‘Berkeley and the lumières: misconception and reconstruction’.

T[homas] E[benezer] Webb [1821-1903], The Veil of Isis; A Series of Lectures on Idealism (London: Longmans 1885) [being a rep. of ser. in Dublin Univ. Review, 1885]; rep. USA 1972), CONTENT: Chap. 1: Theistic Idealism, or Berkeley [1]; Problematic Idealism, or Hume [67]; Cosmothetical Idealism, or Reid [125]; Transcendental Idealism, or Kant [165];; Cataleptic Idealism, or Hamilton [235]; Absolute Idealism, or Hegel [275]; An Ideal of Systems: the New Kritick [307]; with appendixes on Locke - the Origin of Ideas [335]; Hobbes- on General Reasoning [344]; Bacon - on Inductive Reasoning [353]; Hume - on Miracle and Nature [360].

Chapter I: ‘Ireland may claim the distinction of havingt produced three philosophers, each of whom formed an epoch in the history of thought. Johannes Scotus Erigena, the founder of the Scholastic System - Hutcheson, the father of the modern School of Speculative Philosophy in Scotland - and Berkeley, who first explicitly maintained a Theory of Absolute Idealism - were all men of Irish birth, and were marked, in a greater or lesser degree, by the peculiar characteristics of Irish genius.
It has frequently been observed that the Irish People is naturally borne to dialectics. [1] The author of Hudibras, indeed, selects “the wild Irish” as the types of that mystic learning and occult philosophy which he ridicules in Ralpho. Nor was this the mere fancy of a poet. As early as the time of Charles the Bold, the contemporary chronicler speaks of the multitude of philosophers who, like Scotus, crossed the sea from Ireland. At a later period Bayle speaks of the Hibernians as renowned for able logicians and metaphysicians [...] The Irish logician, in fact, was as ubiquitous as the Irish soldier of fortune, and like the philosophic vagabond in The Vicar of Wakefield - nay, if we are to believe Boswell, like Goldsmith himself - he disputed his way through the universities of Europe.
 The University of Dublin has from the first accommodated itself to the national bent, and given an prominent place in its curriculum to mental science. [...]’ (pp.1-2.)
 

Note: Webb goes on to cite Dodwell, the antagonist of Clarke; Browne, the independent follower of Locke; Burke, as author of Essay on the Sublime and the Beautiful; and Archer Butler, historian of Ancient Philosophy: ibid., p.3.) Note that - contrary to Longman’s notice in the catalogue that forms the end-papers of P. W. Joyce, A Short History of Ireland (1893), the essay on Berkeley (being Chapter 1 of the above) - was given from the chair of Moral Philosophy and afterwardsx published as an article in the North British Review, May 1861. [See footnote, p.1.]
[...]
 The Theory of Vision which established that “all visible things are equally in the mind, and take up no part of the external space ” (s. cxi), was the natural prelude to the Principles of Human Knowledge which proclaimed that “all the choir of heaven and furniture of earth - in a word, all those bodies which compose the might frame of the world, have not any subsistence without a mind. ” (Princ. vi xlvi.) The conception indeed was no novelty in the history of thought. It had been realised in the prophetic trances of the Hebrew seers, in the apocalyptic vision of St. John. the Hindoo sages had mainted that our system of perception was a mere picture, and that the world of matter was nothing by maya, or illusion. The Philosophers of the West had long been wavering over a similar conclusion. The Platonists had [5] helf that matte was merely a supposition necessary for the production of the phenomena of sense. The Academics has suggested that the perception of external things might possibly be nothing but a dream presented by the gods. The Alexandrines had intimated that the soul was not in the world, but that the world was in the soul. The speculation at an early period engaged the attention of the Church. The Fathers had been compelled to consider the question of the mere phenomenal nature of the Incarnation. The Schoolmen had asked whether God could not present to sense the species representing an external world, when there was in reality no external world for the species to represent. The founders of the more modern Schools of philosophy had been hovering around the same attractive light. Malebranche had admitted that if God should annihilate the material workd, and present corresponding ideas to the mid, the phenomena of sense would the be the same. Locke had allowed that the idea might exists, though the reality had no existence. Even Leibnitz, in spite of his Monadology, had confessed, nt oonly that the existence of body was not susceptible of demonstration, but that world, for aught that philosophy could reach, might be merely resplendent iris, an image on the glass, a waking dream.
 A pure Theistic Idealism, is it true, could not well have been developed in the West before the time of Berkeley, for the Pagan Idealists had no [6] abiding conception of the omnipresence and spirituality of God, and the Cathoic philosophers not only accepted the Catholic doctrine of Transubstantiation, but conceived that the existence of the wrold of matter had been positively revealed by Holy Writ. However this may be, Idealism was the natural product of the age, and of this the history of philosophy affords a curious proof. Three years after the publicaiton of the Principles of Human Knowledge [...] In his Clavis Universalis, Collier, like Berkeley, attempted a demonstration of the non-existence of the world; and the perfect correspondece between the independent speculations of the two idealiss is one of the most curious facts in the history of thought. It was the correspondence of the clocks of Leibniz. [...] As to the mode of production of our idas, the two philosophers were equally agreed. Both reflected the doctrine of material efflux, and the cognate doctrine of impressed species; both [7] rejected the hypothesis of seeing all things in God, and also the egoistical idealism which declares that te mind is the creator of its own ideas; both held that our sensible ideaas are the immediate effect of the agency of God. [...]’ (pp.7.8.)

