Reference
WY990-996
Title
Letters to William Stuart, 1755-1822, Archbishop of Armagh
Date free text
1792-1822
Production date
From: 1792 To: 1822
Admin/biog history
William Stuart (1755-1822) was the fifth son of John, third Earl of Bute. He had four brothers and six sisters. He married Sophia Penn, who died in 1847, and he had two sons and two daughters.
In 1779 he became the Vicar of Luton and he lived at Copt Hall, built by Lord Bute, near Someries. He kept the Reverend Coriolanus Coplestone as a curate. In 1793 he became Canon of Windsor, rising to be Bishop of St. Davids in 1794. In 1800 he was made Archibishop of Armagh against his will.
He was very careful about the correspondence that he kept. A note on a letter, which had been written in 1794, dated July 1797, stated that he had “burned all his papers and letters except such as may *Family or Private letters” *(Word(s) in code). According to one letter to him he was appointed to preach to the King on Sunday 6 April 1794.
In 1800 he was informed by the Secretary of State for the Home Department, the third Duke of Portland, that “I have His Majesty’s commands to let you know that His Majesty certainly can not accept your declining what His Majesty thinks to the advantage of Religion and Good Morals . . . .” and so was made Archibishop of Armagh.
As Archibishop he had his problems with some of the clergy which came to a head in 1806 when it was found in some test cases that the bishops did not have any power to enforce residence and many clergymen left Ireland for England whilst still drawing their stipends.
M. G. Taylor 12 May 1972
Scope and Content
Most of WY992 deals with matters arising out of the death of the Earl of MacCartney and here follows an extract from the post-mortem on 2 April 1806.
“ . . . . . . . . .The stomach was found flaccid and nearly empty, its internal membrance where the gullet opens into it was very much inflamed and the coats so thin as to tear with the slightest force. This appearance extended an inch up to the gullet and two inches into the cavity of the stomach.” This was probably aggravated by hot medicines he was given by the doctors!
The catalogue for WY990-996 was produced by the Bedford Modern School Local History Group.
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series
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