John MacEnery (27 November 1796 – 18 February 1841) was a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

priest from

Limerick Limerick ( ; ) is a city in western Ireland, in County Limerick. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster and is in the Mid-West Region, Ireland, Mid-West which comprises part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. W ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

and early

archaeologist Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

who came to Devon as Chaplain to the Cary family at Torre Abbey in 1822. In 1825, 1826 and 1829, he investigated the prehistoric remains at Kent's Cavern in

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

, having been shown the cave by Thomas Northmore. MacEnery concluded that the

palaeolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic ( years ago) ( ), also called the Old Stone Age (), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone tools, and which represents almost the entire period of human prehist ...

flint tools he found in the same contexts as the bones of extinct prehistoric mammals meant that early humans and the creatures such as

mammoth A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus.'' They lived from the late Miocene epoch (from around 6.2 million years ago) into the Holocene until about 4,000 years ago, with mammoth species at various times inhabi ...

s co-existed. His contemporaries had great difficulty reconciling his findings to their pre- Darwinian view of the earth's history. 20th century commentators suggest it was the influence of the theologian William Buckland who persuaded MacEnery to doubt the evidence he saw before him, which led to MacEnery never publishing his work. However, Edward Vivian stated that it was simply the expense which caused him to abandon publication.E. Vivian (ed) Cavern Researches, or discoveries of organic remains, and of British and Roman reliques, in the Caves of Kent's Hole, Anstis Cove, Chudleigh, and Berry Head by the late Rev. J. MacEnery, F.G.S. 1859. MacEnery left Torquay and his cave research in 1830 and it was left to Vivian, whose heavily edited version of his work was published in 1859, and then later to William Pengelly who publicised and explored the original manuscript of his findings in 1869, many years after MacEnery's death at age 43. John MacEnery studied for the priesthood in St Munchin's College, the Limerick Diocesan College then in Palmerstown County Limerick, where he was ordained in 1819. MacEnery retired early due to ill health following an accident and lived for a time in Rome and Paris before returning to Torre Abbey in 1838. He died on 18 February 1841, and is buried in Torre Churchyard, Torquay. Grave of John MacEnery

References

External links

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Portrait of John MacEneryJohn MacEnery's grave
{{DEFAULTSORT:Macenery, John 1796 births 1841 deaths English archaeologists 19th-century English Roman Catholic priests Scientists from County Limerick 19th-century Irish Roman Catholic priests Catholic clergy scientists 19th-century Irish archaeologists Christian clergy from County Limerick People educated at St Munchin's College