John Gregg (archbishop of Armagh)

For other people named John Gregg, see John Gregg (disambiguation).

John Allen Fitzgerald Gregg CH (1873–1961) was a Church of Ireland clergyman, from 1915 Bishop of Ossory, Ferns and Leighlin, in 1920 translated to become Archbishop of Dublin, and finally from 1939 until 1959 Archbishop of Armagh. He was also a theologian and historian.^[1]

The Most Reverend John Gregg D.D.
Archbishop of Armagh Primate of All Ireland
Church	Church of Ireland
Diocese	Armagh
Elected	15 December 1938
In office	1939–1959
Predecessor	Godfrey Day
Successor	James McCann
Previous post(s)	Bishop of Ossory, Ferns and Leighlin (1915–1920) Archbishop of Dublin (1920–1938)
Orders
Ordination	1897
Consecration	28 December 1915 by John Bernard
Personal details
Born	(1873-07-04)4 July 1873 North Cerney, Gloucestershire, England
Died	2 May 1961(1961-05-02) (aged 87) Dún Laoghaire, Dublin, Ireland
Nationality	English
Denomination	Anglican
Education	Bedford School
Alma mater	Christ's College, Cambridge

Life

Gregg was born at North Cerney, Gloucestershire, England, United Kingdom on 4 July 1873, the son of Rev. John Robert Gregg, Vicar of St Nicholas, Deptford.^[2] His elder sister, Hilda Gregg was a popular novelist.^[3] The family was Anglo-Irish, and had produced many Church of Ireland clergy. Gregg's grandfather John Gregg and his uncle Robert Gregg had both served as Bishop of Cork, Cloyne and Ross, and the latter as Archbishop of Armagh.

Gregg was educated at Bedford School, and at Christ's College, Cambridge,^[2] where he was a classical scholar and won the Hulsean Prize Essay competition for 1896 with The Decian Persecution.^[4][5] Gregg graduated BA in 1895; MA 1898; BD 1910; BD (Dublin – ad eundem) 1911; DD (Dublin) 1913; DD (Cantab) – 1929, and was educated for the Anglican Ministry at Ridley Hall, Cambridge.

J. A. F. Gregg went on to be a notable church historian. He served as assistant curate of Ballymena under Charles d'Arcy 1896–1899, then as Curate at Cork Cathedral (1899–1906), and as Rector of Blackrock, County Cork (1906–1911), before being appointed in 1911 Archbishop King's Professor of Divinity in Trinity College, Dublin.^[6] In 1915 he became Bishop of Ossory, Ferns and Leighlin, in 1920 Archbishop of Dublin. He was accompanied by the Bishop of Cashel Robert Miller and by Protestant businessman Sir William Goulding "to see Michael Collins in May 1922, following the murders of thirteen Protestants in the Bandon valley, to ask whether the Protestant minority should stay on. Collins 'assured them that the government would maintain civil and religious liberty'."^[7][8] He was elected to Armagh in 1938, but refused the position largely on account of his wife's health, and Godfrey Day, Bishop of Ossory, was elected in his place. Following Day's death in 1939, Gregg was again elected Archbishop of Armagh which post he held until his retirement in 1959. He was married twice. First in 1902 to Anna Jennings (died 1945) by whom he had two sons and two daughters, and secondly, in 1947, to Lesley McEndoo, younger daughter of the then Dean of Armagh.^[4][9] His daughter, Barbara, was a novelist.^[10] He was a supporter of the old Unionist order but encouraged his flock to make their peace with the post-1922 political realities in Ireland.^[11]

According to R. B. McDowell –

"...the Church of Ireland was led (or some would say dominated) by John Allen Fitzgerald Gregg, archbishop successively of Dublin and Armagh, who might fairly be described as an instinctive conservative with, however, an awareness of contemporary trends... Gregg's bearing suggested a prince of the church or at least a prelate of the establishment... he was a scholar and a man of affairs, his administrative flair being reinforced by dignity, decisiveness, and a sardonic wit... His theological sympathies were high church, though he had been brought up an evangelical and had an Anglo-Irish distaste for ceremonial exuberance.^[12]

Selected publications

• The Decian persecution; being the Hulsean prize essay for 1896
• The epistle of St. Clement: bishop of Rome (1899)^[13]
• The Wisdom of Solomon (1909)^[14]
• The Primitive Faith and Roman Catholic Developments: Six Sermons Delivered in St Fin Barre's Cathedral, Cork, Lent, 1909
• Anglican orders and the prospects of reunion (1930)
• The Ne Temere Decree: A Lecture (1943)

Honours

• 1957: Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour

Bibliography

• Seaver, George, John Allen Fitzgerald Gregg, Archbishop (Faith Press, 1963)
• Simms, George, John Allen Fitzgerald Gregg, 1873–1961: An Appreciation of His Life and Times, Delivered in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, on 4th July 1973 Being the Hundredth Anniversary of His Birth (1973, 14 pages)
• "Dublin, Lord Archbishop of" . Thom's Irish Who's Who . Dublin: Alexander Thom and Son Ltd. 1923. p. 69  – via Wikisource.

References

1. S. J. Connolly (2007). Gregg, John Allen Fitzgerald. In Oxford Companion to Irish History.
2. "Gregg, John Allen Fitzgerald (GRG891JA)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
3. "Gregg, Hilda Caroline [pseud. Sydney C. Grier]". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/38927. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
4. Seaver, George, John Allen Fitzgerald Gregg, Archbishop (Faith Press, 1963), p. 10
5. The Decian Persecution: Being the Hulsean Prize Essay for 1896 by John Allen Fitzgerald Gregg (W. Blackwood and sons, 1897), title details at books.google.com
6. Malden Richard (ed) (1920). Crockford's Clerical Directory for 1920 (51st edn). London: The Field Press. pp. 1127/8.
7. Bury, Robin (2017). Buried Lives – The Protestants of Southern Ireland. Dublin: The History Press Ireland. pp. 25, 120. ISBN 978-184588-880-0.
8. citing McDowell, R.B. (1997). Crisis and Decline – The Fate of the Southern Unionists. Dublin: The Lilliput Press. p. 135. ISBN 1-874675929.
9. "Marriages." Times [London, England] 22 Jan. 1947: 7. The Times Digital Archive. Web. 28 Mar. 2015. URL: http://find.galegroup.com/ttda/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=TTDA&userGroupName=ess_earl&tabID=T003&docPage=article&searchType=BasicSearchForm&docId=CS118572086&type=multipage&contentSet=LTO&version=1.0
10. Allen, Nicholas (2009). "Fitzgerald, Barbara (Barbara Fitzgerald Somerville)". In McGuire, James; Quinn, James (eds.). Dictionary of Irish Biography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
11. Bourke, Angela, The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (NYU Press, 2002 ISBN 0-8147-9907-8, ISBN 978-0-8147-9907-9) p. 124 at books.google.com
12. McDowell, Robert Brendan, The Church of Ireland, 1869–1969 p. 131 online at books.google.com
13. Clement I, P., Gregg, J. Allen Fitzgerald. (1899). The epistle of St. Clement: bishop of Rome. London: Society for promoting christian knowledge.
14. Gregg, J. Allen Fitzgerald. (1909). The Wisdom of Solomon: in the Revised Version : with introduction and notes. Cambridge: University Press.

Anglican Communion titles
Preceded by Charles D'Arcy	Archbishop of Dublin 1920–1939	Succeeded by Arthur Barton
Preceded by Godfrey Day	Archbishop of Armagh 1939–1959	Succeeded by James McCann