Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 45.djvu/106

 is a portrait of Petrie in possession of the consistory, of which an engraving is given in Stevens's ‘History of the Scottish Church, Rotterdam.’ It is a face indicative of sagacity and force of character, and does not belie the reputation Petrie had of possessing a somewhat hasty temper.

He left two sons—Alexander, minister of the Scots church at Delft; George, an apothecary—and three daughters: Christian, married to Andrew Snype, minister of the Scots church at Campvere; Isobel, married, first to William Wallace, merchant, secondly to Robert Allan; and Elspeth, married to George Murray.



PETRIE, GEORGE (1789–1866), Irish antiquary, only child of James Petrie, a portrait-painter, was born in Dublin in 1789. His grandfather, also named James, was a native of Aberdeen who had settled in Ireland, and his mother was daughter of Sacheverel Simpson of Edinburgh. In 1799 he was sent to the school in Dublin of Samuel White, who was the schoolmaster of [q. v.] and of [q. v.] He attended the art school of the Dublin Society, and before he was fourteen was awarded the silver medal of the society for drawing a group of figures. He early became devoted to the study of Irish antiquities, and in 1808 travelled in Wicklow, and made notes of Irish music, of ecclesiastical architecture, and of ancient earthworks and pillar-stones. He visited Wales, making landscape sketches, in 1810, and in 1813 came to London and was kindly treated by Benjamin West, to whom he had an introduction.

After his return to Ireland he painted landscapes, chiefly in Dublin, Wicklow, Kildare, the King's County, and Kerry, and in 1816 he exhibited at Somerset House pictures of Glendalough and Glenmalure, both in Wicklow. Lord Whitworth bought them. In 1820 Petrie contributed ninety-six illustrations to Cromwell's ‘Excursions in Ireland,’ and afterwards many others to Brewer's ‘Beauties of Ireland,’ to G. N. Wright's ‘Historical Guide to Dublin,’ to Wright's ‘Tours,’ and to the ‘Guide to Wicklow and Killarney.’ Nearly all these illustrations deserve careful study, and have much artistic merit as well as absolute antiquarian fidelity. At the first exhibition of the Royal Hibernian Academy in 1826, Petrie exhibited a large picture of Ardfinane, a picturesque castle standing above a many-arched bridge on the north bank of the Suir. He exhibited the next year ‘The Round Tower of Kilbannon,’ co. Galway, and ‘Dun Aengus,’ a great cashel in Aranmor, co. Galway. He was elected an academician in 1828, and exhibited ‘The Twelve Pins in Connemara,’ a group of sharp-pointed mountains, and ‘The Last Round of the Pilgrims at Clonmacnoise.’ In 1829 he painted ‘The Knight and the Lady’ and ‘Culdean Abbey,’ a ruin in the dried-up marsh known as ‘Inis na mbéo,’ to the right of the road from Thurles to Roscrea. He was appointed librarian to the Hibernian Academy in 1830, and exhibited six pictures, and in 1831 nine. In the course of his studies for these pictures he made many tours throughout Ireland, travelled along the whole course of the Shannon, thoroughly studied Clonmacnoise, Cong, Kilfenora, the Aran islands, and many other ecclesiastical ruins.

When [q. v.] began the ‘Dublin Penny Journal,’ of which the first number appeared on 30 June 1832, Petrie joined him, and wrote many antiquarian articles in the fifty-six weekly numbers which appeared. He was the sole editor of the ‘Irish Penny Journal,’ which appeared for a year in 1842. Both contain much original information on Irish history never before printed, and the best articles are those of Petrie and [q. v.] Petrie joined the Royal Irish Academy in 1828, was elected on its council in 1829, and worked hard to improve its museum and library. At the sale of the library of Austin Cooper in 1831 he discovered and purchased the autograph copy of the second part of the ‘Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland,’ called by Colgan the ‘Annals of the Four Masters.’ For the museum his exertions procured the reliquary known as the cross of Cong, the shrine called ‘Domhnach airgid,’ and the Dawson collection of Irish antiquities.

From 1833 to 1846 he was attached to the ordnance survey of Ireland, and, next to John O'Donovan, was the member of the staff who did most to preserve local history and historical topography. His studies on Tara, written in November 1837, were published by the Royal Irish Academy as an ‘Essay on the Antiquities of Tara,’ a work which contains all that is known on the topography of the ancient seat of the chief kings of Ireland. More may probably be learnt by careful excavations, and certainly by a fuller consideration of Irish literature than Petrie, who was ignorant of Irish, could give; but every one who has visited the locality can testify to the accuracy of Petrie and to the scholar-like