Samuel Kyle

Samuel Kyle was born in County Derry to a father of independent means.¹  He graduated from Trinity College in 1793 and was elected Fellow in 1798.  He was a Tory, and was alleged by the Chief Secretary to correspond in cipher on political affairs with Elrington (his predecessor as Provost).² He was not in favour of Catholic Emancipation, a fact that gained him his appointment as Provost in October 1820 at a time when the issue was a particularly sensitive one for the British cabinet.³ This appointment was over the head of his senior colleague Bartholomew Lloyd.⁴ Kyle, however, was not so extreme as to prevent his nomination by a Whig Government to the bishopric of Cork in 1831, thereby enabling Lloyd to be installed as Provost.

Painting Details

By James Butler Brennan
Oil on canvas

1. Anne Crookshank and David Webb, Paintings and Sculptures in Trinity College Dublin (Dublin, 1990), p. 80.
2. Anne Crookshank and David Webb, Paintings and Sculptures in Trinity College Dublin (Dublin, 1990), p. 80.
3. J.V. Luce, Trinity College Dublin, The First 400 Years (Dublin, 1992), p. 77.
4. Anne Crookshank and David Webb, Paintings and Sculptures in Trinity College Dublin (Dublin, 1990), p. 80.