Charles Graves (bishop)

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The Rt. Rev. Charles Graves, F.R.S., D.D., LL.D.^[1] (1812–1899) was a 19th Century Anglican Bishop of Limerick, Ardfert and Aghadoe. He was also a mathematician.

Early life

Born at 12 Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin, the son of John Crosbie Graves (1776–1835), Chief Police Magistrate for Dublin, by his wife Helena Perceval, the daughter and co-heiress of The Rev. Charles Perceval (1751–1795) of Bruhenny, County Cork. Helena enjoyed the patronage of John Freeman-Mitford, 1st Baron Redesdale, who married a daughter of her father's cousin, John Perceval, 2nd Earl of Egmont.

Educated at Trinity College, Dublin from 1829 to 1835, he won a scholarship in Classics. He played cricket for Trinity and later in his life did much boating and fly-fishing. On graduating he took the gold medal in mathematics and physics. It was intended that he should join the 18th (Royal Irish) Regiment of Foot under his uncle, Major-General James William Graves (1774–1845), and in preparation he had become an expert swordsman and rider.

Career

After leaving Trinity Graves followed in the steps of his grandfather, the Dean of Ardfert & Connor, and great uncle Richard Graves (clergyman). He was appointed a fellow of Trinity from 1836 to 1843 before taking the professorship of mathematics, a position he held until 1862.

In 1860 he was appointed Dean of the Chapel Royal (Dublin Castle), and from 1864 to 1866 he was the Dean of Clonfert, before being consecrated Lord Bishop of Limerick, Ardfert and Aghadoe, a position he held for thirty three years, until his death in 1899. He had been elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy in 1837 and subsequently held various officerships. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1880 and received the honorary degree of D.C.L. from Oxford University in 1881.

A gentleman and a scholar he was well respected as the Bishop of Limerick. He and the Catholic Bishop (O'Dwyer) were on the very best of terms. They cracked Latin jokes at each other, discussed fine points of scholarship and were unclerical enough not to take their religious differences too seriously ^[2]

Bishop O’Dwyer had once joked at the size of Bishop Graves’ family of nine and Graves warmly retorted with the text about the blessedness of the man who has his quiver full of arrows, to which O’Dwyer replied "The ancient Jewish Quiver only held six"

Publications

In 1841 Graves published an original mathematical work and he embodied further discoveries in his lectures and in papers read before and published by the Royal Irish Academy. He was a colleague of Sir William Rowan Hamilton and on the latter's death Graves gave a presidential panegyric containing a valuable account both of Hamilton’s scientific labours and of his literary attainments.

Graves was very interested in Irish antiquarian subjects. He discovered the key to the ancient Irish Ogham script which appeared as inscriptions on cromlechs and other stone monuments. He also prompted the government to publish the old Irish Brehon Laws, Early Irish Law. His suggestion was adopted and he was appointed a member of the Commission to do this.

Private life

His official residence was The Palace at Limerick, but from the 1850s he took he lease of Parknasilla House, Co. Kerry, as a summer residence. In 1892 he bought out the lease of the house and a further 114 acres (0.46 km²) of land that included a few islands. In 1894 he sold it to Great Southern Hotels, who still own it to this day.

• Parknasilla, today
• View from Parknasilla House

Charles Graves married Selina, daughter of John Cheyne (physician), Physician-General to the Forces in Ireland, an associate of Graves's father's cousin, Robert James Graves. Graves was the father of the poet Alfred Perceval Graves and grandfather of Philip Graves, Robert Graves and Charles Patrick Graves.

Sources

Graves, Robert. Good-Bye to All That p. 6-7

References

1. ^ "Who was Who" 1897-1990 London, A & C Black, 1991 ISBN 071363457X
2. ^ History of Ballylickey Manor House

Persondata
Name	Graves, Charles
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Date of birth	1812
Place of birth
Date of death	1899
Place of death