William Reeves (16 March 1815 – 12 January 1892) was an Irish antiquarian and the Church of Ireland Bishop of Down, Connor and Dromore from 1886 until his death. He was the last private keeper of the Book of Armagh and at the time of his death was President of the Royal Irish Academy.
Early life Born at Charleville, County Cork, on 16 March 1815, Reeves was the eldest child of Boles D'Arcy Reeves, an attorney, whose wife Mary was a daughter of Captain Jonathan Bruce Roberts, land agent to the 8th Earl of Cork. This grandfather had fought at the Battle of Bunker's Hill, and Reeves was born at his house in Charleville.
From 1823, Reeves was educated at the school of John Browne in Leeson Street, Dublin, and after that at a school kept by Edward Geoghegan. In October 1830, he entered Trinity College Dublin, where he quickly gained a prize for Hebrew and was elected a Scholar in classics in 1833. In his third year, he became a scholar and went on to graduate BA in 1835. He proceeded to read medicine, won the Berkeley Medal, and graduated MB in 1837. His object in taking his second degree was that he intended to become a clergyman and to practice the medical profession among the poor of his parish.(Rev.) William Reeves biography at Ricorso
Life and work In 1838, he was appointed Master of the diocesan school in Ballymena, County Antrim, and was ordained a deacon of Hillsborough. The next year, he was ordained a priest of the Church of Ireland at Derry.Cleeve, Brian, & Anne Brady, A Dictionary of Irish Writers (Dublin: Lilliput, 1985)
In 1844, Reeves rediscovered the lost site of Nendrum Monastery when he visited Mahee Island in Strangford Lough, County Down, searching for churches recorded in 1306, and recognised the remains of a round tower.Macdonald, Philip, Monitoring at Nendrum, Mahee Island, Co. Down 2003 at qub.ac.uk, web site of Queen's University, Belfast (pdf file)Nendrum Monastery at theoldschoolhouseinn.com
By 1845, Reeves was corresponding with the Irish scholar John O'Donovan, and an archive of their letters between 1845 and 1860 is preserved at University College, Dublin. In July 1845, Reeves visited London.Hastings, Angela, University College Dublin Library Special Collections John O'Donovan/William Reeves correspondence, undated, at ucd.ie (pdf file)
Reeves's career was furthered by his learned work. His first book, published in 1847, was his Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Down, Connor and Dromore, but by then he was already a member of the Royal Irish Academy.Reeves, William, Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Down, Connor and Dromore, consisting of a Taxation of those Dioceses (1847) title page online at books.google.com By the time he published his Acts of Archbishop Colton (1850) he was also a Doctor of divinity. In 1850, as in 1847, he was Perpetual Curate of Kilconriola.
Reeves resided in Ballymena from 1841 to 1858, when he was appointed vicar of Lusk following the success of his edition of Adomnán's Life of Saint Columba (1857), for which the Royal Irish Academy had awarded him their Cunningham Medal in 1858. He had worked on this with Dr James Henthorn Todd, who was patron of the living at Lusk. Reeves's edition of Adomnán's Life of Columba has been called "the best and fullest collection of materials on the early Irish Church in one volume". With regard to the Celtic Church, Reeves himself described Adomnán's work as –
In 1853, Reeves bought from the Brownlow family the important 9th-century manuscript known as the Book of Armagh, paying three hundred pounds for it. He sold the book for the same sum to Archbishop Beresford, who had agreed to present it to Trinity, Reeves's alma mater.Book of Armagh in the Catholic Encyclopedia online at newadvent.org"In 1855, through the intervention of William Reeves, the Book of Armagh was presented to TCD": Gwynn, John, ed., Liber Armachanus (1913)
Crockford's Clerical Directory for 1868 gives him as "Reeves, William, DD, Rural Dean, Rector of Tynan, Librarian Armagh Library (Armagh)".Crockford's Clerical Directory (Church of England Church Commissioners, 1868), p. 771
Reeves was a friend of Margaret Stokes and with his colleague Todd is credited with setting off her interest in Irish antiquities.
The author and antiquarian Samuel Ferguson wrote of Reeves in 1867:
In 1875 Reeves was appointed Dean of Armagh, a position he held until 1886 when he was appointed as Bishop of Down, Connor and Dromore.Births, Deaths, Marriages and Obituaries The Belfast News-Letter (Belfast, Ireland), Wednesday, January 13, 1892; Issue 23877 In 1891 he was elected as President of the Royal Irish Academy. As bishop, he resided at Conway House, Dunmurry, County Antrim, and signed his name "Wm. Down and Connor".Reeves, William 1815–1892 in Dictionary of Ulster Biography, 'R' biographies online at ulsterbiography.co.ukLetter from William Reeves to Rev. C. Watson dated 4 December 1890, quoted in Watson, Charles, Glenavy, Past and Present online at lisburn.com
Reeves died in Dublin on 12 January 1892, while still President of the Academy.Barry, Terry, A History of Settlement in Ireland (Routledge, 1999, , ), p. 78, note 107 at books.google.com At the time of his death, he was working on a diplomatic edition of the Book of Armagh, by then in the Trinity College Library. The work was completed by Dr John Gwynn and published in 1913."... the Rev. Dr Bernard, F.T.C.D., who is engaged with Dr Gwynn in completing the labours of the late Bishop Reeves on the Book of Armagh...": from Lady Ferguson's Sir Samuel Ferguson in the Ireland of his day, p. 77
In November 1889, Reeves had bought the important collection of Irish manuscripts of Robert Shipboy MacAdam (1808–1895), a Belfast business man and archaeologist. In 1892, after Reeves's death, this collection was bought for the Royal Irish Academy by Maxwell Close and is still held by the Academy, under the name of 'The Mac Adam and Reeves Collection'.The Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts in the Royal Irish Academy online at ria.ie (pdf file)
Mary, Lady Ferguson, the widow of Reeves's friend Sir Samuel Ferguson, published a biography in 1893, The Life of the Right Rev. William Reeves, DD, Lord Bishop of Down, Connor and Dromore, and this reproduces a portrait of him.Lady Ferguson, Sir Samuel Ferguson in the Ireland of his day, title page at archive.orgLee, Sidney, Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, Vol. II, p. 18 online at books.google.com
A Catalogue of the Library of the Late Right Rev. William Reeves (1892) contains sections relating to the Royal Irish Academy, Scotland, Ireland, the Athanasian Creed, the Utrecht Psalter, the Old Testament, and 'Household Furniture'.Catalogue of the Library of the Late Right Rev. William Reeves title details and summary of contents at books.google.com
In 1941 Reeves's papers, including some in the Irish language, were donated to Marsh's Library by Dean Webster.
