William Boyton Kirk (29 May 1824 – 5 July 1900) was an Irish artist, writer and clergyman.

Life

William Boyton Kirk was born on 29 May 1824 in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 c ...

. He was the second son of the sculptor Thomas Kirk. He trained under his father, and then went on to study at the

Dublin Society The Royal Dublin Society (RDS) ( ga, Cumann Ríoga Bhaile Átha Cliath) is an Irish philanthropic organisation and members club which was founded as the 'Dublin Society' on 25 June 1731 with the aim to see Ireland thrive culturally and economi ...

school in 1839. He entered

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 1845, but left without a degree. He exhibited with the

Royal Hibernian Academy The Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) is an artist-based and artist-oriented institution in Ireland, founded in Dublin in 1823. Like many other Irish institutions, such as the RIA, the academy retained the word "Royal" after most of Ireland became in ...

(RHA) for the first time in 1844, becoming an associate member in 1850. Among his notable works is the figure of Justice on the Belfast courthouse. For

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Engla ...

china, he designed the "Shakespeare" dessert service which was exhibited at the Dublin Exhibition of 1853. From 1848 to 1857, he designed for Belleek porcelain. He illustrated an 1853 edition of Shakespeare's ''Midsummer night's dream''. He married Sarah Watson Mahony, daughter of Denis Fitzgerald Mahony, County Limerick in 1853. He entered the church in 1860, and moved to England becoming the vicar at Holy Trinity,

Birkenhead Birkenhead (; cy, Penbedw) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England; historically, it was part of Cheshire until 1974. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the south bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liver ...

, and later at St Peter's,

Ashton-under-Lyne Ashton-under-Lyne is a market town in Tameside, Greater Manchester, England. The population was 45,198 at the 2011 census. Historically in Lancashire, it is on the north bank of the River Tame, in the foothills of the Pennines, east of Manche ...

. He resigned from the RHA in 1873, and became an honorary member. He wrote ''Poems on St Peter's church, Ashton-under-Lyne'' (1883), ''The immaculate conception or the martyrs of Santiago'', ''The sailor's complaint'', ''The martyrs of Antioch'', and ''Antiqities of Ashton-under-Lyne and neighbourhood''. He died in Ashton-under-Lyne on 5 July 1900.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirk, William Boyton 1824 births 1900 deaths Irish illustrators Irish sculptors Artists from Dublin (city)