Ussher, James

James Ussher (1581–1656), bishop of Meath (1621–1625) and archbishop of Armagh (1625–1656), was born on 4 January 1581 in Dublin, the fifth child of Arland Ussher and his wife, Margaret (née Stanyhurst). He was educated at the newly founded Trinity College, which he entered in 1594 as one of its first students. Ussher's early career was as an academic at Trinity, where he was appointed Professor of Theological Controversies in 1607 and published his first book in 1613 on the succession of the true Christian church. His scholarly efforts and his regular trips to England brought him to the notice of King James, who made him bishop of Meath in 1621 and archbishop of Armagh in 1625. As a bishop, Ussher tried to combine the role of scholar and ecclesiastical politician. A firm Calvinist, he published works of anti-Catholic controversial theology and also a highly influential account—A Discourse of the Religion Anciently Professed by the Irish and British—of the historical origins of the Church of Ireland, which by tracing its descent back to the Celtic church, provided Irish Protestants with a crucial sense of their Irish roots.

As a politician, Ussher became a member of the Irish Privy Council and leader of the Church of Ireland. Strongly antipapal, he used his influence in 1626 and 1627 to oppose the granting of toleration to Irish Catholics. But the arrival of Lord Deputy Wentworth in 1633 greatly diminished Ussher's role, as Archbishop Laud of Canterbury and his ally in Ireland, Bishop Bramhall of Derry, sought to reshape the Church of Ireland by driving out Calvinists and Presbyterians and bringing it into closer alignment with the Church of England. Ussher retreated to his study, working on his great historical investigation of the origins of Christianity in Britain and Ireland, published in 1639 as Britannicarum ecclesiarum antiquitates. In 1640 Ussher went to England where, following the outbreak of the Irish rising in 1641, he was to remain. As a highly respected scholar with an international reputation, Ussher was courted by both king and Parliament in 1641 and 1642. Despite his firm Calvinism and deep hostility to Catholicism, Ussher remained loyal to the king. After the defeat and execution of Charles, Ussher returned to London, where he concentrated on patristic and biblical scholarship, publishing in the 1650s his account of biblical chronology which dated the creation of the world to 23 October 4004 B.C.E. He married Phoebe Challoner in 1613 and had one daughter, Elizabeth.

Ussher, James

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