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Commentary
See separate file [infra]

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Quotations
See separate file [infra]

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References
Richard Ryan, Biographia Hibernica; Biographical Dict. of Irish Worthies (1821), Vol. I, pp.78-95: Ryan exhibits scepticism about Berkeley"s Idealist philosophy but shows an appreciation of his intellect and his character. On Berkeley’s indifference to wealth: ‘The disinterested spirit of Bishop Berkeley would not allow him to look forward to any farther promotion in the church, after he was appointed to the diocese of Cloyne. He declared to Mrs. Berkeley, that his intention was never to change his see, because, as he afterwards confessed to the Archbishop of Tuam, and the late Earl of Shannon, he had very early in life got the world under his feet, and he hoped to trample on it to his last moments. He was much pressed by his friends to think of a translation; but he thought such a step wrong in a bishop: and it afforded [91] an opportunity to the world (which has not much faith in clerical disinterestedness) to suspect him of mercenary views. When the Earl of Chesterfield sought out Bishop Berkeley, and pressed him to accept the vacant bishopric of Clogher, of much higher annual value, and where he was told he might immediately receive fines to the amount of ten thousand pounds, he consulted Mrs. Berkeley, and with her full approbation declined the valuable offer, as well as that which had accompanied it, of any other see which might become vacant during Lord Chesterfield’s administration. The primacy was vacant before the expiration of that period, and he said, “I desire to add one more to the list of churchmen, who are evidently dead to ambition, and to avarice.” He had long before that time given a decisive proof of this exalted feeling; for when before his departure for America, Queen Caroline  had tempted him with the offer of an English mitre, he assured her majesty in reply, that he chose rather to be president of St. Paul’s college in Bermuda, than primate of all England.’ [see full copy of Biographia Hibernica - as via index, or as attached.]

Dictionary of National Biography - gives dates 1685-1753; Bishop of Cloyne, ed. Kilkenny and TCD; Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision (1709); Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge (1710). &c.

See David Wilkins’ George Berkeley pages at TCD Maths - online [incls. works and contemp. biog.]

D. J. O’Donoghue, Poets of Ireland (Dublin: Hodges Figgis 1912) - RIGHT REV. GEORGE BERKELEY (Bishop of Cloyne). This eminent philosopher wrote verse, the well-known prophetic poem by him with the line, ‘Westward the course of empire takes its way,’ being included in many collections. Born in Co. Kilkenny, probably at Dysart Castle, near Thomastown, on March 12, 1684-85. B.A., T.C.D., 1704; M.A., 1707; B.D. and D.D., 1721. Made Dean of Dromore in the latter year, and appointed to Bishopric of Cloyne in 1734. Died on January 14, 1753, at Oxford. Wrote famous philosophical works, etc. His poem above referred to appeared in Dodsley’s Collection, volume vi., 1758.’

