Life
1660-1745 [also Stearne]; vicar of Trim, dean of St. Patrick’s, bishop of Clogher; friend of Swift, his successor at St. Patrick’s; Swift’s letters full of friendly allusions; 1721, Vice Chancellor to Dublin University; presented £1,000, for erection of Printing House, TCD; endowed the Blue Coat School and bequeathed money for Swift’s hospital in his will; issued Tractatus de Visitatione Infirmorum (Dublin 1697; London 1700), later translated as The Curate’s Manual (London 1740); reprinted as Clergyman’s Instructor (1807, 1813); presented important collection of Irish MSS to TCD Library in 1741; Jonathan Swift whose letters are full of frien
Richard Ryan, Biographia Hibernica: Irish Worthies, Vol.II [of 2] (London & Dublin 1821) |
| A LEARNED Irish physician, was born at Abdraccan, io the county of Meath, in the house of his uncle, the celebrated Archbishop Usher, but then Bishop of Meath. He was educated in Dublin college, of which he became a fellow, but was ejected by the usurping powers for his loyalty, and was reinstated at the Restoration. He was M.D. and LL.D. and public professor of the university. He was a very learned man, but more food of the study of divinity than that of his own profession, in which he possessed considerable knowledge. He died in 1669, aged forty-six, and was buried in the college chapel, where a monument was erected to his memory. He published a few Latin tracts, a list of which is to be found in Ware. Dr. Sterne’s son, John, was educated by him in Trinity college, Dublin, and became successively vicar of Trim, chancellor and dean of St. Patrick’s, bishop of Dromore in 1713, and of Clogher in 1717, and vice-chancellor of the university of Dublin. Being a single man, he laid out immense sums on his episcopal palaces, and on the college of Dublin, where he built the printing-house, and founded exhibitions. Most of these were gifts in his life-time, and at his death (June 1745) be bequeathed the bulk of his fortune, about £30,000 to public institutions, principally of the charitable kind. His only publications were, a “Concio ad Cleram,” and “Tractates de Visitatione [575] Infirmorum,” for the use of the junior clergy, printed at Dublin in 1697, 12mo. Dean Swift appears to have corresponded with bishop Sterne for many years on the most intimate and friendly terms; but at length, in 1733, the dean sent him a letter full of bitter sarcasm and reproach, to which the bishop returned an answer that marks a superior command of temper; but it appears from the life of the Rev. Philip Skelton, that his lordship deserved much of what Swift had imputed to him. |
| See full copy in RICORSO > Library > Criticism > History > Legacy - via index or as attached |
dly allusions to him; bequeathed his collection of books to Marsh’s Library; there is an oil portrait by Thomas Carlton in the Provost’s House (TCD). RR ODNB DIW
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Notes
S. C. Hughes, The Church of S. Werburgh Dublin (1899) gives notice of John Stearne, DD, Chancellor of that Church, 1702-04, and son of the above who was MD, FTCD, Medicus, first Hebrew Lecturer, first Pres. of College of Physicians. The younger grad. TCD 1678, Prebendary of Donaghmore, 1679, Rector of Stahalmack, 1682; Strokestown, 1685, Clonmacduffe, 1692, Killary, 1703; Chancellor, 1702, Dean [of Werburgh’s] 1704; also holding Parish of Nicholas Without; bishop of Dromore Ap. 25 1713, Clogher, 1717; Vice-Chancellor of University, 1721-43; d. at 85 in 1745; benefactions to University, Steevens’ Hosp. King’s Hospital Sch,; contribution to building of S. Werburgh’s and bequeathed £80 for catechist in the parishes of S. Werburgh and S. Nicholas Without.
Charity boy: The school erected at Middleton, Co. Tyrone, in 1833 was administered by the Charities of Dr. Stearne [?idem].
See Thomas Sheridan, The Life of Swift (1784; 2nd end. 1787) - quoting Swift’s letters: ‘19th. I forgot to tell you, that Lord Treasuer forced me to dine with him yesterday, as usual, with his Saturday company, which I did, after frequent refusals. To day I dined with a privat friend, and was not a Court. After dinner, Mr. Lewis sent me word, that the Queen sayed 'till she knew whether the Duke of Ormon approved of Sterne for a Bishop. I wne this evening, and found the duke of Ormaon at the Cockpit, and told him, and desired he would go to the Queen, and approve of Sterne. He made objections, and desired I would name any other Deanery, for he did not liek Sterne; that Sterne never went to see him; that he was influenced by the Archbishop of Dublin, ,&c. so all is now broken again. I sent out for Lord Treasurer, and told him this. He says, all will do well; but I value not what he says. This suspense vexes me worse than any thing else.’ (p.134; Available at Internet Archive - online; access 01.09.2017.) [Note: there is much mention before and after of his own hopes for a Bishopric and the difficulties Lord Oxford, Lord Treasurer, encountered in ‘the prejudice conceived against him by the Queen’ [Sheridan] - which Oxford keeps hidden from him since he has need of Swift in London (p.137.)]
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