fife of tlic 

 3Ri0l]t JReitercnit Hilliam (fDuartcr, p. p. 



CHAPTER I. 



FROM HIS BIRTH UNTIL HIS DEPARTURE FOR AMERICA. 



1806—1822 



Rt. Rev. William Quarter, first Bishop of 

 Chicago, in the state of Illinois, was born inKillurine. 

 Kings County, Ireland, on the 21st day of January, 

 in the year 1806. He was the third son of Michael 

 Quarter and Ann Bennet. There were four brothers : 

 John, the eldest; Walter Joseph, the vicar general 

 of the Bishop and present administrator of the 

 diocese; William, the subject of this memoir; and 

 James, who died before he arrived at the age neces- 

 sary to receive ordination. It was his intention to 

 have entered the holy order of the priesthood. 



The family of the Quarters was of the most 

 respectable; and rarely is one found that has given 

 more priests and bishops to the Church than the 

 maternal branch of it has done. 'The number of 

 clergymen here and in the diocese of Meath that are 

 connected with it, is at the present time little short 

 of twenty; and they have to display an unsullied 

 name, while there have never been any men in the 

 ministry more firm in upholding the rights of the 

 priesthood." 



Mrs. Quarter, the Bishop's mother, looking upon 

 the pledges that God had given as merely entrusted 



