Page:A Compendium of Irish Biography.djvu/346

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improvement of the contlition of his fellow-creatures, he died at Manor Water- house, in the County of Fermanagh, 31st December 1765, aged 79. He be- queathed a large and valuable collection of books to Trinity College, and several paintings now in the Provost's house. Dr. Madden was the friend of many of the most eminent men of his time, and was greatly esteemed by Dr. Johnson, who said, his was " a name which Ireland ought to honour." So little is now known of this distinguished man that even his de- scendants are unacquainted with the place of his interment, and the accounts of his life are most meagre and contradictory. The particulars here given are principally taken from a notice of his family, his life, his descendants, and the rise of the Royal Dublin Society, in the Irish Quarterly Review, 1853. His son, Samuel Molyneux Madden, who died in 1798, bequeathed his estate in the corporation of Belturbet, together with the residue of his personal estate, for the founding of a prize to be given to the best of the disappointed can- didates at the Fellowship examinations at Trinity College, Dublin. '9* =33

Maelbrigid McDoman, Archbishop of Armagh iu 885, was eminent for his learning and piety. Armagh was thrice (in 890, 893, and 919) taken by the Danes during his occupancy of the see. On several occasions he arranged disputes, and pre- vented wars between the northern chief- tains ; and in 908, we are told, visited the wilds of Munster, to redeem from servitude a strange Briton who was there held in captivity. Maelbrigid died about 927. 339

Maelmnry, or Marian, Archbishop of Armagh, a man of great reputation in his time, who governed the see from 1 00 1 to 102 1. He is called in the Annals of the Four Masters, "the head of the clergy of the west of Europe, the principal of ^ th holy orders of the west ; and a most wise and learned doctor." He fol- lowed Brian Borumha's body from Swords to Armagh, and performed the funeral obsequies. It is said that he died of grief 3rd June 1020 (or 1021), on the destruc- tion of a great part of Armagh by fire. ^39

Maffit, John Newland, an eloquent Methodist preacher, was born in Dublin, 28th December 1794. He early joined the ministry of the Methodist Church, and displayed great oratorical powers. He re- moved to the United States in 18 19, and preached, lectured, and delivered addresses in various parts of the Union — his la- bours as a preacher in the west and south being attended with great success. He was chaplain to Congress in 1841. Mr. 322

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Maffit was the author of Tears of Contri- tion (iS2\), Poems (Louisville, 1839), and an autobiography. He died at Mobile, Alabama, 28th May 1850, aged 55. His son, John Newland Maffit, was a com- modore in the Confederate navy, and in the Florida did great damage to United States s tipping. 37»

Magee, William, Archbishop of Dub- lin, a distinguished author and divine, was bom at Enniskillen in 1766. "^ In 1781 he was entered of Trinity College, Dublin, where he quickly distinguished himself and obtained all the academic honours, in- cluding a scholarship in the year 1784. In 1 788 he was elected a Fellow ; in 1 790 entered into orders; in 1800 became Pro- fessor of Mathematics; in 18 12 retired on the college livings of Cappagh and Killy- leagh ; in 18 14 was made Dean of Cork; in 1 81 9 was consecrated Bishop of Baphoe ; and in 1822 was advanced to the see of Dublin. He attained a wide literary repu- tation, his most important work being Discourses on the Scriptural Doctrines of Atonement and Sacrifice (London, 1801), which has seen numerous editions, and is declared by a competent authority to be "one of the ablest critical and polemical works of modern times." He was in his early days a strenuous opponent of the Union, as he afterwards was of Catholic Emanci- pation. He died at Redesdale, nearDublin, 19th August 1831, aged about 65, and was buried in the centre of the old churchyard of Rathfarnham, under a tomb as yet un- inscribed. The Archbishop's works were collected and printed from his own cor- rected copies, with a memoir, by Rev. A. H. Kenney, in 2 vols., London, 1842. The present Bishop of Peterborough is his grandson. " "^ '^s

Maginn, William, LL.D., a dis- tinguished writer, was born in Cork in July 1794. He entered Trinity College at an unusually early age, and attained the degree of LL.D. when but twenty-three. In the literary society of Cork he soon excelled all his contemporaries in the depth and universality of his reading. The publica- tion of Blackwood's Magazine, commenced in 1 8 1 7, opened up a field especially favour- able for the display of his talents. His earliest contribution was a translation into Latin of Chevy Chase. At first he wrote under the assumed name of "Ralph Tuckett Scott," and occasionally had con- siderable difficulty in getting cash for Mr. Blackwood's cheques in favour of that supposed individual. It would be impos- sible to specify his numerous contributions to the magazine, of which for a time he was the main stay. In 1 823 he married,