About 1818 he also wrote for the 'Bagatelle,' a short-lived Cork periodical; and for a time he edited the 'Cork Mercantile Reporter.' Between 1825-8 he contributed to 'Bolster's Cork Quarterly,' and to two London periodicals, the 'Dublin and London Magazine' and 'Captain Rock in London.' Richard Ryan [q. v.], the Irish biographer, who seems to have known him, says in his 'Poets and Poetry' (1826, ii. 141), that he was, in 1826, preparing a translation of Tibullus. In 1830 O'Leary published a pamphlet 'On the Late Election in Cork,' under the signature of 'A Reporter.' There are also some poems by him in Patrick O'Kelly's 'Hippocrene' (1831) [see O'Kelly, Patrick]; and in 1833 a small collection of his poems and sketches appeared at Cork in an anonymous volume, entitled 'The Tribute.' In 1834 he came to London and joined the staff of the 'Morning Herald' as parliamentary reporter. He seems to have met with little success in London, and drowned himself in the Regent's Canal about 1845. O'Leary has been confused with 'The Irish Whiskey-Drinker'—i.e. John Sheehan.
Another contemporary Joseph O'Leary (fl. 1835), a barrister, published 'Law of Tithes in Ireland,' Dublin, 1835, 8vo; 'Rent Charges in lieu of Tithes,' Dublin, 1840, 8vo; 'Dispositions for Religious and Charitable Uses in Ireland,' Dublin, 1847, 8vo.
[Brit. Mus. Cat.; Windele's Cork and its Vicinity, p. 126; Ryan's Poets and Poetry, 1826, ii. 141; Bentley's Ballads, ed. Sheehan, 1869, p. 142; Dublin and London Magazine, 1825-7; O'Donoghue's Poets of Ireland, p. 193.]
OLEY, BARNABAS (1602–1686), royalist divine, was baptised in the old parish church of Wakefield on 26 Dec. 1602, as son of 'Francis Oley, clarke,' who married Mary Mattersouse on 25 June 1600. He was educated at Wakefield grammar school, which he entered in 1607. In 1617 he proceeded to Clare College, Cambridge, probably as Cave's exhibitioner from his school, and graduated B.A. 1621, M.A. 1625, and B.D. A crown mandate for the degree of D.D. to him and two other eminent divines was dated 14 April, and published 17 June 1663, but the honour was declined. He was elected probationer-fellow of the foundation of Lady Clare at his college on 28 Nov. 1623, and a senior fellow in 1627, and filled the offices of tutor and president. In these positions he showed great zeal and ability, the most illustrious of his pupils being Peter Gunning, bishop of Ely. Oley was also taxor for the university in 1634, and proctor in 1635. In 1633 he was appointed by his college to the vicarage of Great Gransden, Huntingdonshire, and held it until his death; but for several years he continued to reside at Cambridge. The first steps for the rebuilding of the college, which was begun on 19 May 1638, though not finished until 1715, were taken under his direction, and, according to George Dyer, the structure was much indebted to his 'benefaction, zeal, and inspections.' Extensive purchases of bricks are recorded in the college books as having been made by him, and he was called by Fuller its 'Master of the Fabric' He was a zealous loyalist, and when the university sent its plate to the king at Nottingham to be converted into money for his use, it was entrusted to his care and safely brought to the king's headquarters, August 1642. Particulars of the plate, and of the manner by which, through the skill of Oley, who knew all the highways and byways between Cambridge and that town, the troops of Cromwell were circumvented, are given in the 'Life of Dr. John Barwick' (pp. 23–7). He also lent a considerable sum of money on the communion plate of Clare College, which is of solid gold and very valuable, and restored it to the college in 1660 on receiving a portion of this advance. There is a tradition in the college that its three other very old pieces of plate were preserved by his care. For not residing at Cambridge, and for not appearing before the commission when summoned to attend, he was ejected by the Earl of Manchester from his fellowship on 8 April 1644. He was also plundered of his personal and landed property, and forced to leave his benefice. For seven years he wandered through England in great poverty. In 1643 and 1646 he was at Oxford. Early in 1645, when Pontefract Castle was being defended for the king, he was within its walls, and preached to the garrison; and when Sir Marmaduke Langdale was condemned to death in 1648, but escaped from prison, and lay hid for some weeks in a haystack, the fugitive at last made his way to London in the costume of a clergyman which was supplied by Oley. Next year he was very ill, 'but God strangely brought me back from the Gates of Death.' For some time he lived at Heath, near Wakefield, and in 1652-3 he stayed 'in the north privately, near the place of Lady Savil's demolished habitation' (Mayor, Ferrar, pp. 303-4).
In 1659 Oley returned to Gransden, when Sir John Hewett of Waresley in Huntingdonshire gave him some furniture, and on 9 July 1660 he was restored to his fellowship by an order of the same Earl of Manchester. Through the 'voluntary mediation'
