Richard Laurence

The Most Reverend Richard Laurence DCL
Archbishop of Cashel
Church	Church of Ireland
Archdiocese	Cashel
Appointed	28 June 1822
In office	1822-1838
Predecessor	Charles Brodrick
Successor	Stephen Creagh Sandes
Orders
Consecration	21 July 1822 by Lord John Beresford
Personal details
Born	(1760-05-13)13 May 1760 Bath, Somerset, England
Died	28 December 1838(1838-12-28) (aged 78) Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland
Buried	Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin
Nationality	English
Denomination	Anglican
Parents	Richard Laurence & Elizabeth French
Spouse	Mary Vaughan
Children	1

Richard Laurence (13 May 1760 – 28 December 1838) was an English Hebraist and Anglican churchman. He was made Regius Professor of Hebrew and canon of Christ Church, Oxford, in 1814, and Archbishop of Cashel, Ireland, in 1822.

Laurence, younger brother of jurist French Laurence, was born in Bath and was educated at Bath Grammar School and at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. His chief contribution to Biblical scholarship was his study of the Ethiopic versions of certain pseudepigrapha: Ascensio Isaiæ Vatis (Oxford, 1819); Primi Ezræ Libri ... Versio Æthiopica (ib. 1820); The Book of Enoch the Prophet (ib. 1821; other ed. 1832, 1838), from a manuscript in the Bodleian Library brought from Abyssinia by James Bruce; these were all provided with Latin and English translations. Though these editions have been superseded, through the discovery of better texts and the employment of better critical methods, Laurence is entitled to the credit of having revived the study of Ethiopic, which had been neglected in England since the time of Walton. He published also The Book of Job (Dublin, 1828) — the Authorized Version, arranged in conformity with the Masoretic text.

He died in Dublin in 1838.

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Singer, Isidore; et al., eds. (1901–1906). "Laurence, Richard". The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.
• Goodwin, Gordon (1892). "Laurence, Richard" . In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 32. London: Smith, Elder & Co.