Justin McCarthy, ed., Irish Literature (Washington: University of America 1904); giving Querist extracts; also ‘On the Prospect of Planting Arts and Learning in America,’ etc. Further, ‘Whose fault is it if poor Ireland continues poor?’ (The Querist, 1735, cited in Frank O’Connor’s Book of Ireland (London & Glasgow: Collins 1959), p.96.

Seamus Deane, gen. ed., The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 1: cites ‘On the Prospect of Planting Arts and Learning in America’ [407-08]; A New Theory of Vision [777-80]; Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge [780-82]; The Guardian [782]; Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher [782-84]; The Querist [pp.784-85 and pp. 906-07]; Notes at pp.492; 760; 761; 763; 764; 772; 786; 790-95, 798m.; 806, and 804-05. Also, FDA, Vol. 2: [Yeats] loved Berkeley’s idealist confidence that all things were “a dream”, and was bold to aver ‘That this pragmatical, preposterous pig of a world, it farrow that so solid seem, / Must vanish on the instant if the mind but change its theme’ [Seamus Heaney, ed.] 787; references in Luke Gibbon’s editorial essay on ‘Constructing the Canon, Versions of National Identity’ [950, 951n., 954]; included by Arthur Clery in Irish Essays (1919) with other 18th century figures as ‘lineal descendants of our lyrists and our epicists’ [1005, 1006]; cited with Swift by Aodh de Blacam in ‘The Other Hidden Ireland’: “both the greatest and the most typical of the alumni of Trinity College, Dublin. Nay, but their genius became its very genius loci ... Swift’s scepticism, Berkeley’s subjectivism, the classical detachment from the living nation we see in both” [1016]. [For extensive quotations from W. B. Yeats on Berkeley and Burke, see under Yeats, Quotations, infra.]

W. J. McCormack, ed., Blackwell Companion to Modern Irish Culture (Oxford: Blackwell 1998): ‘Berkeley’s major contribution to monetary doctrine is his attack on the traditional way of identifying money with gold and silver. “The right conception of money”, he says, is “that of a ticket, entitling to power” over goods and services. As ‘the true idea of money’ is “that of a ticket or counter” paper money would do the job without the backing of precious metals.’ (Bertil Belfrage, article on Berkeley, p.69.)

R. F. Foster, Modern Ireland: 1600-1972 (London: Allen Lane 1988): other Irish works by Berkeley incl. A Letter to the Roman Catholics (1745); A Word to the Wise (1749); Maxims on Patriotism (1750).

A. N. Jeffares & Peter Van de Kamp, eds., Irish Literature: The Eighteenth Century - An Annotated Anthology (Dublin/Oregon: Irish Academic Press 2006), selects extract from Treatise concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge [123]; “America or The Muse’s Refuge: A Prophecy” [127]; Siris and a letter about tar-water [128]; Siris A Chain of Philosophical Reflexions and Inquiries, &c. [129]; Letter by the Author of Siris To the Reverend Dr. Hales [130]; from The Querist [132]; from Philosophical Commentaries, generally called the Commonplace Book [133].

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Marsh’s Library, Dublin holds a copy of Siris: A Chain of Philosophical Reflexions and Inquiries Concerning the Virtues Of tar Water, by G. L. B. O. C. (Dublin: by Margt. Rhames for R. Gunne 1744), 8o.