Reeves's Notices of Certain Crannogs... in the Counties of Antrim and Londonderry (1860) and his The Culdees of the British Islands (1864) both appeared in new editions in 1994.
There is a memorial to Reeves in the south aisle at St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh."Funary Monuments & Memorials in St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh" Curl, J.S. pp61-63: Whitstable; Historical Publications; 2013
Publications 'A description of Nendrum, commonly called Mahee Island, embracing its present condition and past history', in Ulster Journal of Archaeology (second series) 8, 13–22, 58–68 (1845, reprinted 1902)Centre for Archaeological Fieldwork, Queen's University, Belfast, Monitoring at Nendrum, Mahee Island, Co. Down 2003 at qub.ac.uk (pdf file) Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Down, Connor and Dromore, consisting of a Taxation of those Dioceses (Dublin: Hodges and Smith, 1847) Five Chromolithographic Drawings, Representing an Irish Ecclesiastical Bell which is Supposed to Have Belonged to Saint Patrick, and the Several Sides of the Jewelled Shrine in which it is Preserved; Accompanied by a Historical and Illustrative Description (Marcus Ward & Co., 1850)Reeves, William, Five Chromolithographic Drawings, Representing an Irish Ecclesiastical Bell... (1850), title details at books.google.com Acts of Archbishop Colton in His Metropolitan Visitation of the Diocese of Derry (Dublin: Irish Archaeological Society, 1850)Reeves, William, Acts of Archbishop Colton title page online at books.google.com Description of the Codex Maelbrighte: An Irish Manuscript of the Four Gospels, Preserved in the British Museum (Dublin: M. H. Gill, printer to the Royal Irish Academy, 1851, "Extracted, by permission, from the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. V. pp. 45–67")Reeves, William, Description of the Codex Maelbrighte (1851) title details at books.google.com Account of an Ancient Scotch Deed (1852) Kilnasaggart (1853) Saint Mura (1853) 'The Seal of Hugh O'Neill' in Ulster Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 1 (1853) 'The Island of Tiree', in Ulster Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 2 (1854) Memoir of the Church of Ballymena (1854)Garstin, J. R., Bibliography of the works of William Reeves (1893) Papers on the Ancient Abbatial Succession in Ireland and the Irish Monastery of Honau, on the Rhine (Dublin: M. H. Gill, printer to the Royal Irish Academy, 1857)Reeves, William, Papers on the Ancient Abbatial Succession in Ireland (1857) title details at books.google.com The Life of St Columba, founder of Hy; written by Adamnan, ninth Abbot of that Monastery, edited from an 8th-century codex (Dublin University Press for the Irish Archaeological and Celtic Society, 1857)Reeves, William, The Life of St. Columba, founder of Hy; written by Adamnan, ninth Abbot of that Monastery (Dublin University Press, 1857) title page online at books.google.com Hymnus Sancti Aidi (from the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 8 November 1858) Memoir of the Church of St. Duilech in the Diocese of Dublin; Commonly Called Saint Doulagh's: Containing a Paper Read Before the Royal Irish Academy on Monday, 11 April 1859 (Printed at the Dublin University Press by M. H. Gill, 1859)Reeves, William, Memoir of the Church of St. Duilech (1859) title details at books.google.com Notices of Certain Crannogs, or Artificial Islands, Which Have Been Discovered in the Counties of Antrim and Londonderry (Dublin: M. H. Gill, 1860)Reeves, William, Notices of Certain Crannogs, or Artificial Islands, Which Have Been Discovered in the Counties of Antrim and Londonderry (1860, new edn. 1994) title details at books.google.com On Marianus Scotus, of Ratisbon (1860)Reeves, William, On Marianus Scotus, of Ratisbon (Royal Irish Academy, 1860) title details online at books.google.com The Ancient Churches of Armagh: Being the Substance of a Paper Read Before the Armagh Natural History and Philosophical Society, on 14 March 1860 (Published by and printed for the author, 1860, 54 pp.)Reeves, William, The Ancient Churches of Armagh (1860) title details online at books.google.com 'On Augustin, an Irish writer of the 7th Century', in Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Vol. II, 1861 On the Townland Distribution of Ireland, Read before the Royal Irish Academy 22 April 1861, and reprinted from the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy (Royal Irish Academy, 1861)Reeves, William, On the Townland Distribution of Ireland (1861), title details at books.google.com Memoir of the Book of Armagh (Revised edition of an article published in Swords parish magazine, March and April 1861))Reeves, William, Memoir of the Book of Armagh, title details at books.google.com Memoir of Stephen White (Royal Irish Academy, 1861)Reeves, William, Memoir of Stephen White, title details at books.google.com 'Saint Maelrubha: His History and Churches', in Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, III (1857–60), pp. 258–96