Protestant Exiles from France/Book First - Chapter 12 - Section I
Chapter XII.
OFFSPRING OF THE EARLIER REFUGEES EMINENT AS BISHOPS, CLERGYMEN, AND RELIGIOUS AUTHORS.
I. Archbishop of Tuam.
The Trench family are best known to fame through having produced two Archbishops — one of the Clancarty family, and the other of the Ashtown line. The second son of the first Earl of Clancarty was Power Le Poer Trench. This esteemed Divine was born in Dublin on ioth June 1770. His father not having been raised to the peerage till the end of the century, he was entered as “filius Gulielmi equitis” in the books of Trinity College (Dublin) in 1787; he was declared to have been “educatus sub ferula majistri Ralph.” He had only been ten years a clergyman, when (in 1802) he was elevated to the episcopal bench as Bishop of Waterford. In 1809 he became Bishop of Elphin, and in 1819 he was promoted to the Archbishopric of Tuam. He is known as “The last Archbishop of Tuam,” because that diocese was reduced to a bishop’s see, two of the four archbishoprics of Armagh, Dublin, Cashel, and Tuam having been doomed to abolition as unnecessary. At his death, in 1839, he left behind him the reputation of great dignity, piety, assiduity, and beneficence. The following is his epitaph in the Cathedral of Tuam:—
ΔΟΞΑ ΕΝ ΥΨΙΣΤΟΙΣ ΘΕΩ.
The Chief Shepherd,
Whom he loved and served, in whom he now sleeps,
Called away from the evil to come
The Hon. and Most Rev. Power Le Poer Trench, D.D.,
Lord Archbishop of Tuam,
On the 26th of March 1839.
A lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate,
Holding fast the faithful word.
With a father’s love
He presided nineteen years over this province,
With unquenchable zeal promoted the spread of true religion,
With uncompromising fidelity opposed error,
With inflexible integrity obeyed the dictates of an enlightened conscience,
With surpassing benevolence relieved want,
With mingled meekness and dignity exercised his apostolic office.
Dearer to him than life itself was the word of the truth of the Gospel,
And tenderly did he sympathize with the whole Church
In all her joys and sorrows.
To him to live was Christ,
To die was gain.
His afflicted clergy, deeply mourning their bereavement, yet sustained by the certainty of his bliss, and encouraged by the brightness of his example, have erected this record of their grateful love.
Besides the old diocese of Tuam, the Archbishop’s actual diocese included the territories of the suppressed sees of Ardagh, Killala, and Achonry. The clergy of Ardagh set up a monumental slab in Longford Church, and also established an exhibition in the University of Dublin, called “The Power-Trench Memorial;” an annual prize in money to be given to the son of an Ardagh clergyman who shall have distinguished himself in the Divinity class, prior to the commencement in each year.
The Archbishop left two sons and six daughters. The younger son, Power, died in 1872, Lieut.-Colonel 2nd Dragoon Guards. The elder son, William, married, in 1830, Lady Louisa Trench, eldest daughter of the second Earl of Clancarty, and died 11th May 1854, leaving two daughters:—
(1.) Harriet Anne, wife of Henry William Meredyth, who died in the lifetime of his father, Sir Henry Meredyth, Bart., leaving two sons.
(2.) Sarah Louisa, wife of James Peddie Steele, B.A., M.D. Edin.