Protestant Exiles from France/Book First - Chapter 12 - Section III
III. Archdeacon of Ardagh.
Returning to the Clancarty line, we note the Honourable Charles Le Poer Trench (born in December 1772), fourth son of the first Earl of Clancarty, and brother of the Archbishop of Tuam. He was educated for the Church, and was D.D., Vicar-General of Clonfert, and Archdeacon of Ardagh. He died in 1839, which was also the year of the Archbishop’s death. His sons were (1) Rev. Frederic William Le Poer Trench, M.A., rector of Moore and Drum, in the diocese of Tuam (born 1808); (2) Charles Thomas (born 1810, died 1854), who married Frances Anne, the Archbishop’s daughter; (3) Major-General Henry Luke Le Poer Trench, late of the Bombay Staff Corps (born 1820).
The following account of the Archdeacon is in the words of Dr. Sirr, who says:
“He was a man of great original genius, and rare powers, intellectual and corporeal. His mind was well stored with various knowledge; his wit was of the first order, and his conversation abounded with such felicitous and amusing anecdotes, illustrative of every subject on which he discoursed, that there never existed a more agreeable companion. He won all hearts — his fascination extended to the cabin as well as to the palace. When, through the grace of God, he was led to reflect more seriously on his ministerial responsibilities than he had in the early part of his ministry, his extraordinary energy of character was all concentrated in promoting the progress of divine truth. Schools rose up in every direction. His position as brother to the noble proprietor of the soil, gave him peculiar facilities in protecting the poor, who had the boldness to send their children to scripture schools in defiance of priestly interdicts. No labour was too great, no service too humble, for his ardent zeal. No engagements, no visitors, were permitted to interfere with his prescribed periods of attendance at remote localities. It mattered not what the season of the year, what the dangers of the way or the darkness of the evening, off he marched to instruct the ignorant and poor. Lantern in hand, he would wend his appointed way from his house at Ballinasloe, across the wood of Garbally and intervening bog by the shortest cut he could discover, to the village of Derrywillan, where a few peasants wanted to receive his pastoral instruction. The Rev. James Anderson, who frequently attended him on such excursions, says he was the best catechist and lecturer he ever knew. Late in life Archdeacon Trench acquired the power of reading the Scriptures in the Irish language, that he might thus be able to communicate the knowledge of divine truth to those who spoke that tongue in a manner that would commend itself to their attention, and reach both their hearts and understandings. He carried constantly about him wherever he went, with this view, either the Irish Bible or New Testament. On one occasion, travelling by the mail to Galway, he found himself in company with three Roman Catholic gentlemen going to the assizes. He entertained them at first with general and amusing conversation. His wit soon got them into the most bland and cheerful humour. When their laughter was at the highest, he suddenly interrupted them, saying, ‘I’ll venture to say none of you think I can speak Irish.’ Some doubt was expressed. ‘Wait till you see,’ he replied; and pulling out the Irish Bible from his pocket, he read the Irish version of Psalm cxxx. He then asked them if they knew what it was he read. ‘Yes,’ said one of the party, ‘it is one of the seven penitential psalms; when David fell to the bottom of an old well, he cried out from the depth to God, and as he repeated first one psalm and then another, God raised him up by degrees, and when he finished the seven, he found himself safe and sound at the top of the well.’ This strange interpretation enabled the archdeacon to remove the ignorance which occasioned it, and, having exposed the fabulous character of the supposed miracle, to comment with propriety on the words, ‘out of the depths have I cried unto Thee,’ &c, and to direct the minds of his friends to the extent of guilt acknowledged by the Psalmist, the nature of the forgiveness he sought, the trust he had in the word of God, his earnest longing for the presence of the Lord, and the plenteous redemption to which the royal prophet invited the attention of Israel.”