Life
1738-1823; antiquarian; ed. TCD; worked in parish of Aghaboe, Queen’s
Co.; published The History of Antiquities of Irishtown and Kilkenny,
as No. IX of Charles Vallancey’s Collectanea (1781; rep. 1804);
issued Antiquities of Ireland (Dublin 1790), based on the plates
prepared by Franics Grose who had ‘written and printed but seven
pages of description’, the whole being completed by Ledwich with
additional plates by W. Beauford, A. Cooper, A. Chearnley, Geo. Holmes,
S. Hayes, W.L., and R.G., depicting castles, abbeys, and round towers,
all engraved by J. Ford; the work was dedicated to the to Rev. Charles
Coote; a 2-vol. edition was printed in London in 1791 and ded. to the
Right Hon. William Conyingham, with introductory essays on ‘Pagan
Antiquities’ and ‘Military Antiquities of Ireland’ as well
as ‘An introduction to Ancient Irish architecture’ (Pref. Vol.
2); in it Ledwich attempts to demolish ‘bardic fictions’ and
generally depreciates pre-Norman Irish (i.e., Gaelic) society and culture;
valued now only for its plates; though ignorant of Irish, he advanced
hypotheses refuted in the Irish annals about the builders of Irish ecclesiatical
monuments; attacked by Dr. Lanigan in his Ecclestical History,
sometimes called a correction to the former [but see also Archdall]; issued
A Statistical account of the Parish of Aghaboe (1796), giving an
interesting account of the agricultural economy on ‘the main road
from Dublin to Limerick’. DNB DIW RAF [FDA] OCIL
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Works
Antiquitates Sarisburienses, containing, I: A dissertation on the
antient coins found at Old Sarum; II: The Salisbury ballad. III: The history
of Old Sarum. IV: Historical memoirs, relative to the City of New Sarum.
V: The lives of the bishops of Old, and New Sarum. VI: The lives of eminent
men, natives of Salisbury (Salisbury: E. Easton 1770-1771), 15, 28, 247pp.,
2 fold. pls, 8vo.; with Francis Grose, Antiquities of Ireland (Dublin:
Printed for Arthur Grueber [No.59 Dame Street] 1790), 473pp., 39 pls.,
ded. to Rev. Charles Coote; Do. [2nd rev. edn.] (Dublin: J. Jones
1804); Do., with Francis Grose, 2 vols. (London: S. Hooper 1791-95),
235 pls., 24 plans; 4o.; A Statistical Account of the Parish of Aghadoe
in the Queen’sCounty, Ireland (Dublin: G. Bonham & J.
Archer 1796), vi, 95pp., 3pp. pls., map. Sermons (London: printed for
W. Miller 1793), [6], 154pp. Also contrib. appendix to Joseph Cooper Walker,
Historical memoirs of the Irish bards [… &c.] (London:
T. Payne & Son 1786).
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Criticism
Donal Macartney, ‘The Writing of History in Ireland 1800-1830, in
Irish Historical Studies, vol. 10, No. 40 (157), pp.347-63.
See also Joseph Th. Leerssen, Mere Irish & Fior-Ghael: Studies in the Idea of Irish Nationality, Its Development and Literary Expression Prior To The Nineteenth Century (Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins Pub. Co. 1986; rep. Cork UP 1996) [passim].
Robert E. Ward & Catherine Ward, ed., Letters of Charles O’Conor (Washington 1988), pp.419, 424).
Michael Scott, ed., Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall, Tour of Ireland, 1840 [condensed edition] (1984).
Seamus Deane, ‘Cannon Fodder, Literary Mythologies in Ireland’, in ed. Jean Lundy & Aodan Mc Poilín, Styles of Belonging: Cultural Diversity in Ulster (Belfast: Lagan Press 1992).
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Notes
Dictionary of National Biography also lists Thomas Hawkesworth
Ledwich (1823-1858), anatomist, a grandson of the above and author of
The Anatomy of the Human Body (1852) with his br. Dr. Edward Ledwich;
succeeded Sir Philip Crampton as surgeon at Meath Hospital. DIW follows
DNB. RAF, b.1737 or 1738; collaborated with Vallancey and Walker [err.];
2nd ed. Antiquities (1790, 1804).
Patrick Rafroidi, Irish Literature in English: The Romantic Period, 1789-1850 (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe 1980), Vol 1, contains bare reference to Antiquities of Ireland (1790): ‘in James Stuart (1764-1840?) wrote a History of Armagh (1819) which includes a ‘refutation of the opinions of Dr. Ledwich concerning the non-existence of St. Patrick’ [under Stuart].
