[4th Baron] William Conyngham Plunket

Life
1828-1897; eldest son of John Plunket (3rd Baron Plunket) and grandson of William Conyngham (1st Baron) and and Charlotte Bushe, dg. of Charles Kendal Bushe; ed. Cheltenham College, and TCD, BA1853; ord. 1857; chaplain to his uncle, Thomas Plunket, Bishop of Tuam; rector of Kilmoylan and Cummer, 1858; m. Ann, dg. Sir Benjamin Lee Guinness (d. 1889; commemorated with a stain-glass window in St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin); treasurer of St Patrick’s Cathedral, 1864; bishop of Meath, 1876-84; leader of evangelical party in Irish church and active in Irish Church Missions Society; sought unification of Protestant churches,

opposed Disestablishment of the Church of Ireland; reorganised Church of Ireland Teacher Training College; elevated to archbishop of Dublin, Glendalough and Kildare, 1884; also Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, 1884-87; aided cause of Protestant reform in Spain, Portugal and Italy; his writings incl. Book for Tourists in Ireland (1863); Short Visit to Connemara Missions (1863); All Things are Ready, A Sermon (1865); Church and Census in Ireland (1865); The Missionary Character and Responsibility of Our Church in This Land (1865); a memoir of Plunket appeared in the New Irish Magazine and Monthly National Advocate (October, 1822); received hon. degree from Cambridge, 1888; d. 1 Aug. 1897; bur. St. Jerome Cem., Dublin; there is a prominent monument and statue on Kildare St., Dublin. ODNB DIH

Criticism
Frederick Douglas How, William Conyngham Plunket, 4th Baron Plunket and 61st Archbishop of Dublin, A Memoir (Isbister 1900); also An Archbishop of Dublin, commemorated by Shan Bullock in Loyal Heart and True [q.v.] (copy in Belfast Central Public Library).

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