Life
1543-1604; b. Shropshire; educ. Christ Church College, Oxon., BA; chaplain of Christ-Church College, April 1567; became vicar of St. Leonard’s Shoreditch, London; gained ill-repute removed to Ireland where he received the patronage of the Duke of Ormond and was appt. Archdeacon of Ross and vicar of Timealogue, 1591; treasurer of Waterford Cathedral, 1593; Chancellor of Cathedral Church of St. Canice, Kilkenny, 1603; prebendaryof St. Michan’s, 1602; of his Chronicles of Ireland containing his researches into early Irish history, was published by Sir James Ware in 1633, simultaneously with Spenser’s View of the State of Ireland and Edmund Campion’s Historie of Ireland; Hanmer died of plague (‘before he had finished his intended work’, acc. Ware in pref. to Edmund Campion’s Historie); bur. St. Michan’s Church.
Works
The Great Bragge and Challenge of M. Champion a Jesuite and The Jesuites banner (1581) - contra Edmund Campion [q.v.]; iss. Chronicles of Ireland, ed. James Ware (1633)
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Commentary
Geoffrey Keating: Foras Feasa ar Eirinn: The General History of Ireand, ed. David Comyn and P. S. Dinneen (1902-14) - lists Hanmer under Index of Names: ‘Hanmer, Meredith, Doctor of Divinity (1543-1604), author of “Chronicle of Ireland” first published by Sir James Ware in 1633. K. refers to this work throughout his history, and from this it follows that K.’s work did not assume its final form earlier than 1633; K. quotes the 24th page of Hanmer on the origin of Fionn, s[on] of Cumhall, and this corresponds exactly with the paging of Ware’s edition of 1633; states that Bartholinus (i.e., Partholon) was leader of the Gaels on their coming to Ire[land]. (this is in the first page of Hanmer’s Chronicle).’ [q.p.; see copy under Keating.]
Russell Alspach, Irish Poetry from the English Invasion to 1798 (Phil: Pennsylvania UP 1959), p.66f: incl. citation from Sir James Ware to the effect that he was remembered at Shoreditch for converting brass monuments into coin (Whole Works of Sir James Ware, II, 2, p.328); Hanmer achieves an etymological connection between Finn Eric and the Finns, with Eric, through a change of consonants making Fin Erin ‘a great commander [who] conducted into Ireland many Danes’, remarking, ‘this is but my conceit, happily others can say more thereof.’ (op. cit. 45; Alspach p.67); Note also that Keating explicitly rejected Hanmer’s theory of Fionn MacCumhal as descendent of the Danes, as also the genealogy in the Book of Howth (Dermot O’Connor, trans., Keating, History of Ireland, 1723 Edn., p.271; Alspach, p.91).
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References
Dictionary of Irish Biography (RIA 2009) - Judy Barry, “Meredith Hanmer", writes: ‘It may have been ill repute that prompted Hanmer to move to Ireland in 1591. There he was successful in gaining the patronage of the earl of Ormond and acquired a succession of posts. He was appointed archdeacon of Ross in 1591; treasurer of Waterford cathedral in 1593; vicar-choral of Christ Church cathedral, Dublin, in 1594; prebendary of St Michan’s, Dublin, and rector of the Blessed Virgin Mary de Borages in Leighlin in 1595; vicar of the parishes of Muckally, Rathpatrick, and Kilbeacon and Killaghy in Co. Kilkenny in 1598; and warden of the new college at Youghal in 1599. He resigned this position and his prebend of St Michan’s in 1602, and on 16 June 1603 he was appointed chancellor of Ossory, vicar of Fiddown in Kilkenny, and rector of Aglish-Martin in north Waterford.’
Further: ‘His spare time was spent in recording miscellaneous information about Irish customs and manners, including material in Gaelic and indecent popular verse, and, increasingly, in investigating and collecting Irish antiquities. This interest developed into a detailed study of early Irish history in which Hanmer subjected the evidence to critical examination and attempted to distinguish fact from fiction. Under the title Chronicle of Ireland, it was published by Sir John Ware in 1633.¨
[Barry also relates that Hanmer knew the Jesuit Henry Fitzsimon while the latter was imprisoned in Dublin Castle and supplied him with beer and flour and access to his library (i.e., books) but that Fitzsimon remembers him as ‘poor, droll, jolly soul . . . entirely given to eating and drinking, jesting and scoffing’ (Fitzsimon, 60). Available online; accessed 25.06.2024.
Belfast Public Library holds Ancient Irish Histories, Sir James Ware’s collection of Spenser, Hanmer, and Campion [1633] (Hibernia Press 1809).
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