seamus dubhghaill

Promoting Irish Culture and History from Little Rock, Arkansas, USA

Tag Archives: Ballyhaise


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Birth of Mervyn Archdale, High Sheriff & Member of Parliament

Mervyn Edward Archdale DL, Irish soldier, High Sheriff and Member of Parliament (MP) known as Mervyn Edward Archdall until 1875, is born in Dublin on January 27, 1812.

Archdale is the eldest son of Edward Archdall of Riversdale, County Fermanagh, who serves as Sheriff of Fermanagh in 1813, and his wife Matilda, daughter of William Humphrys of Ballyhaise, County Cavan. He is educated at private schools in England at the expense of his uncle, General Mervyn Archdall, MP for Fermanagh (1801–34), and Brasenose College, Oxford, where he matriculates in 1830 but does not graduate.

Archdale joins the 6th (Inniskilling) Dragoons, becoming a cornet in 1832, a lieutenant in 1835 and a captain in 1841. He retires on half pay in 1847.

In June 1834, Archdale is elected the Member of Parliament for Fermanagh following the retirement of his uncle Mervyn Archdall. He is returned unopposed in the succeeding nine elections. From 1836, he is a noted member of the Orange Order and becomes treasurer of the Grand Lodge of Ireland. He votes in 1856 to disendow Maynooth College. When in 1868 he is asked to support a plea for the reprieve of Michael Barrett, a local Fenian under sentence of death in London, he refuses. He does not stand at the election of January 1874.

On the death of another uncle, Lt. Col. William Archdall, on January 1, 1857, Archdale inherits the family estates of Castle Archdale and Trillick in County Tyrone. He is appointed High Sheriff of Fermanagh in 1879.

Archdale has an interest in and also keeps racehorses. Other pursuits in which he is prominent are coursing and boating. He is a Freemason and member of five clubs.

Archdale marries Emma Inez, the daughter of Jacob Goulding of Kew, Surrey, with whom he has two sons, Mervyn Henry and Hugh James, and three daughters.

Archdale dies on December 22, 1895, at Cannes in the south of France. His estates pass to his brother, William Humphrys Archdale, who also takes over the representation of Fermanagh in Parliament.


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Death of Poet Laureate Nahum Tate

nahum-tate

Nahum Tate, Irish poet, hymnist, and lyricist, who becomes Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom in 1692,  dies on July 30, 1715. Tate is best known for The History of King Lear, his 1681 adaptation of William Shakespeare‘s King Lear.

Tate is born in Dublin in 1652 and comes from a family of Puritan clergymen. He is the son of Faithful Teate, an Irish clergyman who was rector of Castleterra, Ballyhaise, until his house is burned and his family attacked after he passes on information to the government about plans for the Irish Rebellion of 1641. After living at the provost’s lodgings in Trinity College, Dublin, Faithful Teate moves to England. He becomes the incumbent at East Greenwich around 1650, and “preacher of the gospel” at Sudbury from 1654 to 1658 before returning to Dublin by 1660. He publishes a poem on the Trinity entitled Ter Tria, as well as some sermons, two of which he dedicates to Oliver and Henry Cromwell.

Nahum Teate follows his father to Trinity College, Dublin in 1668, and graduates BA in 1672. By 1676 he moves to London and is writing for a living. He publishes a volume of poems in London in 1677 and becomes a regular writer for the stage. He also adopts the spelling Tate, which remains until his death.

Tate then turns to make a series of adaptations from Elizabethan dramas. His version of William Shakespeare’s Richard II alters the names of the characters and changes the text so that every scene, to use his own words, is “full of respect to Majesty and the dignity of courts.” In spite of these precautions The Sicilian Usurper (1681), as his rewrite is called, is suppressed on the third performance on account of a possible political interpretation.

In 1682, Tate collaborates with John Dryden to complete the second half of his epic poem Absalom and Achitophel. Tate also writes the libretto for Henry Purcell‘s opera Dido and Aeneas, which is given its first known performance in 1689. Tate’s name is also connected with the famous New Version of the Psalms of David (1696), for which he collaborates with Nicholas Brady.

Nahum Tate dies in Southwark, London, England, on July 30, 1715, and is buried at St. George Southwark on August 1, 1715.