Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 1.djvu/494

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

COLGAN

483

one of the commissioners for the settlement of the kingdom, for which purpose he had a grant of lands.

He was member of parliament for the county of Fermanagh, of whichr county he was appointed custos rotulorum on the 2nd of April, 1661. He married Elizabeth, daughter of John Chichester, Esq. of Dungannon, by whom he had four sons and seven daughters, and died in or about the year 1693.

JOHN COLGAN,

A native of the county of Donegal, and celebrated, both as an author and a scholar; was a strict Franciscan friar in the Irish convent of St. Anthony of Padua, in Louvain, in which he was professor of divinity. He was thoroughly acquainted with the Irish language, and likewise possessed a great knowledge of the antiquities and church history of his country, by the acquirement of which learning, he was admirably qualified for the praiseworthy and laborious work in which he had engaged, namely, the collecting and writing the lives of the Irish saints; a work in which he was greatly aided by the collections made for the same purpose by Hugh Ward^[1], who was unfortunately prevented from carrying his intentions into effect by sudden death. He (Colgan) gave up the greater part of his time and talents to this work, and has published two large folio volumes, illustrated with many notes, both useful and learned, especially in what regards

↑ Hugh Ward was likewise a native of the county of Donegal, but received part of his education at Salamanca and part in Paris; and afterwards was made lecturer, and then guardian of the Irish college at Louvain. Prior to which he was admitted into the order of Franciscan friars at Salamanca, in the year 1616. He was a man deeply read in Hibernian antiquities, and undertook the writing a complete History of the Lives of the Saints of Ireland. For which purpose he employed one Michael O'Clery, who was likewise a friar of the same order, and sent him from Louvain to Ireland to search for manuscripts and to collect materials for the work The finishing of which was prevented by the author's sudden decease, on the 8th November, 1635; and the whole of his papers came into the possession of John Colgan, and were singularly useful to him.

[1] Hugh Ward was likewise a native of the county of Donegal, but received part of his education at Salamanca and part in Paris; and afterwards was made lecturer, and then guardian of the Irish college at Louvain. Prior to which he was admitted into the order of Franciscan friars at Salamanca, in the year 1616. He was a man deeply read in Hibernian antiquities, and undertook the writing a complete History of the Lives of the Saints of Ireland. For which purpose he employed one Michael O'Clery, who was likewise a friar of the same order, and sent him from Louvain to Ireland to search for manuscripts and to collect materials for the work The finishing of which was prevented by the author's sudden decease, on the 8th November, 1635; and the whole of his papers came into the possession of John Colgan, and were singularly useful to him.

[1]