Elizabeth Tyrrell (née Ussher)
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The Most Reverend James Ussher |
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|---|---|
| Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of All Ireland | |
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| See | Armagh |
| Installed | 1625 |
| Term ended | 1656 |
| Predecessor | Christopher Hampton |
| Successor | John Bramhall (from 1661) |
| Other posts | Professor, Trinity College, Dublin Chancellor, St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin Prebend of Finglas. |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 1602 |
| Consecration | 1626 |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
4 January 1581 Dublin, Ireland |
| Died | 21 March 1656 (aged 75) Reigate, Surrey, England |
| Buried | Chapel of St. Erasmus, Westminster Abbey |
| Nationality | Irish |
| Denomination | Church of Ireland |
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Dublin |
James Ussher (or Usher; 4 January 1581 – 21 March 1656) was the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland between 1625 and 1656. He was a prolific scholar and church leader, who today is most famous for his identification of the genuine letters of the church father, Ignatius, and for his chronology that sought to establish the time and date of the creation as "the entrance of the night preceding the 23rd day of October... the year before Christ 4004"; that is, around 6 pm on 22 October 4004 BC according to the proleptic Julian calendar.
Ussher was born in Dublin to a well-to-do family. His maternal grandfather, James Stanihurst, had been speaker of the Irish parliament. Ussher's father, Arnold Ussher, was a clerk in chancery who married James Stanihurst's daughter, Margaret, who was reportedly a Roman Catholic.
Ussher's younger, and only surviving, brother, Ambrose, became a distinguished scholar of Arabic and Hebrew. According to his chaplain and biographer, Nicholas Bernard, the elder brother was taught to read by two blind, spinster aunts. A gifted polyglot, he entered Dublin Free School and then the newly founded (1591) Trinity College, Dublin on 9 January 1594, at the age of thirteen (not an unusual age at the time). He had received his Bachelor of Arts degree by 1598, and was a fellow and MA by 1600 (though Bernard claims he did not gain his MA till 1601). In May 1602, he was ordained in the Trinity College Chapel as a deacon in the Protestant, established, Church of Ireland (and possibly priest on the same day) by his uncle Henry Ussher, the Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland.
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