Robert Huntington
1683 – 1692 (c.1636-1701)
Robert Huntington was a Fellow at Merton in Oxford when he was appointed to the Provostship at Trinity by the Duke of Ormonde.1 He was a distinguished orientalist who had lived for a decade in the Near East and had collected many manuscripts there, some of which he later presented to Trinity’s library. His scholarship reflects the increasing interest of his age in the historical aspects of languages. So it not surprising to find that he took an interest in the completion of Provost Marsh’s Irish Bible project. Any Irish studies in the College at this time were extracurricular. Huntington made his College lodgings available for the earliest recorded meeting of Molyneaux’s Dublin Philosophical Society on 15 October 1683. At this meeting papers were read by Molyneaux, Ashe (subsequent Provost) and former Provost Marsh indicating an enlightened and forward looking attitude among some at least of the academic staff. During 1689 the College was commandeered by the catholic forces of James II and used as a prison for protestant prisoners. Hungtinton and many of the Fellows were obliged to remain in England until after the Battle of the Boyne of July 1690 when the Williamite victory restored the fortunes of the Protestant side in Dublin. Huntington resigned as Provost in 1692 for a modest country parsonage in Essex. Although appointed Bishop of Raphoe in 1701, he died twelve days after his consecration in Dublin.