Mervyn Archdall (1723 – 1791) was an Irish antiquary and clergyman of 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 ...

Life

He was descended from John Archdale, of Abbotts Hall, Darsham, in Suffolk, who settled at

Castle Archdale Castle Archdale in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland is a former estate on the shores of Lough Erne Lower, the key feature of which today is Castle Archdale Country Park. There is also a caravan park. The former estate is situated near Lisnarick ...

County Fermanagh County Fermanagh ( ; ) is one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland, one of the nine counties of Ulster and one of the six counties of Northern Ireland. The county covers an area of 1,691 km2 (653 sq mi) and has a population of 61,805 a ...

as an Undertaker in the

Plantation of Ulster The Plantation of Ulster ( gle, Plandáil Uladh; Ulster-Scots: ''Plantin o Ulstèr'') was the organised colonisation (''plantation'') of Ulstera province of Irelandby people from Great Britain during the reign of King James I. Most of the sett ...

.'Memoirs of the Archdales', H B Archdale, 1925, page 7 He was born in Dublin on 22 April 1723. After graduating from

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 ...

, his antiquarian tastes introduced him to the acquaintance of Walter Harris, Charles Smith the topographer, Thomas Prior, and

Richard Pococke Richard Pococke (19 November 1704 – 25 September 1765)''Notes and Queries'', p. 129. was an English-born churchman, inveterate traveller and travel writer. He was the Bishop of Ossory (1756–65) and Meath (1765), both dioceses of the Church ...

, archdeacon of Dublin. When Pococke became

bishop of Ossory The Bishop of Ossory () is an Episcopal polity, episcopal title which takes its name after the ancient of Kingdom of Ossory in the Provinces of Ireland, Province of Leinster, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In the Roman Catholic Church it remain ...

, he appointed Archdall his domestic chaplain, bestowed on him the living of Attanagh (partly in Queen's County and partly in co. Kilkenny), and the prebend of Cloneamery in the cathedral church of Ossory (1762), which he afterwards exchanged (1764) for the prebend of Mayne in the same cathedral. Archdall was also chaplain to Francis Pierpoint, Lord Conyngham, and a member of the

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 ...

. Having married his only daughter to a clergyman, he resigned part of his preferments in the diocese of Ossory to his son-in-law, and obtained the rectory of

Slane Slane () is a village in County Meath, in Ireland. The village stands on a steep hillside on the left bank of the River Boyne at the intersection of the N2 (Dublin to Monaghan road) and the N51 (Drogheda to Navan road). As of the 2016 census ...

in the diocese of Meath, where he died, 6 August 1791.

Works

His major work is ''Monasticum Hibernicum; or, An history of the abbeys, priories, and other religious houses in Ireland.'' (Dublin: printed for Luke White, 1786). Mistakes in it are rectified in John Lanigan's ''Ecclesiastical History of Ireland.'' Considerable portions of the work appear to have been contributed by Edward Ledwich. The publication of a new edition, entitled ''Monasticon Hibernicum'', with notes by Patrick F. Moran and other antiquaries began, in parts, at Dublin in 1871. He also produced an edition of John Lodge's ''Peerage of Ireland'', 'revised, enlarged, and continued to the present time,' (7 vols. 1789).

References

;Citations ;Bibliography * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Archdall, Mervyn 1723 births 1791 deaths Irish writers 18th-century Irish historians Irish antiquarians 18th-century Irish Anglican priests People from County Meath People from County Fermanagh