Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Fich, Thomas

822367Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 18 — Fich, Thomas1889John Thomas Gilbert

FICH, FYCH, or FYCHE, THOMAS (d. 1517), ecclesiastic and compiler, was a native of Ireland. He studied at Oxford, became a canon regular, and was appointed sub-prior of the convent of the Holy Trinity at Dublin, now the cathedral of Christ Church. Of that establishment Fich compiled a meagre necrology in Latin, styled ‘Mortilogium’ or ‘Obitarium.’ He was also the compiler or transcriber of a collection of memoranda, chiefly on ecclesiastical matters, known as the ‘White Book of Christ Church, Dublin,’ still preserved in that cathedral. The necrology was printed at Dublin by the Irish Archæological Society in 1844, with an introduction by James H. Todd, D.D. A reproduction of a page of the ‘White Book of Christ Church’ was given on plate i. of part iii. of ‘Facsimiles of National MSS. of Ireland,’ published in 1879. Fich died at Dublin in 1517, and was interred in Christ Church there, to which he had been a considerable benefactor. He would appear to have been related to Geoffrey Fych, dean of St. Patrick's, Dublin, 1529–37. In that cathedral is still extant a brass plate bearing the effigy of Geoffrey Fych and a monumental inscription.

[Ware, De Scriptoribus Hiberniæ, 1639; Archives of Christ Church, Dublin; Wood's Athenæ Oxon.; Mason's Hist. of St. Patrick's, Dublin, 1820.]

J. T. G.