Thomas Elrington 1799-1807

Thomas Elrington was born near Dublin on 18^th December 1760. He entered Trinity College on 1^st May 1775, aged 15, and became a scholar in 1778. He graduated BA in 1780, MA in 1785, BD in 1790 and DD in 1790. He was elected Fellow of Trinity College in 1781 and became Senior Fellow in 1795. He was the first Donnellan divinity lecturer (1794), Archbishop King’s Lecturer in Divinity (1795), Donegall Lecturer in Mathematics (1790-1795), Erasmus Smith’s Professor of Mathematics (1995-1799) and seventh Erasmus Smith’s Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy (1799-1807).  He edited several books, the most important of which was ‘Euclidis Elementorum Sex Libri Priores, Cum Notis’ (1788). His own work includes Sermons on Miracles and Letters on Tythes.

He was granted permission by the chief secretary to break the rule of celibacy for Fellows and married Charlotte Preston in 1799. They had two sons and an unknown number of daughters. In 1801 he facilitated the transfer of 20,000 volumes from the Fagel library to the College library (a private Dutch library from the 17^th and 18^th centuries and an important asset of the College library today). He was one of five College Fellows to support the passing of the act of union in 1800. He became Church of Ireland rector of Ardtrea, Co. Armagh in 1806 but was recalled to Trinity in 1811 when he was chosen as Provost by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the Duke of Richmond. He retired from Trinity in 1820 and became Church of Ireland Bishop of Limerick and later Leighlin and Ferns. He died on 12^th July 1835 from paralysis, said to have been induced by sea sickness. His portrait hangs in the Fitzgerald Building in Trinity College.

Sources

1. Thomas Ulick Sadlier (1935), Alumni Dublinenses: a register of students, graduates, professors, and Provosts of Trinity College in the University of Dublin (1593-1860), Thom Co Ltd, page 263, https://digitalcollections.tcd.ie/concern/works/70795b624
2. TCD (2021), Thomas Elrington, TCDhttps://www.tcd.ie/Provost/history/former-Provosts/t_elringrton.php
3. Patrick M. Geoghegan (2009), Elrington, Thomas, Dictionary of Irish Biography https://www.dib.ie/biography/elrington-thomas-a2916
4. Eric Finch (2016), Three Centuries of Physics in Trinity College Dublin, Living Edition
5. Image of Thomas Elrington, By Thomas Foster - Oil on canvas, Anne Crookshank and David Webb, Paintings and Sculptures in Trinity College Dublin (Dublin, 1990), p. 50.