Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Lodge, John

by Gordon Goodwin

LODGE, JOHN (d. 1774), archivist, born at Holton, Lancashire, was the son of Edmund Lodge, farmer. He was educated at Clapham school, Yorkshire, under Mr. Ashe, and was admitted sub-sizar of St. John's College, Cambridge on 26 June 1716 (College Admissions Register). He graduated B.A. in 1719, M.A. in 1730. He settled in Dublin previously to 1744, in which year he published a 'Report of the Trial in Ejectment of Campbell Craig,' from his own shorthand notes. In 1751, being then of Abbey Street, Dublin, he was appointed deputy-keeper of the records in Bermingham Tower; in 1759 he became deputy-clerk and keeper of the rolls, and was subsequently deputy-registrar of the court of prerogative. He died at Bath, Somerset, on 22 Feb. 1774. He married, first, Miss Hamilton, who claimed kinship with the Abercorn family; and, secondly, Edwarda Galland. His son, William Lodge LL.D. (1742-1813), the only survivor of nine children, became in 1790 chancellor of Armagh Cathedral, and was rector of Derrynoose and rector of Kilmore in the same diocese (Cotton, Fasti Eccles. Hibern. iii. 41, 68). Some of John Lodge's books, with marginal notes and corrections, came into the Armagh Library, which about 1867 acquired other of his papers by purchase from a great-grandson (Webb, Compendium of Irish Biog. p. 292).

Lodge's chief work, 'The Peerage of Ireland,' 4 vols. 8vo, London, 1754 (2nd edit., revised, enlarged, and continued by Mervyn Archdall, 7 vols. 8vo, London or Dublin, 1789) is a monument of industry, accuracy and learning. He left an interleaved copy, with valuable additions written in cipher; it is now in the British Museum Additional MSS. 23703-8. When Archdall was preparing his edition with the aid of this copy, he found the experts completely baffled in their efforts to read the cipher, and was about to give up the task in despair when his wife discovered the key (Notes and Queries, 5th ser. vi. 247).

In 1770 Lodge published anonymously 'The Usage of Holding Parliaments in Ireland,' 8yo, Dublin, and in 1772, also without his name, a selection of state papers and historical tracts illustrating the political systems of the chief governors and government of Ireland during the reigns of Elizabeth, James I, and Charles I, which he called 'Desiderata curiosa Hibernica,' 2 vols. 8vo, Dublin.

His collection of record indexes were deposited in 1783 in the office of the civil department of the chief secretary to the lord-lieutenant at Dublin in return for annuities of 100l. to his widow and 200l to his son. These indexes were in constant request by Rowley Lascelles [q. v.] when engaged on his 'Liber Munerum Hiberniæ.' At the sale of Sir William Betham's library a transcript of a portion of them fetched 155l.

Lodge's other manuscripts in the British Museum are:

1. 'Pedigrees and Notices of Irish Families, with additions by Sir W. Betham,' Addit. MSS. 23693-23702.
2. 'Collections on the English, Irish, and Scotch Nobility,' ib. 23709.
3. 'Collections for a Baronage of Ireland, enlarged by Sir W. Betham,' ib. 23710.
4. 'Additions to Sir James Ware's Works on Ireland,' Egerton MSS. 1783-6.

[Webb's Compendium of Irish Biography. pp. 292-3. Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. iii. 168; Archdall's Preface to Lodge's Peerage, 1789; Index to Cat. of Additions to MSS. Brit. Mus. 1854-76, p. 534]

G. G.