Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 2.djvu/626

 622 WARE. without sin, &c. He was an honest and able man, much practised in intrigues, and knew well the methods of the Jesuits and other missionaries.” Walsh wrote various controversial pamphlets, a com plete list of which is to be found in Ware. SIR. JAMES WARE, A Most learned and laborious investigator of Irish anti quities and history, was born in Castle-street, Dublin, November 26, 1594. His father, who held the office of auditor-general, with the reversion to his son, discovering in him an ardent and early love of literature, gave him a good classical education; and, at the age of sixteen, he was entered a fellow-commoner of Trinity college, where he studied with such success, that he was admitted M.A. at a much earlier period than usual. The taste which he discovered for antiquities, intro duced him, while at college, to the notice of the celebrated Usher, who soon became much attached to him; and in his work “De Primordiis,” took occasion to announce to the public what might be expected from Ware's exertions. He had commenced collecting MSS. and making tran scripts from such as he could procure access to in the libraries of antiquaries and genealogists, and from the registers and chartularies of cathedrals and monasteries, in which he spared no expense. The collections of Usher, and of Daniel Molyneux, Ulster king at arms, were con stantly open to him, and from their rich stores he derived considerable advantage. After exhausting whatever re sources Ireland afforded, he went to England in 1626, where he was introduced by Usher to Sir Robert Cotton, who admitted him to his valuable library, and formed so intimate a connexion with him, as to keep up a constant correspondence during the remainder of his life. The materials with which he furnished himself from the Cotton collection, the Tower of London, and other repositories, (many of which, in his hand-writing, are preserved in the