Narcissus Marsh (20 December 1638 – 2 November 1713) was an English clergyman who was successively

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 ...

Bishop of Ferns and Leighlin The Bishop of Ferns and Leighlin was the Ordinary of Church of Ireland diocese of Ferns and Leighlin in the Province of Dublin. The diocese comprised all of counties Wexford and Carlow and part of counties Wicklow and Laois in Republic of Ire ...

Archbishop of Cashel The Archbishop of Cashel ( ga, Ard-Easpag Chaiseal Mumhan) was an archiepiscopal title which took its name after the town of Cashel, County Tipperary in Ireland. Following the Reformation, there had been parallel apostolic successions to the titl ...

, Archbishop of Dublin and Archbishop of Armagh. Marsh was born at Hannington, Wiltshire and was educated at

Magdalen Hall, Oxford Hertford College ( ), previously known as Magdalen Hall, is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on Catte Street in the centre of Oxford, directly opposite the main gate to the Bodleian Library. The colleg ...

. He later became a fellow of

Exeter College, Oxford Exeter College (in full: The Rector and Scholars of Exeter College in the University of Oxford) is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England and the fourth-oldest college of the un ...

, in 1658. In 1662 he was ordained, and presented to the living of

Swindon Swindon () is a town and unitary authority with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Wiltshire, England. As of the 2021 Census, the population of Swindon was 201,669, making it the largest town in the county. The Swindon un ...

, which he resigned in the following year. After acting as chaplain to Seth Ward,

Bishop of Exeter The Bishop of Exeter is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Exeter in the Province of Canterbury. Since 30 April 2014 the ordinary has been Robert Atwell.

and then

Bishop of Salisbury The Bishop of Salisbury is the ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Salisbury in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers much of the counties of Wiltshire and Dorset. The see is in the City of Salisbury where the bishop's seat ...

, and Lord Chancellor Clarendon, he was elected principal of St Alban Hall, Oxford, in 1673. In 1679 he was appointed Provost of

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 ...

, where he did much to encourage the study of the

Irish language Irish ( Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was ...

. He helped to found the

Dublin Philosophical Society The Dublin Philosophical Society was founded in 1683 by William Molyneux with the assistance of his brother Sir Thomas Molyneux and the future Provost and Bishop St George Ashe. It was intended to be the equivalent of the Royal Society in Lond ...

, and contributed to it a paper entitled ''Introductory Essay to the Doctrine of Sounds'' (printed in ''Philosophical Transactions'', No. 156, Oxford, 1684). In 1683 he was consecrated

, but after the accession of James II he was compelled by the turbulent soldiery to flee to England (1689), when he became Vicar of Gresford, Flintshire, and Canon of St. Asaph. Returning to Ireland in 1691 after the

Battle of the Boyne The Battle of the Boyne ( ga, Cath na Bóinne ) was a battle in 1690 between the forces of the deposed King James II of England and Ireland, VII of Scotland, and those of King William III who, with his wife Queen Mary II (his cousin and J ...

, he was made Archbishop of Cashel, and three years later he became Archbishop of Dublin. About this time he founded

Marsh's Library Marsh's Library, situated in St. Patrick's Close, adjacent to St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, Ireland is a well-preserved library of the late Renaissance and early Enlightenment. When it opened to the public in 1707 it was the first public li ...

in Dublin. Many oriental manuscripts belonging to him are now in the

Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second- ...

in Oxford. He became Archbishop of Armagh in 1703. Between 1699 and 1711 he was six times a Lord Justice of Ireland. He died on 2 November 1713. His funeral oration was pronounced by his successor at Dublin, Archbishop King. A more acerbic account is provided by

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish Satire, satirist, author, essayist, political pamphleteer (first for the Whig (British political party), Whigs, then for the Tories (British political party), Tories), poe ...

References

* *Raymond Gillespie: ''Scholar Bishop:the recollections and diary of Narcissus Marsh'', Cork University Press, 2003 {{DEFAULTSORT:Marsh, Narcissus 1638 births 1713 deaths Alumni of Magdalen Hall, Oxford Anglican archbishops of Armagh Anglican archbishops of Cashel Anglican archbishops of Dublin Bishops of Ferns and Leighlin Burials at St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin Fellows of Exeter College, Oxford Members of the Irish House of Lords Members of the Privy Council of Ireland Principals of St Alban Hall, Oxford Provosts of Trinity College Dublin 17th-century Anglican archbishops 18th-century Anglican archbishops Translators of the Bible into Irish 17th-century translators