the case, and how it ended we cannot tell; at any rate it is clear that the friars had the best of the whole quarrel.
About this time the see of Annadown, not far from Tuam, happened to become vacant, and Archbishop Bermingham attempted to unite it with the see of Tuam. But the dean and chapter of Annadown resisted the attempt, and in 1306 elected a Franciscan friar named Gilbert to the vacant bishopric. The archbishop used every effort to carry his point. and even went to Avignon to lay his complaint before the pope. But here also he was defeated, for on his return he found that Gilbert had been confirmed in his bishopric by a decree from the primatial court of Armagh. The archbishop died in 1311, and was buried in the abbey of Athenry, near his father Meiler.
In the 'Annals of Lough Key' this prelate is called William MacFeorais; for which change of name see Bermingham, John, earl of Louth.
[Harris's Ware, Bishops, 608; Burke's Catholic Archbishops of Tuam, 30; Annals of Lough Key, A.D. 1288, 1290, 1307, 1312 ]
BERNAL, RALPH (d. 1864), politician and art collector, was sprung from a race of Jewish descent and Spanish origin. He was entered at Christ's College, Cambridge, where he took his degrees of B.A. and M.A. in 1806 and 1809 respectively. In 1810 he was called to the bar as a member of Lincoln's Inn, but he inherited a large property in the West Indies, and preferred a parliamentary to a legal life. For thirty-four years (1818-62) he had a seat in the House of Commons, and during that period spent 66,000l. in election contests. He represented the city of Lincoln from 1818 to 1820, and Rochester from 1820 to 1841. In the latter year he contested the constituency of Weymouth, and was seated on petition. After representing that borough from 1841 to 1847 he returned to Rochester, and continued to sit for it until he retired from political life in 1862. Throughout his parliamentary career he was prominent in the ranks of the whigs, and from about 1830 to 1860 he acted as chairman of committees. His speech in the house (19 May 1826) on the slave-trade, on appeal for delay on behalf of the West Indian interest, was printed as a pamphlet. Several of his contributions appeared in the Annuals and Keepsakes of the day, and his inaugural address, as president of the British Archæological Society in 1863, on some antiquities in Rochester and on the Medway, is in the ninth volume of its 'Journal,' pp. 201-1 4. But it was as an art collector in glass, plate, china, and miniatures, that he was best known. On his death an attempt was made to secure his collections for the nation, but it failed, and they were sold in 1866. Two catalogues of his works of art, with a few introductory lines by J. R. Planché, in eulogy of Bernal's taste and knowledge, were issued. There were in all 4,294 lots, and the sale realised nearly 71,000l. Bernal died at Eaton Square on 26 Aug. 1864. He was twice married and had issue by each wife. His first wife, Anne Elizabeth, only daughter of Richard Samuel White, of New Ormond Street, London, whom he married on 10 April 1806, died at Bryanston Square, London, on 10 July 1823, from her clothes catching fire when she was weak through a confinement. His second wife was a daughter of Dr. Henry White, R.N., the surgeon of Chatham dockyard.
[Bagenal's Life of R. Bernal Osborne; Gent. Mag. 1823, pt. ii. 92. 1854. pt. ii. 628; Return of Members of Parliament; Picciotto's Anglo-Jewish History, 157-8; Sir Henry Cole's Biography, 1885, i. 289-90.]
BERNAL OSBORNE, RALPH (1808–1882), politician, the eldest son of Ralph Bernal [q. v.] by his first wife, was born on 26 March 1808. He was educated at the Charterhouse, and in October 1829 matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he lived for two years as the son and heir of an opulent landowner, rather than as a hardworking student. At that time his father married again, with the result that his eldest-born child was taken from the university and sent into the army as ensign of the 71st regiment. Not long after he exchanged into the 7th royal fusiliers, and retained his commission until his entrance into parliament in 1841. When Lord Mulgrave, afterwards the Earl of Normanby, was made lord-lieutenant of Ireland, Ralph Bernal became an extra aide-de-camp in the viceregal establishment, remaining in Ireland until 1841 and passing his time chiefly in the pleasures of society and in the composition of satirical verses. At the dissolution in 1841 his dashing manners won a seat at Chipping Wycombe for the liberal interest against the influence of Lord Carington, an event which surprised the political world. From his first entrance into the House of Commons he spoke with great vigour, especially on Irish topics, on behalf of the adherents of advanced liberalism. On 20 Aug. 1844 he married, at St. George's, Hanover Square, Catherine Isabella, the only child and heiress of Sir Thomas Osborne, an Irish baronet, and on 19 Aug. he assumed her name, being generally known for the rest of his life as Bernal Osborne. When an appeal
