Richard Graves (reverend)

Richard Graves, M.R.I.A., S.F.T.C.D. (1763-1829) was Dean of Ardagh, County Cork, Ireland.

Biography

Richard Graves was born at his father's Rectory in Kilfannan, County Limerick on 1 October, 1763. He was the youngest son of The Rev. James Graves (1710-1783), "an accurate and well read scholar with a taste for poetry", by his wife Jane (1719-1810), daughter of The Rev. Thomas Ryder (1683-1747), Rector of Mitchelstown, Co. Cork, whose wife (Martha Badham) was the sister of Brettridge Badham of Rockfield House, Co. Cork, M.P. for Mallow in the same county.

The Graves family of Co. Limerick came to Ireland with Cromwell from Mickleton Manor, Gloucestershire, when Colonel William Graves (who later became a Royalist) commanded a Regiment of Horse and was granted land there in 1647. His descendants held various public offices in the county (Richard's grandfather, John, was the Sheriff of Limerick), but the family became particularly noted for their scholars, writers (eg. Alfred Perceval Graves and family) and clergymen. Another branch of the family that remained in England were elevated to the peerage and became notable for the number of them who served as Admirals in the Royal Navy.

Graves was educated at Trinity College, Dublin from 1780 to 1784, and elected a scholar in 1782. In 1786 he was granted a Fellowship at Trinity College, Dublin, later being named a Senior Fellow. Graves is best remembered as the author of "Graves on the Pentateuch", an important scholarly book looking at the origins of the Jews, published in 1807, when he was serving as Chaplain to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Charles Lennox, 4th Duke of Richmond.

He was a Member of the Royal Irish Academy; Donellan Lecturer in 1797 and 1801; Archbishop King's lecturer in 1799 and 1805; Professor of Laws (1809); Regius Professor of Greek (1810); Rector of St. Michael's Church, Dublin (1815); Regius Professor of Divinity (1819); Professor of Divinity at the University of Dublin (1813) and was consecrated Dean of Ardagh in Co. Cork (1813), in which position he died. In Dublin he had kept a residence on Harcourt Street, and when in Co. Cork he resided at Raheny.

On 1 August, 1787, he married Elizabeth Mary (1767-1827), the eldest daughter of James Drought (1738-1820), of Ballyboy (known as Ridgemount House from 1790), King's County, by his wife Elizabeth Maria (1750-1797), daughter of John Campbell (1724-1772), of Fairfield, Vicar-General of Tuam (Co. Galway). John was a first cousin of the 4th Duke of Argyll, and the 'three beautiful Gunnings'.

Richard and Eliza were the parents of nine children. Their descendants include 'Ireland's most celebrated surgeon' Robert James Graves (1796-1853), Sir William Collis Meredith (1812-1894), Sir Richard Graves MacDonnell (1814-1881), Francis Brinkley (1841-1912), James Creed Meredith (1875-1942), Cyril Connolly (1903-1974), Escott Reid (1905-1999) and the unfortunate Violet Gibson (1876-1956).

Their marriage took place privately for peculiar reasons. At that time Fellows of Trinity College were liable to be deprived of their fellowships if the fact of their marriage were officially brought before the heads of the university. Hence, when after many years in 1813, Richard Graves resigned his fellowship for a professorship (of Divinity) and the Deanery of Ardagh, James Drought (who was also a Senior Fellow of the College) wrote to his daughter (20th February, 1813),

"My apprehensions are now over. If you had known your perilous situation, my dear Eliza’s life would have been shortened by constant anxiety. My apprehension of the interference of the visitors made me refuse to be present at your marriage, because, though the visitors could not legally force Graves to accuse himself, they could force me to betray the secret."

The Rev. Richard Sinclair Brooke wrote that Richard Graves "was a learned but rather ponderous preacher". "A man of considerable learning and earnest piety", was how Charles J. Abbey described Graves. After the death of his wife on 22nd March, 1827, Graves was much shaken, dying two years later on 29th March, 1829. He left a generous will, and was interred in the family plot at Donnybrook.

In 1866 a memorial window of stained glass was placed in memory of him in the Chapel of Trinity College, and the subjects selected were illustrations of the Pentateuch, in allusion to his work.