Seamus Deane, gen. ed., Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 3, quotes remarks in Oliver MacDonagh, States of Mind, 1983): ‘Modern Irish historiography was born in 1790 with the publication of Rvd Edward Ledwich’s Antiquities of Ireland. Ostensibly, Ledwich wrote as an enlightenment man, bent on dissipating by eighteenth-century sunlight what he called the bardic fictions which had enveloped early Irish history. In fact, as the subsequent controversies about his work revealed, he was signalling the fact that the Irish past had become an additional arena for current Irish political conflict. His real target was rising papists like Charles O’Connor [sic] and Thomas Wyse, founders of the Catholic Committee in 1760, who had combined agitation for Catholic relief with attempts to preserve the traditional Gaelic culture [...;] with warm encouragement of] Anglo-Irish liberals [of the RIA] using the remote past to support their claims to social and civic parity [...] Ledwich however thought he had seen through the upstarts design in canvassing pre-conquest Ireland. He was not deceived as to their ulterior purpose. He had discerned a dangerous association of Gaelic, Catholic and radical political views, and was proceeding to take his counter-measures. The Antiquities of Ireland was the opening shot of a campaign’. [619-20]
British Library holds The Antiquities of Ireland, edited and mostly written by E. Ledwich, 2 vol. (London: S. Hooper 1791, 1797). 4o.; Do. [second edn.] (Dublin: Printed for the Author 1790). 526pp., 4o., and Do. (Dublin: J. Jones 1804). 4o.; Inquiries concerning the ancient Irish Harp: A letter [...] on the style of the ancient Irish Music; [7] Some observations on Irish Antiquities with a particular application of them to the Ship temple near Dundalk Vol. 3 (1786). 8o.; The history and antiquities of Irishtown and Kilkenny [n.details]; A Statistical Account of the Parish of Aghaboe, in the Queen’s County. Ireland, etc. Dublin: Archer 1796), vi, 95pp.. 8o.; An essay on the study of Irish Antiquities- A Dissertation on the Round Towers in Ireland.- Memoirs of Dunamase and Shean Castle, in the Queen’s County. History and antiquities of Irishtown and Kilkenny. [With an appendix.]; Antiquitates Sarisburienses, etc. [by E. L.]; Historical Memoirs of the City of Armagh, for a period of 1373 years; comprising a considerable portion of the general history of Ireland, a refutation of the opinions of Dr. Ledwich, respecting the non-existence of St. Patrick; and an appendix on the learning, antiquities, and religion of the Irish Nation, with addenda and plates (Newry 1819), 651pp., 8o. Note also, medical works by a namesake and prob. relation, The descriptive and surgical anatomy of the inguinal and femoral regions, considered in relation to hernia (London: Fannin & Co 1884), 92pp., 8o.; The practical and descriptive Anatomy of the Human Body [2nd edn.] rev. and enl. by E. Ledwich (Dublin 1852), . 12o., and Do. [3rd edn.] (Dublin: 1864), 8o., and Do. [?new edn.] (Dublin 1877). 8o.
COPAC lists Antiquities of Ireland (Dublin: Printed for Arthur Grueber [No.59 Dame Street] 1790), v, [3],184, [1], 184-473, [13]pp., 39 pls., front. engraved title-page & 37 numbered plates by W. Beauford, A. Cooper, A. Chearnley, Geo. Holmes, S. Hayes, W.L., and R.G., engraved by J. Ford; ded. to Rev. Charles Coote; also The antiquities of Ireland By Francis Grose Esqr. F.A.S Publisher: London: Printed for S. Hooper MDCCXCI-MDCCXCV [1791-95], 2 fol. vols., plates & plans [: Grose’s name does not appear on title-page of Vol. 2; Pref Vol. 2, ‘Printed for M. Hooper’]; Statistical Account of the Parish of Aghaboe in the Queen’sCounty, Ireland (Dublin: G. Bonham & J. Archer 1796), vi, 95pp., 3pp. pls (1 folded) : ill., map.
Belfast Linenhall Library holds Antiquities of Ireland [1790]. University of Ulster Library (Morris Collection) holds Antiquities of Ireland (Dublin: Printed for A. Grueber 1790) 473pp.
"Reliques" Percy: Ledwich informed Bishop
Percy (letter of 12 Nov. 1796), that two Dublin editions of his Antiquities
of Ireland had sold 2,300 copies. (Cited in Richard Cargill Cole, Irish Booksellers and English Writers, 1740-1800, 1986, p.18.)
No St. Patricks?: Ledwich is made the particular target of attacks in Anon., Life of St Patrick (Dublin: Fitzpatrick [printer to RC College, Maynooth] 1810), where his denial of the probable existence of St. Patrick and general hostility to the Irish annalists and historians attracts vituberative comments on his work, Eccles. History, which like Lot’s wife, is said to exist ‘as a monument to the author’s disgrace’ on account of the ‘venom he vents on Keating, O’Flaherty, O’Connor [sic], Vallancy’ [p.14]. Note that Ledwich is rebuked for his denial of St. Patrick in James Wills, Lives of Illustrious and Distinguished Irishmen (1839), Vol. 1, p.70 [Thoemmes Facs. Rep. Edn. 6 vols., 1997].
Ordinance Survey: John O’Donovan found the doorway only of Our Lady’s Church in Glendalough still standing and regretted that Ledwich, who saw it intact, did not give a fuller description; members of the Ordance Commission incl. Thomas O’Conor, languages teacher, and William Frederick Wakeman, artist; Curry reached Enniskerry in Dec. 1838 and ‘proceeded without delay to learn the pronunciation of the townland names of the parish of Powerscourt .. hoped that Larcom would furnish quills, paper, pencils and sealing wax.’ ("Irishman’s Diary", Irish Times, q.d., 2001.)
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)