George Montgomery (1562–1621) (alias Montgomerie [1] ) was a Scottish protestant cleric, promoted by King James VI and I to various Irish bishoprics. He held the offices of Rector of Chedzoy, Somerset; Dean of Norwich (1603); Bishop of Raphoe, Bishop of Clogher, Bishop of Derry (1605); and Bishop of Meath (1610). [2]
He was born in North Ayrshire, the younger son of Adam Montgomery, 5th Laird of Braidstane, and brother of Hugh Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery, who used his influence on George's behalf. Their mother Margaret Montgomery of Hessilhead was a cousin. [3] [4] After James I had made him Dean of Norwich in 1603, [5] he was appointed the first Protestant Bishop of Raphoe, in 1605. [6] There he began the reconstruction of The Cathedral Church of St. Eunan. [7] At the same time he was made Bishop of Clogher and Bishop of Derry; and in 1607 lobbied Lord Salisbury for the establishment of free schools in Ulster. His translation to these remote Irish sers did not greatly please him, nor his wife, who referred with bewilderment to the King's gift of "three Irish dioceses whose names I cannot remember, they are so strange". [8]
In 1608, when O'Doherty's Rebellion broke out in Ulster, the settlement of Derry was captured and burnt by the rebels led by Sir Cathaoir Ruadh Ó Dochartaigh (Sir Cahir Rua O'Doherty). Although Bishop Montgomery and Ó Dochartaigh had been on good terms before the rising (both had quarrelled with Sir George Paulet, the Governor of Derry, who is often blamed for provoking the rebellion), the rebels burnt the Bishop's house and his library of two thousand books because of their supposedly heretical content. The Bishop's wife and sister were taken as hostages by the rebels, but were eventually freed by Crown forces.
From 1609, he assisted in the plantation of Scots in western Ulster. Though he was frequently accused, even by the Crown itself, of neglecting his pastoral duties, he was a fine administrator and an astute man of business. He did much to strengthen the Church of Ireland in Ulster, and accumulated a comfortable private fortune, which passed by marriage to the St Lawrence family. [9]
From 1610 he was Bishop of Meath, retaining the Norwich deanery to 1614, and the Raphoe bishopric for the rest of his life. Montgomery was also rector of Chedzoy. [10]
After his death in London in 1620/21, his body was taken back to Ireland and buried at Ardbraccan Church, near Navan in County Meath. [11]
He married twice:
He was praised in his time as "no lazy bishop nor idle patriot" and was called the "darling and chief advocate of the Church of Ireland". He was also noted for his loyalty to his brother, Lord Montgomery, his "best and closest friend".[ citation needed ]
Raphoe is a small town in County Donegal in the north-west of Ulster, the northern province in Ireland. It is the main town in the fertile district of East Donegal known as the Laggan, as well as giving its name to the Barony of Raphoe, which was later divided into the baronies of Raphoe North and Raphoe South, as well as to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Raphoe and the Church of Ireland (Anglican) Diocese of Derry and Raphoe. There is also a civil parish of Raphoe.
Convoy is a village and civil parish in the east of County Donegal, Ireland. The village is located in the Finn Valley district and is part of the Barony of Raphoe South. It is situated on the Burn Dale, and is located on the R236 road to Raphoe.
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Sir Hugh Montgomery, 1st Viscount Montgomery of the Great Ards was an aristocrat and a soldier, known as one of the "founding fathers" of the Ulster-Scots along with Sir James Hamilton, 1st Viscount Claneboye. Montgomery was born in Ayrshire at Broadstone Castle, near Beith. He was the son of Adam Montgomery, the 5th Laird of Braidstane, by his wife and cousin Margaret Montgomery of Hessilhead.
The Diocese of Raphoe is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in County Donegal in Ulster, Ireland. It is one of eight suffragan dioceses in the inter-Irish primatial ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Armagh.
Ezekiel Hopkins was an Anglican divine in the Church of Ireland, who was Bishop of Derry from 1681 to 1690.
The Diocese of Derry and Raphoe is a diocese of the Church of Ireland in the north-west of Ireland. It is in the ecclesiastical province of Armagh. Its geographical remit straddles two civil jurisdictions: in Northern Ireland, it covers all of County Londonderry and large parts of County Tyrone while in the Republic of Ireland it covers County Donegal.
John Leslie was a combative Scottish royalist and Church of Ireland bishop of Clogher, who became known as the "fighting bishop" for his resistance to Irish clans the Rising of 1641 and to the New Model Army during the later Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. He is also notable for almost reaching the age of 100.
Henry Leslie was a Scotsman who became the Church of Ireland Bishop of Down and Connor from 1635 to 1661 and briefly Bishop of Meath from January to April 1661.
St. George Ashe, D.D. was an Irish mathematician who served as the 15th Provost of Trinity College Dublin from 1692 to 1695. In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, he served as Church of Ireland Bishop of Cloyne, Clogher and Derry, in succession. From 1685 to 1692, he was the Donegall Lecturer in Mathematics at Trinity College Dublin. He is remembered now chiefly for his alleged role in performing a secret marriage between Jonathan Swift and Esther Johnson (Stella).
St Eunan's Cathedral ( YOO-nən, also known as Raphoe Cathedral, is one of two cathedral churches of the United Dioceses of Derry and Raphoe in the Church of Ireland. It is located in Raphoe, County Donegal and is dedicated to Saint Eunan who was abbot of Iona. The other diocesan cathedral is St Columb's Cathedral in Derry.
Kenneth Raymond Good is a retired Church of Ireland (Anglican) Bishop who served as Bishop of Derry and Raphoe from 11 June 2002 - 31 May 2019.
James Dillon (1738–1806) was an Irish Roman Catholic Bishop of Kilmore from 1800 to 1806.
Nicholas St Lawrence, 11th Baron Howth was an Anglo-Irish nobleman of the seventeenth century. The Lords of Howth for over a century had played a crucial role in Irish politics; but Nicholas, unlike many of his ancestors, preferred to lead a quiet domestic life. During the English Civil War, his loyalty to the English Crown led to the forfeiture of much of his property, and the troubles he endured during the conflict are said to have hastened his death.
The Dean of Limerick and Ardfert is a Church of Ireland official based in the Cathedral Church of St Mary's in the united diocese of Limerick, Killaloe and Ardfert.
The Dean of Raphoe is based at the Cathedral Church of St Eunan in Raphoe, County Donegal, in Ulster. The Deanery is within the Diocese of Derry and Raphoe within the Church of Ireland. The Dean-elect is Rev Liz Fitzgerald, the first female dean in the cathedral’s history.
Richard Tenison was an Irish bishop of Killala, Clogher and Meath.
John Sterne (1660–1745) was an Irish Church of Ireland clergyman, bishop of Dromore from 1713 and then bishop of Clogher from 1717.
Philip Twysden (1713–1752), was an Anglican clergyman who served in the Church of Ireland as Lord Bishop of Raphoe from 1747 to 1752. The circumstances of his death later became the subject of scandalous rumour.
John Pooley (1645-1712) was a member of the Church of Ireland, who was Bishop of Cloyne from 1697 to 1702, then Bishop of Raphoe until his death in October 1712.
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