Samuel Butcher PC (9 October 1811 – 29 July 1876) was an Irish

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

bishop 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 ...

in the 19th century. Butcher was born in Danesfort,

County Kilkenny County Kilkenny ( gle, Contae Chill Chainnigh) is a county in Ireland. It is in the province of Leinster and is part of the South-East Region. It is named after the city of Kilkenny. Kilkenny County Council is the local authority for the cou ...

, the son of Samuel Butcher, a distinguished naval commander, and Elizabeth Anne Herbert. He graduated 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 ...

in 1829He was educated at

. and joined the clergy of the Church of Ireland. Between 1837 and 1852 he was a Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin and in 1849 and became a

Doctor of Divinity A Doctor of Divinity (D.D. or DDiv; la, Doctor Divinitatis) is the holder of an advanced academic degree in divinity. In the United Kingdom, it is considered an advanced doctoral degree. At the University of Oxford, doctors of divinity are ran ...

. He was Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Trinity College in 1850, before working as Professor of

Divinity Divinity or the divine are things that are either related to, devoted to, or proceeding from a deity.divine

from 1852 to 1866. He was the Rector of Ballymoney,

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population o ...

between 1854 and 1866. In 1866 Butcher became

Bishop of Meath The Bishop of Meath is an episcopal title which takes its name after the ancient Kingdom of Meath. In the Roman Catholic Church it remains as a separate title, but in the Church of Ireland it has been united with another bishopric. History Unti ...

, and was subsequently made a member of the

Privy Council of Ireland His or Her Majesty's Privy Council in Ireland, commonly called the Privy Council of Ireland, Irish Privy Council, or in earlier centuries the Irish Council, was the institution within the Dublin Castle administration which exercised formal executi ...

. Butcher married Mary Leahy, daughter of John Leahy, on 23 November 1847. Together they had six children. His second son was

John Butcher, 1st Baron Danesfort John George Butcher, 1st Baron Danesfort, KC (15 November 1853 – 30 June 1935), known as Sir John Butcher, Bt, between 1918 and 1924, was a British barrister and Conservative Party politician. Background and education Butcher was the second ...

and his eldest daughter married

Thomas Spring Rice, 2nd Baron Monteagle of Brandon Thomas Spring Rice, 2nd Baron Monteagle of Brandon (31 May 1849 – 24 December 1926) was an Anglo-Irish politician and landowner, who helped to found the anti-partition Irish Dominion League and was a key figure in the development of Irish co ...

. Butcher caused controversy in

Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the establis ...

society when he committed suicide on 29 July 1876. The inquest into his death decided that this was the result of a temporary insanity brought on by fever.THE LATE DR. BUTCHER—THE INQUEST.IQUEST. I. Freeman's Journal and Daily Commercial Advertiser (Dublin, Ireland), Tuesday, 1 August 1876; Issue N/A.

Works

The Ecclesiastical Calendar: Its theory and construction
', Dublin: 1877. Edited and published posthumously by his sons

Samuel Henry Butcher Samuel Henry Butcher DCL LLD (; 16 April 1850 – 29 December 1910) was an Anglo-Irish classical scholar and politician. Life Samuel Henry Butcher was born in Dublin to Samuel Butcher, Bishop of Meath and Mary Leahy. He was educated at M ...

and

John George Butcher John George Butcher, 1st Baron Danesfort, KC (15 November 1853 – 30 June 1935), known as Sir John Butcher, Bt, between 1918 and 1924, was a British barrister and Conservative Party politician. Background and education Butcher was the second ...

References

1811 births 1876 deaths Academics of Trinity College Dublin Fellows of Trinity College Dublin 19th-century Anglican bishops in Ireland Anglican bishops of Meath Members of the Privy Council of Ireland Regius Professors of Divinity (University of Dublin) {{Ireland-Anglican-bishop-stub