Young, Matthew, Dd

Young, Matthew, D.D.

a distinguished Irish prelate and mathematician, was born in the County of Roscommon in 1750. He prosecuted his studies at Trinity College, Dublin, where he was admitted in 1766; became a fellow in 1775, and entered into holy orders. In 1786 he was chosen professor of natural philosophy in the same institution, and greatly enlarged his course of instruction, introducing illustrations by means of apparatus. He was one of the founders of the Royal Irish Academy, which began active work in 1782. He was appointed by lord Cornwallis bishop of Clonfert and Kilmachduagh; and died Nov. 28, 1800. He published a number of mathematical and philosophical papers and essays, and left in MS. a Latin Commentary on the First Two Books of Newton's Principia. See Knight, Enay4 Cyclop. Biog. 6:892; Allibone, Dict. of Brit and Amer. Authors, s.v.; Chalmers, Biog. Dict. s.v.