British Library holds: [1] Bishop Berkeley on Money: being extracts from his celebrated Querist, to which is added Sir John Sinclair on the return to cash payments in 1819, and Mr. Cobden on the evils of fluctuation in the rate of discount. By James Harvey. [Another copy.]. pp.40. Provost & Co.: London, 1872. 8o.; [2] Bishop Berkeley’s Querist in historical perspective. By Joseph Johnston. [Another copy.] Bishop Berkeley’s Querist in historical perspective.. Dundalk: Dundalgan Press, 1970. pp. vii, 220. 23 cm.. 1970; [3] Extracts from The Querist, etc. [Edited by John Mitchel.] [4] The Querist ... Edited with an introduction by J. M. Hone. pp.122. Talbot Press: Dublin & Cork, [1935.] 8o.; [5] The querist, containing several queries, proposed to the consideration of the public ... To which is added ... A word to the wise ... The second edition. [Another copy.] The querist, etc. [Another copy.] [Another edition.] [Another edition.] [Another edition.] Republished with notes, showing how many of the same questions still remain to be asked, respecting Ireland. [Another edition.] The Querist, etc. (A Word to the Wise.) London: W. Innys, etc., 1751. pp.83. 8o.. 1751.. [1751.] 8o.. pp.108. R. & A. Foulis: Glasgow, 1751. 8o.. pp.160. R. Urie: Glasgow, 1760. 12o.. pp.149. James Ridgway: London, 1829. 8o. [6] The querist, containing several queries, proposed to the consideration of the public. Now first re-printed from the Irish edition, etc. [By George Berkeley.]. London: J. Roberts, 1736. pp. iv, 38. 8o. [7] The Querist, containing several queries proposed to the consideration of the public ... To which is added ... A Word to the Wise: or, an Exhortation to the Roman Catholic clergy of Ireland. [Another copy.]. pp.83. W. Innys: London, 1750. 8o. [8] Queries relating to a National Bank, extracted from the Querist. Also the letter [signed, The Querist] containing a plan or sketch of such Bank. Republished with notes. [By George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne.]. pp.40. George Faulkner: Dublin, 1737. 8o. [9] The Querist, containing several queries, proposed to the consideration of the public ... Now first re-printed from the Irish edition, lately publish’d in Dublin. [By George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne.] Part III. J. Roberts: London, 1737. 8o. [10] The querist, containing several queries, proposed to the consideration of the public. [By George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne.] [Another copy of pt. 1.] The querist, etc.. Dublin: G. Risk, etc., 1725 [1735]-37. 3 pt. 8o.. 1725 [1735].

Online: Berkeley is the subject of a webpage in the “The Window” (Dept. of Philosophy, Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, USA) [link].

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Notes
A portrait of Berkeley by John Smibert in the Irish Portrait Collection [?NGI] is reproduced in Brian de Breffny’s Ireland: A Cultural Encyclopaedia (London: Thames & Hudson 1982), p.44.

George Berkeley Memorial plaque:

Gravissimo praesuli,
Georgio, Episcopo Clonensi:
Viro,
Sen ingenii et eruditionis laudem.
Sen probitatis et beneficentias spectemus,
Inter primos omnium aetatum numerando.
Si Christianus fiueris,
Si amans patriæ,
Utroque nomine gloriari potes
Berkleium vixisse.
Obiit annum agens septuagesimum tertium†:
Natus Anno Christi M.DC.LXXIX.
Anna Conjux
L. M. P.
† The date of his birth is marked as a mistake in the 1820 Edition of his work (p.xvii.]
 

Note: The plaque is printed in the 1820 Edition of his Works (n. editor) with the following introduction and footnote: ‘The excellence of his moral character, if it were not so conspicuous in his writings, might be learned from the blessings with which his memory is followed by the numerous poor* of his neighbourhood, as well as from the testimony of his yet-sunaving acquaintance, who cannot to this day speak of him without a degree of enthusiasm, that removes the air of hyperbole from the well-known line of his friend Mr. Pope: "To Berkeley every virtue under heaven."

The inscription on his monument was drawn up by Dr. Markham, afterwards archbishop of York, then head master of Westminster-school, and is in these terms:

[ Gravissimo praesuli ... &c.]

