Students, Clergy & Lawyers
Trinity College Dublin - image from Wellcome Collection
Ireland has some venerable institutions of learning to which young men from notable families have been sent for a classical education for hundreds of years.
The church was always a popular choice of profession, particularly for middle and younger sons, and would have required a period of study at university prior to taking orders. For the Established Church (Church of Ireland), this often meant studying for a degree at Trinity College, Dublin (TCD), but the English universities of Oxford and Cambridge were also alma maters for many Irish clergymen.
The law would also have been a lucrative and popular profession and again would have required a period of study at university.
The church was always a popular choice of profession, particularly for middle and younger sons, and would have required a period of study at university prior to taking orders. For the Established Church (Church of Ireland), this often meant studying for a degree at Trinity College, Dublin (TCD), but the English universities of Oxford and Cambridge were also alma maters for many Irish clergymen.
The law would also have been a lucrative and popular profession and again would have required a period of study at university.
Lists of TCD personages including students, professors and provosts were painstakingly compiled by the gloriously named Thomas Ulick Sadleir and George Dames Burtchaell into the Alumni Dublinenses, first published I think in 1924 and revised in 1936 with more students added and errors corrected.
This tome was the result of combining many historical TCD sources and thus is subject to all the usual caveats regarding transcription errors. It also makes use of quite a few Latin terms and abbreviations - read on for more guidance.
Where can I find this information?
There are 2 ways of accessing this information online;
- Alumni Dublinenses, 1924 (FMP=£) - This version of the directory appears to cover the period from 1593 to 1846 and was first published in 1924. You can search the indexed entries via the appropriate subscription on Find My Past, if that is your preferred search method.
- Alumni Dublinenses, 1936 - This apparently revised edition dated 1935 and indicated as covering the period 1593 to 1860 is available for free through TCD's online digital collections. It has now been split up online into as browsable sections (Jan 2021). However, a word of warning, it does seem to be a significantly slower website, taking ages to load and focus each page? As the students are all listed alphabetically, it shouldn't be too much of a chore to step through to the appropriate pages to find your man (as invariably students were male!) Students for the period 1846 to 1860 can be found in the Supplement starting at page 907, plus errata and corrections to the early edition. Indeed, the advantage of searching like this means you will also be able to see easily who else shares the same name and you can carefully eliminate those candidates. I would also recommend accessing the book via this route too, because you can take the time to read the Preface which should give you much food for thought when it comes to imagining how transcription errors creep in and from which I've distilled some of the key points below.
How do I interpret the entries?
Usual caveats apply to searching for multiple spellings of surnames.
Student forenames have been translated from the original Latin versions but that was not necessarily completely straight forward and you should be aware of it when searching. e.g. Jacobus could be James or Jacob apparently. Another slight difficultly with names is to be wary of any middle initials. These were also taken from original Latin lists and thus any middle names hinted at would have been in the Latin form e.g. G. may stand for Gulielemus i.e. William!
Ages were recorded in anticipation of their next birthday (like horses!), so remember to account for this when trying to match to a birth year. Also the year in which they entered TCD might need to be given a bit of leeway as apparently for a time, the academic year was judged to start in July.
The student's tenure was written in shorthand thus;
The name in brackets was the young man's tutor prior to entering TCD or this may be the name of a school. The browsable version of the list from TCD has a list of the most commonly referenced schools, including locations (See pages xvii-xviii in Preface.)
The young man's father's forename was given and his profession may have been translated if obvious or may have been left in the original Latin e.g. Clericus, particularly if there was any ambiguity. See the Preface for some discussion of why.
There are 3 other Latin abbreviations used after the degree to indicate in which term they graduated - Vern = Verna (Spring), AEst = Aestiva (Summer) and Hiem = Hiemps (Winter). Although around 4 years was the usual length of time taken to complete a first degree, there is quite a lot of variation and second degrees might have taken even longer to earn.
Usual caveats apply to searching for multiple spellings of surnames.
Student forenames have been translated from the original Latin versions but that was not necessarily completely straight forward and you should be aware of it when searching. e.g. Jacobus could be James or Jacob apparently. Another slight difficultly with names is to be wary of any middle initials. These were also taken from original Latin lists and thus any middle names hinted at would have been in the Latin form e.g. G. may stand for Gulielemus i.e. William!
Ages were recorded in anticipation of their next birthday (like horses!), so remember to account for this when trying to match to a birth year. Also the year in which they entered TCD might need to be given a bit of leeway as apparently for a time, the academic year was judged to start in July.
The student's tenure was written in shorthand thus;
- S.C. (Socii Comatates) or Fellow Commoners, apparently paid double fees and had more privileges. Very often the sons of gentry and noblemen looking to complete their degrees quickly.
- Pen. (Pensioner), no not in receipt of money but rather obliged to pay an annual fee for their education.
- Siz. (Sizar) Students with poorer parents, often clergymen (Clericus), who did not pay fees but were obliged to perform chores for the college to earn their degrees.
The name in brackets was the young man's tutor prior to entering TCD or this may be the name of a school. The browsable version of the list from TCD has a list of the most commonly referenced schools, including locations (See pages xvii-xviii in Preface.)
The young man's father's forename was given and his profession may have been translated if obvious or may have been left in the original Latin e.g. Clericus, particularly if there was any ambiguity. See the Preface for some discussion of why.
There are 3 other Latin abbreviations used after the degree to indicate in which term they graduated - Vern = Verna (Spring), AEst = Aestiva (Summer) and Hiem = Hiemps (Winter). Although around 4 years was the usual length of time taken to complete a first degree, there is quite a lot of variation and second degrees might have taken even longer to earn.
Where can I find more information about student, clergymen and legal ancestors?
You may also find mention of your ancestors' graduations in the Irish Newspapers, which are available from a number of different websites and archives.
Crockford's Clerical Directories, UK (Anc=£) - This directory first published in 1858 contains biographies of the Anglican clergy, including those in Ireland. Some selected volumes are available on line via Ancestry, but you might also find this as reference work in major libraries.
Kings Inn Admission Papers, 1607-1867 - This browsable document from the Irish Manuscripts Commission's free digitised collection, contains brief biographical details of those who chose the legal profession. Becoming qualified to practice law in Ireland previously required a period of study and employment in the London Inns of Court as well as seeking admission to the Kings Inns later in Dublin. Check out the introduction in this book to understand more about the process and be sure to make a note of the abbreviations used on page xv. Use whatever document search function is supported by your device to search for surnames of interest. Don't just rely on paging forward in the alphabetical lists as you will miss out on a truly wonderful feature of this resource which is that mothers' maiden names are often listed!
You may also find mention of your ancestors' graduations in the Irish Newspapers, which are available from a number of different websites and archives.
Crockford's Clerical Directories, UK (Anc=£) - This directory first published in 1858 contains biographies of the Anglican clergy, including those in Ireland. Some selected volumes are available on line via Ancestry, but you might also find this as reference work in major libraries.
Kings Inn Admission Papers, 1607-1867 - This browsable document from the Irish Manuscripts Commission's free digitised collection, contains brief biographical details of those who chose the legal profession. Becoming qualified to practice law in Ireland previously required a period of study and employment in the London Inns of Court as well as seeking admission to the Kings Inns later in Dublin. Check out the introduction in this book to understand more about the process and be sure to make a note of the abbreviations used on page xv. Use whatever document search function is supported by your device to search for surnames of interest. Don't just rely on paging forward in the alphabetical lists as you will miss out on a truly wonderful feature of this resource which is that mothers' maiden names are often listed!
(c) Irish Geneaography - 2020
