Thomas Elrington

Thomas Elrington (18 December 1760 – 12 July 1835) was an Irish academic and bishop. He was Donegall Lecturer in Mathematics (1790-1795) at Trinity College Dublin (TCD). While at TCD he also served as Erasmus Smith's Professor of Mathematics (1795–1799) and as Erasmus Smith's Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy (1799–1807). Later, he was Provost of Trinity College Dublin (1811-1820), then Bishop of Limerick, Ardfert and Aghadoe (1820-1822), and finally Bishop of Ferns and Leighlin till his death in Liverpool in 1835. 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 the Erasmus Smith's Professor of Natural and Experimental Philosophy. In 1789, he published the mathematical treatise Euclidis Elementorum Sex Libri Priores, Cum Notis (Dublin University Press), whose 10th edition appeared in 1833.