*By the poor of his neighborhood: One instance of his altention to his poor neighbours may deserve relating. Cloyne, though it gives name to the see, is in fact no better than a village: it is not reasonable, therefore, to expect much industry or ingenuity in the inhabitants. Yet whatever article of dothing they could possibiy manufacture there, the Bishop would have from no other place; and chose to wear ill clothes, and worse wigs, rather than suffer the poor of the town to remain unemployed.
† Mistake.
[online]

Berkeley’s tar-water is the subject of an article by J. H. Barnard in Dublin University Review (March 1885) [q.p.] which was probably read by W. B. Yeats. In it is contained the claim that the giant Magrath who reached 7ft. 10 inches was raised on tar-water in Berkeley’s house. (See A. N. Jeffares, A New Commentary on the Poems of W. B. Yeats, 1984, p.281).

Séan O’Faolain attributes to J. M. Hone the observation that Berkeley, whose family had only been one generation in Ireland, could write at the close of his polemic against Newton, “We Irish think otherwise” and that the two great Protestant defenders of Irish political rights in the eighteenth century, Swift and Molyneux, were sympathetic to many purely native traditions, the one praising the Catholic gentry defeated at the Boyne, the other taking a living interest in the Irish language.’ (O’Faolain, The Irish, Penguin 1947, p.87.)

Men like these: Patrick Comerford gives an account of the missionary work of Bishop Berkeley under the auspices of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG) in America and details the work of Charles Inglis (1734-1816), from Glencolmkille, Co. Donegal, who taught in Pennsylvania before being ordained for the parish of Dover in Delaware in 1758, where he worked among the Mohawk Indians, later moving to Trinity Church, NY, as curate, suffering the confiscation of all his property by the rebels; later moved to Novia Scotia and ordained his nephew Andres Inglis there, his son John becoming the third bishop of Novia Scotia. Comerford cites 106 clergy from the Church of Ireland who worked as SPG missionaries, some in Australia and S. Africa, giving such names as George Hunn Nobbs, Hussey Burgh Macartney (former curate of Kilcock who built St. Paul’s Cathedral in Melbourne), William Wright, Francis Balfour (from Townley Hall), William Gaul, Davis Croghan and John Darragh (assisted in building St. Mary’s Cath. in Joannesburg). A History of the SPG has been edited by Daniel O’Connor. (See ‘An Irishman’s Diary’, in The Irish Times, 01 Jan. 2001.)

Local history: See Hall’s Ireland: Mr & Mrs Hall’s Tour of 1840 [abridged 2-vol. edn., ed. Michael Scott] (London: Sphere Books 1984), where A. M. & S. C. Hall write of ‘[...] the small town of Cloyne, a bishop’s see, founded in the sixth century, by St Colman. The cathedral is a low cruciform structure. The last bishop of Cloyne was Brinkey, the profund mathematician and eminent astronomer, who was consecrated in 1826 and died in 1835, when the see was merged into that of Cork and Ross. / At Cloyne there is one of those singular round towers which for so long a period have excited the curiosity of antiquaries: but its conical stone roof was destroyed by lightning in the year 1749. The neighbourhood of Cloyne abounds with natural caves in the limestone rock; one of which, in the episcopal grounds, is “of unknown length and depth, branching to a great distance under the earth and sanctified by a thousand wild traditions.” / At Castle Mary, a fine seat not far from Cloyne, may be seen one of those ponderous masses of stone supported by smaller stones which are popularly termed Druid’s Altars or “cromleachs” and close to it is another, smaller one. The alter stone of the great cromleach measures fifteen feet in length and is about eight feet wide and three and a half feet thick. The position of both is inclined, form whcih it is ocnjectured the name of cromleach, “the bending stone”, is derived. Similar rude monuments are found in all parts of Ireland.” / The most remarkable seat in the vicinity of Cloyne is Rostellan, the mansion of the Marquis of Thomond. It is modern but occupies the site of an ancient castle of the Fitzgeralds, seneschals of [27] Imokilly. In 1648 the notorious Lord Inchiquin - famous or infamous, according to the views of the historian - obtained a grant of the estate, which grant was further confirmed to him in the eighteenth year of Charles II.’ (pp.27-28.)

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