The Rev. James Whitelaw BA, MRIA (1749 – 4 February 1813) was an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

historian, writer, statistician, Anglican priest and philanthropist.

Life

He was born in

County Leitrim County Leitrim ( ; gle, Contae Liatroma) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Connacht and is part of the Northern and Western Region. It is named after the village of Leitrim. Leitrim County Council is the local authority for the ...

and educated at

Trinity College Dublin , name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin , motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin) , motto_lang = la , motto_English = It will last i ...

. He was elected a Scholar in 1769, and graduated in 1771 with a BA. He was ordained in the

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the second ...

and became rector of St. James and then St. Catherine's in Thomas St. in Dublin. He carried out a great deal of work on behalf of the poor, including establishing the Erasmus Smith Free School on

the Coombe The Coombe (; ga, An Com) is a historic street in the south inner city of Dublin, Ireland. It was originally a hollow or valley where a tributary of the River Poddle, the Coombe Stream or Commons Water, ran. The name is sometimes used for the b ...

and other institutions. In 1798 he carried out a census of the city of Dublin (a difficult undertaking at the time on account of the

1798 Rising The Irish Rebellion of 1798 ( ga, Éirí Amach 1798; Ulster-Scots: ''The Hurries'') was a major uprising against British rule in Ireland. The main organising force was the Society of United Irishmen, a republican revolutionary group influenced ...

). Epidemic diseases were then frequent in Dublin, but, undeterred by the fear of infection, he personally inspected nearly every house in the city and questioned nearly every inhabitant. Hitherto the extent of the population had been only vaguely conjectured - he counted a total population of 182,370. He published the results of his investigations in 1805 in his ''Essay on the Population of Dublin in 1798''. The many detailed statistics which he accumulated were stored in the city archives in

Dublin Castle Dublin Castle ( ga, Caisleán Bhaile Átha Cliath) is a former Motte-and-bailey castle and current Irish government complex and conference centre. It was chosen for its position at the highest point of central Dublin. Until 1922 it was the se ...

, which were among those destroyed in the

Four Courts The Four Courts ( ga, Na Ceithre Cúirteanna) is Ireland's most prominent courts building, located on Inns Quay in Dublin. The Four Courts is the principal seat of the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, the High Court and the Dublin Circuit ...

during the Irish Civil War in 1922. In 1805 he was made one of the members of the commission to inquire into the conduct of the paving board of Dublin. He formed the Meath Charitable Loan in 1808. He collaborated with John Warburton, deputy keeper of the records in

, in writing a ''History of Dublin'', completed after his death by Robert Walsh.Irish Times, 3 November 1934, p. 6 He ministered to the poor in the vicinity of Cork Street Fever Hospital, where he caught a fever himself and died in 1813.

Bibliography

*Whitelaw, Jame
''An essay on the population of Dublin, being the result of an actual survey taken in 1798''
Dublin, 1805.
''History of the City of Dublin''
by Whitelaw, Warburton, and Walsh. Vol. 1 of 2, London, 1818. *''Parental Solicitude'' (Dublin, 1800) *''A System of Geography'', of which the maps only (engraved by himself) were published *''An Essay on the best method of ascertaining Areas of Countries of any considerable Extent'' (Transactions of

Royal Irish Academy The Royal Irish Academy (RIA; ga, Acadamh Ríoga na hÉireann), based in Dublin, is an academic body that promotes study in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. It is Ireland's premier List of Irish learned societies, learned socie ...

, vol. vi.)

Notes

References

* * * * *

F. Elrington Ball Francis Elrington Ball, known as F. Elrington Ball (1863–1928), was an Irish author and legal historian, best known for his work ''The Judges in Ireland 1221–1921'' (1926). Life A younger son of John Thomas Ball (1815 to 1898), the Lord Chan ...

: A History of the County Dublin. 1903. Part II. *St. James' Graveyard, Dublin - History and Associations (Dublin, 1988)

External links

Ireland Sixty Years Ago
online book, based on the memories of Robert Walsh. {{DEFAULTSORT:Whitelaw, James 1749 births 1813 deaths 18th-century Irish historians 19th-century Irish historians Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Irish statisticians Irish writers Members of the Royal Irish Academy People from County Leitrim Scholars of Trinity College Dublin