( 182 ) 

 RICHARD JOHN USSHEB, d.l., m.r.i.a. 

 V^ A MEMOIR. 



BY 



RICHARD M. BARRINGTON. 



(Plate 16.) 



A TRUE conception of the position Mr. R. J. Ussher 

 occupied amongst Irish Naturahsts, cannot be readily 

 conveyed. Amongst Irish ornithologists he was facile 

 princeps, the " Recording Angel," and had at his 

 finger-ends all the records of the distribution, county 

 by county, of the Irish avifauna. 



As a spehologist, he also took first place — and certainly 

 no Irishman, and very few EngHshmen, have spent the 

 same amount of time and money in excavating caves. 



He was born in April, 1841, and died after a short 

 illness on the 12th October, 1913, aged 72 years, and 

 was buried in the family vault at Whitechurch, near 

 his residence, on October loth. His father, who married 

 a daughter of Colonel Grant, at one time Governor of 

 Upper Canada, was 63 years old at the time of R. J. 

 Ussher's birth, so that the two lives extended over a 

 period of 135 years. At the age of 12 he was sent 

 to a school at Portarlington, and subsequently to 

 Chester, and afterwards, being delicate, he Avas educated 

 by a tutor, and entered Trinity College, Dublin, as a 

 non-resident, but OAving to ill-health, never took his 

 degree, but passed successive winters travelluig with 

 his mother and a tutor in Spain, Italy, Corfu, etc. 



Wlien twenty -five, he married the eldest daughter of 

 the Rev. John Finlay, of Corkagh House, co. Dublin, 

 and again travelled abroad for some years. He then 

 devoted himself with energy to public duties m his 

 own county, and became Deputy-Lieutenant, Grand 

 Juror, and High Sheriff, and taking a great interest in 

 Church matters was for many years a member of the 

 General Synod. 



His interest in Natural History was partly inherent, 

 for as a boy he was fond of egg-collecting, and this 

 taste was developed chiefly owmg to the circumstances 

 of his life, for in 1877 his wife became a confirmed 

 invahd, and under this great family sorrow, relief was 



