Thomas Elrington (bishop)
Life. The only child of Richard and Catherine Elrington of Dublin, he was born near that city on 18 December 1760. He entered Trinity College Dublin, on 1 May 1775 as a pensioner, under the tutorship of the Rev. Dr. Drought, and was elected a Scholar in 1778. He graduated B.A. in 1780, M.A. in 1785, and B.D. and D.D. in 1795. In 1781 he was elected a fellow of his college. He was Donegall Lecturer of Mathematics (1790-1795), and in 1794 he was the first to hold the office of Donnellan Divinity Lecturer. In 1795  he was appointed Archbishop King's Lecturer in Divinity, succeeded to a senior fellowship, and also became the third Erasmus Smith's Professor of Mathematics (1795–1799). In 1799 he exchanged the Erasmus Smith's professorship of mathematics for that of natural philosophy. In 1789, he published the mathematical treatise "Euclidis Elementorum Sex Libri Priores, Cum Notis" (Dublin University Press), whose 10th edition appeared in 1833. On resigning his fellowship in 1806 Elrinton was presented by his college to the rectory of Ardtrea, in the diocese of Armagh, which he held until December 1811. He resigned, having been appointed to the  provostship of Trinity College. During his tenure of this office he was the acting manager of almost every public board, and a supporter of charitable institutions. Elrington was advanced on 25 September 1820 to the bishopric of Limerick, and on 21 December 1822 he was translated to Leighlin and Ferns. While on his way to attend Parliament duties in London he died of paralysis at Liverpool on 12 July 1835. He was buried under the chapel of Trinity College Dublin, in which there was a monument with a Latin inscription to his memory. Another monument was erected by his clergy  in the cathedral church of Ferns. Elrington was an active member of the Royal Irish Academy, and of other literary and scientific societies. The Elrington theological essay prize was instituted in Trinity College in 1837. A portrait of the bishop was painted in 1820 for his brother, Major Elrington, by Thomas Foster; engraved by William Ward, it was published in 1836 by Graves & Co. There was a marble bust in the library of Trinity College. Elrington was a highly intelligent man, but contemporaries found him inflexible, rigid and narrow-minded. Students, while praising him for his learning, found him personally  obnoxious. Works. His works are: Elrington also published sermons and charges, and edited, for the use of Trinity College, 'Euclid's Elements, the first Six Books,' 1788 (ten or twelve times reprinted); 'Locke on Government, with Notes,' 1798; and 'Juvenalis et Persius, edito expurgata,' 1808. Family. About 1786 he married Charlotte, daughter of the Rev. Plunket Preston, rector of Duntryleague, County Limerick, and by her had issue Charles Richard Elrington, another son Henry, and several daughters, including Caroline (died 1868), who married in 1827 John Whitley Stokes (1801-1883), Archdeacon of Armagh, and had a son Thomas Gabriel Stokes. John  Whitley Stokes was the elder brother of the noted physicist Sir George Stokes, 1st Baronet.