Ussher – died

ON THIS DATE 

James Ussher died 3/21/1656 at Reigate, Surrey, England.  He was born 1/4/1581, Dublin, Ireland one of two sons of Arland & Margaret (Stanihurst) Ussher.  James (13) entered Trinity College (Dublin); after receiving his BA & being ordained by Henry Ussher (an uncle) & getting his MA, James became a  professor & twice vice-chancellor of the same university.  He married Phoebe (1614) daughter of Luke Challoner; they were blessed with one child, Elizabeth – later wife of Sir Timothy Tyrrell.

Ussher became primate (1^st ranking bishop) of Ireland. However he was in England (1641) when the Civil War broke (never returned to Ireland) & held various teaching/preaching positions there. Politically, he was royallist, able to counsel Charles I, yet his genuineness showned so that Cromwell accepted him, ordered his burial to be in Westminster Abbey, & paid the funeral expenses (thought to be the only Anglican funeral service read in the Abbey during the Commonwealth period). The Puritans also respected Ussher.

Some shallow men & evolutionary men reject Ussher’s dates, perhaps ignorant of Ussher’s grasp of Semitic languages, or who haven’t read his Annals of the World or are men influenced by the Roman Catholic system he opposed. “The religion of the papists is superstitious & idolatrous; their faith & doctrine erroneous & heretical…to give them therefore a toleration, or to consent that they may freely exercise their religion, & profess their faith & doctrine, is a grievous sin.”

A stone erected in his memory at Trinity U. (1904) claims him to be,

“…most learned among the holy, most holy among the learned…” 

What a compliment from those who knew him better than modern critics!

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James Ussher – death, Mar. 21, 1656

As soon as Mithridates (mĭth’rĭ•dā’tēz) arrived at Paphlagonia, he made a speech to the soldiers.  When he saw that he had aroused their hatred of the Romans he invaded Bithynia… – 75 BC

                – James Ussher, Annals of the World (London: E.Tyler for J. Crook, 1658,

                                reprint, Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2003), 4111 (paragraph #).

 

All Asia was being most intolerably oppressed by Roman money-lenders and tax collectors and defected to Mithridates.  -75 BC

                – James Ussher, Annals of the World (London: E.Tyler for J. Crook, 1658,

                                reprint, Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2003), 4112 (paragraph #).

 

A little later he [Mithridates] came to a country that had not been ravaged by war for many years, so that a slave was sold for four drachmas and an ox for one drachma.  Goats, sheep, clothes and other things were equally cheap. – 72 BC

                – James Ussher, Annals of the World (London: E.Tyler for J. Crook, 1658,

                                reprint, Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2003), 4176 (paragraph #).

 

James Ussher died this date (3/21/1656) Reigate, Surrey, England.  He was born 1/4/1581 in Dublin, Ireland. 

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