Richard Chenevix Trench

Anglican clergyman, philologist, and poet, born in Dublin, Ireland. He studied at Cambridge, became curate in 1841 to Samuel Wilberforce, and during 1835–46 published six volumes of poetry. He was rector of Itchenstoke 1845, professor of theology in King's College, London (1847), Dean of Westminster (1856), and Archbishop of Dublin (1864–84). In philology he popularized the scientific study of words, and the New English Dictionary was begun at his suggestion.

Richard Chenevix Trench (September 9, 1807 - March 28, 1886) was an Anglican archbishop and poet.

He was born at Dublin in Ireland (then part of the United Kingdom), and went to school at Harrow, and graduated at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1829. While incumbent of Curdridge Chapel near Bishop's Waltham in Hampshire, he published (1835) The Story of Justin Martyr and Other Poems, which was favourably received, and was followed in 1838 by Sabbation, Honor Neale, and other Poems, and in 1842 by Poems from Eastern Sources.

In 1841 he resigned his living to become curate to Samuel Wilberforce, then rector of Alverstoke, and upon Wilberforce's promotion to the deanery of Westminster in 1845 he was presented to the rectory of Itchenstoke.

In 1851 he established his fame as a philologist by The Study of Words, originally delivered as lectures to the pupils of the Diocesan Training School, Winchester. It was followed by two little volumes of similar character—English Past and Present (1855) and A Select Glossary of English Words (1859). All have gone through numerous editions and have contributed much to promote the historical study of the English tongue. Another great service to English philology was rendered by his paper, read before the Philological Society, On some Deficiencies in our English Dictionaries (1857), which gave the first impulse to the great Oxford English Dictionary. In 1841 he had published his Notes on the Parables of our Lord, and in 1846 his Notes on the Miracles, popular works which are treasuries of erudite and acute illustration.

In 1856 Trench became Dean of Westminster, a position which suited him. Arthur Penrhyn Stanley had been first choice, but was rejected by the Irish Church, and, according to Bishop Wilberforce's correspondence, Trench's appointment was favoured neither by the prime minister nor the lord-lieutenant. It was, moreover, unpopular in Ireland, and a blow to English literature; Trench could not prevent the disestablishment of the Irish Church, though he resisted with dignity.

This was the work of the remainder of Trench's life; it exposed him at times to considerable abuse, but he came to be appreciated, and, when in November 1884 he resigned his archbishopric because of poor health, clergy and laity unanimously recorded their sense of his "wisdom, learning, diligence, and munificence."

See his Letters and Memorials (2 vols., 1886).