DATABASE SPOTLIGHT: Today I wanted to focus on one of our recently created guild databases - the Church of Ireland Clergy Lists

This database of over 23,000 names and details of the Church of Ireland Clergy lists those from the Dioceses of Cashel, Clogher, Connor, Derry, Down, Dublin, Killaloe, Kilmore, Limerick, Tuam and Waterford.

Digitised copies of the volumes published by the Foundation are in the Members' Library for those who wish to read them as a flipbook here.

A further small clergy succession list for three parishes in Dublin: St Bride, St Michael le Pole and St Stephen can be viewed for free here.

The production of lists of clergy originated early in the nineteenth century with the publication by Samuel Percy Lea of 'The Present State of the Established Church, or Ecclesiastical Register of Ireland for the Year 1814'. This was followed in 1817 with the 'Ecclesiastical Register of the Names of the Dignitaries and Parochial Clergy and of the Parishes and their Respective Patrons', etc. by J.C. Erck and in 1843 with J.M. Bourns’ 'The Irish Clergy List and Ecclesiastical Almanack'.

These early works were basically just lists of clergy with little biographical information. The first to produce succession lists of clergy with biographical and other details was Henry Cotton, Dean of Lismore, who published 'Fasti Ecclesiae Hibernicae', subtitled 'The Succession of the Prelates and Members of the Cathedral Bodies of Ireland' in six volumes (1845–50).

The most prolific and arguably the greatest producer of biographical succession lists of the Anglican clergy in Ireland was Canon James Blennerhassett Leslie, Rector of Kilsaran, Co. Louth. Leslie was a meticulous scholar who spent many hours over many years gathering and recording information from a huge variety of sources.

The first of Canon Leslie’s volumes was 'Armagh Clergy and Parishes', which appeared in 1911 (a Supplement appeared in 1948). The other volumes produced by Leslie were 'Clogher Clergy and Parishes' (1929), 'Ossory Clergy and Parishes' (1933), 'Ferns Clergy and Parishes' (1936), 'Derry Clergy and Parishes' (1937), 'Ardfert and Aghadoe Clergy and Parishes' (1940) and 'Raphoe Clergy and Parishes' (1940). With Dean H.B. Swanzy, he published 'Succession Lists of the Diocese of Dromore' (1933) and 'Biographical Succession Lists of the Clergy of the Diocese of Down' (1936).

Through the work of individuals like Fred Rankin, Canon David Crooks, W.J.R. Wallace, Canon W.E.C. Fleming, Dean Thomas Moore, Geraldine Fitzgerald and Geraldine Willis (former librarians at the Representative Church Body library), 14 volumes of clergy succession lists have been published (or republished and updated) since 1993:

With the exception of the books on Armagh Clergy 1800–2000 and Clergy of Meath and Kildare, the titles listed above were all published by Ulster Historical Foundation.