Author: Fitzgerald, Gerald
Biography:
FITZGERALD, Gerald (1740-1819: Walsh and Kinane)
Ancestry family trees claim that he was born in 1739 in Ardstraw, County Tyrone, Ireland, but this has not been confirmed by public records and Walsh and Kinane give 1740. He earned his BA from Trinity College Dublin in 1763 and was appointed a Fellow in 1765 and a Senior Fellow in 1782. He was a doctor of divinity and served as the Regius Professor of Laws (1783-85), Professor of Hebrew (1795-1806), and Vice-Provost (1795-1806). Ancestry family trees date his marriage to Elizabeth Preston to 29 Sept. 1774 but again this has not been confirmed by public records. One of their sons was Preston Fitzgerald (q.v.). His Academick Sportsman is dedicated to Sir Fielding Ould, Master of the Rotunda Lying-In Hospital in Dublin and teacher in the Trinity medical school. Fitzgerald also wrote An Essay on the Originality and Permanency of the Biblical Hebrew (1796) and A Hebrew Grammar (1799). In 1806 he was appointed Rector of Ardstraw and he died there at home at Moyle House on 10 Mar. 1819. There is a memorial plaque to him in Ardstraw church. (ancestry.co.uk 12 Sept. 2025; Anne Walsh and Vincent Kinane, Essays on the History of Trinity College Library Dublin [2000]; New Times (London) 24 Mar. 1819) SR