Edward Ledwich LL.D. F.S.A. (1738 – 8 August 1823) was an Irish

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the st ...

, antiquary and topographer.

Life

Ledwich was born in

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of the Wicklow Mountains range. At the 2016 ...

, the son of John Ledwich, a merchant. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, entering on 22 November 1755, and taking a B.A. in 1760 and a LL.B. in 1763. He became vicar of Aghaboe in 1772, which he must have resigned in 1797, as his successor was then appointed. Ledwich died at his house in York Street, Dublin, on 8 August 1823.

Works

In 1790, Ledwich published his ''Antiquities of Ireland''. It was later discounted, because of the imperfect information on Irish history current in his day, and his theories were effectually set aside by George Petrie and later writers. In the index to John Lanigan's ''Ecclesiastical History'' there are errata to Ledwich. His article on the ''History and Antiquities of Irishtown and Kilkenny'', published in 1781, was appended to the second edition of his ''Antiquities of Ireland'', 1804. In 1791, Ledwich completed the editing and publication of his friend

Francis Grose Francis Grose (born before 11 June 1731 – 12 May 1791) was an English antiquary, draughtsman, and lexicographer. He produced ''A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue'' (1785) and ''A Provincial Glossary, with a Collection of Local Pr ...

's ''Antiquities of Ireland''. ;Publications * * , with Francis Grose ** **

Family

A daughter married the barrister

William Ridgeway Sir William Ridgeway, FBA FRAI (6 August 1853 – 12 August 1926) was an Anglo-Irish classical scholar and the Disney Professor of Archaeology at Cambridge University. Biography Ridgeway was born 6 August 1853, at Ballydermot, King's Co ...

Notes

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ledwich, Edward 1738 births 1823 deaths 18th-century Irish historians 19th-century Irish historians Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Writers from Dublin (city)