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THEOBALD MATHEW (1790-1856)

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 886 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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THEOBALD MATHEW (1790-1856)  , Irish
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temperance reformer, popularly known as
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Father Mathew, was descended from a branch of the
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Llandaff
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family, and was born at Thomas-
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town,
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Tipperary, on the loth of
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October 1790 . He received his school
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education at Kilkenny, whence he passed for a short time to
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Maynooth; from 18o8 to 1814 he studied at
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Dublin, where in the latter
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year he was ordained to the priesthood . Having entered the Capuchin order, he, after a brief time of service at Kilkenny, joined the
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mission in Cork, which was the scene of his religious and benevolent labours for many years . The
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movement with which his name is most intimately associated began in 1838 with the establishment of a
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total abstinence association, which in less than nine months, thanks to his moral influence and eloquence, enrolled no fewer than 150,000 names . It rapidly spread to
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Limerick and elsewhere, and some idea of its popularity may be formed from the fact that at
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Nenagh 20,000 persons are said to have taken the
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pledge in one day, 100,000 at
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Galway in two days, and 70,000 in Dublin in five days . In 1844 he visited Liverpool, Manchester and
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London with almost equal success . Meanwhile the expenses of his enterprise had involved him in heavy liabilities, and led on one occasion to his arrest for debt; from this embarrassment he was only partially relieved by a pension of £300 granted by Queen Victoria in 1847 . In 1849 he paid a visit to the
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United States, returning in 1851 . He died at Queenstown on the 8th of December, 1856 . See Father Mathew, a Biography, by J . F . Maguire, M.P .

(1863) .

End of Article: THEOBALD MATHEW (1790-1856)
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