Page:A Compendium of Irish Biography.djvu/479

 EOB

Grammar School of "Wolverhampton, and there he passed the remainder of his days. In 1772 he was one of a committee of ministers who petitioned Parliament that clergymen on their ordination should be relieved from the necessity of subscribing to the Thirty-nine Articles and Book of Common Prayer. Living with almost Spartan frugality on a salary of some £40 a year, he survived all his children. He died 20th May 1783, aged ^i, and was interred in the parish churchyard of Wol- verhampton. '••*

Robinson, Bichard, Lord Bokeby, Archbishop of Armagh, was born in Yorkshire about 1709. Coming over as chaplain to the Duke of Dorset, Lord- Lieutenant, he was consecrated Bishop of Killala in 175 1 ; translated to Ferns in 1759, and to Kildare and the Deanery of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, in 1761. In 1765 he was advanced to the Primacy. In 1777 he was created Baron Rokeby ; and on the death of his brother succeeded to a baronetcy. Bishop Mant thus enumerates his benefactions : "A publick infirmary, erected by his means, and in a great degree by his contributions ; a publick library, constructed, endowed, and furnished at his cost with what a Greek inscription described as ' the medicine of the soul ;' the town of Armagh, converted by his prudential management of the episcopal property from an unsightly crowd of mud cabins into a handsome city of stone dwellings ; an observatory, built at his expense, and inscribed with the appropriate motto, ' The heavens declare the glory of God ;' combined in attesting the multipli- city and extent, the solid value, and the practical usefulness, of his benefactions. In the mean time the creation of new parochial cures, and the providing of additional residences for the ministers of the Church, proved his solicitude for the welfare of the clergy and people of his diocese ; and the legislative enactments which he caused to be effected for the general extension of these improvements bore witness to his care for the general welfare, and enlarged and augmented efficiency of the Church." He built several churches in his archdiocese, and a splendid palace for himself at Armagh. A contemporary, quoted by the same author, describes the state in which he lived : " I accompanied him on the Sun- day forenoon to the Cathedral. He went in his chariot with six horses, attended by three footmen behind. . . On our approach the great western door was thi'own open, and my friend (in person one of the finest men that covdd be seen)

ROC

entered, like another Archbishop Laud, in high prelatical state, preceded by his officers and ministers of the church." He died near Bristol, loth October 1794, aged 85. His body was interred in the Cathe- dral of Armagh, where a monument, surmounted by a marble bust, has been erected to his memory. Amongst other liberal bequests was one of .£1,000 to the Rotunda Hospital, Dublin. His portrait and bust are placed in the library and hall of Christ Church, Oxford, of which he was a generous benefactor. Cotton says : " He is acknowledged to have been one of the most vigilant prelates and the most munifi- cent benefactors of the Church of Ireland."

Roche, Sir Boyle, Bai-t., "the buf- foon of the Conservative party" in the Irish House of Commons, as he is styled by Mr. Froude, was born in Ireland about the middle of the 1 8th century. As an officer of the British army, he dis- tinguished himself in the American War. Retiring from the service, he obtained a seat in Parliament, and for his consistent support of the Government, was created a baronet in 1782. Acting at the instiga- tion of the Viceroy,'*' he played a very discreditable part at the Rotunda Conven- tion of 1783, declaring, without any war- rant, that he was commissioned by Lord Kenmare to say that the Catholics did not desire to press for any alteration in their position. He voted for the Union, and was granted a pension and the post of Master of Ceremonies at Dublin Castle. Barrington says he was " in point of ap- pearance, a fine, blufi, soldier-like old gentleman. He had numerous good qual- ities ; . . his ideas were full of honour and etiquette — of discipUne and bravery.

. . His lady, who was a ' bas bleu ' prematurely injured Sir Boyle's capacity, it was said, by forcing him to read Gibbon's Decline and Fall." He was gifted with a wonderful memory, and could get oflF by rote, at one or two readings, any produc- tion, no matter how long. The Ministry made constant use of this faculty, and there was scarcely an important debate in which he had not a part previously cast for him. The following are specimens of the many " bulls" attributed to Sir Boyle, most of them supposed to have been ut- tered in the House of Commons : " Mr. Speaker, if we once permitted the villain- ous French masons to meddle with the but- tresses and walls of our ancient constitution, they would never stop nor stay sir, till they brought the foundation stones tumbling down about the ears of the nation. . . Here perhaps, sirs, the murderous Mar- 455