STRICTURES ON THE ECCLESIASTICAL AND LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND: FROM THE MOST ANCIENT TIMES TILL THE INTRODUCTION OF THE ROMAN RITUAL, AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF PAPAL SUPREMACY, BY HENRY II, KING OF ENGLAND. ALSO, AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE CONSTITUTION AND GOVERNMENT OF IRELAND FROM THE MOST EARLY AUTHENTICATED PERIOD DOWN TO THE YEAR 1783.
Dublin: Luke White, 1789. First Edition. Hardcover. Octavo, 5.5 x 9 in., pp. xii + 418 + 1(Errata). Tastefully and recently fully restored in smooth dark three-quarters calf with gilt design over marble boards. Five-raised bands on spine, with gilt title on two black panels and gilt designs. Edges untrimmed. Owner's signature in ink to title page and p. 1. Pages are clean. (ESTC T150273). Very good plus. Item #85426
Campbell, Thomas (1733–95), Church of Ireland clergyman and miscellaneous writer, was born at Glack, Co. Tyrone, on 4 May 1733, the eldest son of the Rev. Moses Campbell (1695?–1772) and his wife, Elizabeth (née Johnston) of Tully, Co. Monaghan. He entered TCD in 1752, graduated BA in 1756, was ordained in the Church of Ireland in 1761, and obtained the degree of LLD in 1772. Some minor clerical preferments were followed by the chancellorship of St Macartan's, Clogher, in February 1773.
Between 1775 and 1793 he paid seven visits to England, during which he moved in Dr Johnson's circle. His journal of one of these visits, a valuable piece of Johnsoniana, remained unpublished until it appeared in Sydney in 1854 as A diary of a visit to England in 1775 (new ed., Cambridge, 1947). He visited France in 1787. During his lifetime he was best known for his authorship of "A philosophical survey of the south of Ireland" (1777). Partly a narrative of a tour of Ireland made on horseback between July and November 1775, partly a disquisition on Irish life, it was intended to enlighten the English about Ireland.
A much larger work by Campbell was "Strictures on the ecclesiastical and literary history of Ireland from the most ancient times till the introduction of the Roman ritual . . . by Henry II . . . also an historical sketch of the constitution and government of Ireland . . . to the year 1783" (1789).
Thomas Campbell was highly regarded as a preacher and some of his sermons were published. He resided in Co. Monaghan, at Shanco near Killeevan. Beside his house he built a church in the early 1790s. He may have married Jane Holmes of Moyare, Pomeroy, Co. Tyrone, but if so she long predeceased him and there were no children. He died 20 June 1795 in London.
(adapted from Dictionary of Irish Biography).
Price: $400.00