Richard Laurence

The Most Reverend

Richard Laurence

Archbishop of Cashel
ChurchChurch of Ireland
ArchdioceseCashel
Appointed28 June 1822
In office1822-1838
PredecessorCharles Brodrick
SuccessorStephen Creagh Sandes
Orders
Consecration21 July 1822
by Lord John Beresford
Personal details
Born(1760-05-13)13 May 1760
Died28 December 1838(1838-12-28) (aged 78)
Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland
BuriedChrist Church Cathedral, Dublin
NationalityEnglish
DenominationAnglican
ParentsRichard Laurence & Elizabeth French
SpouseMary Vaughan
Children1

Richard Laurence (13 May 1760 – 28 December 1838) was an English Hebraist and Anglican churchman. He was made Regius Professor of Hebrew and canon of Christ Church, Oxford, in 1814, and Archbishop of Cashel, Ireland, in 1822.

Laurence, younger brother of jurist French Laurence, was born in Bath and was educated at Bath Grammar School and at Corpus Christi College, Oxford. His chief contribution to Biblical scholarship was his study of the Ethiopic versions of certain pseudepigrapha: Ascensio Isaiæ Vatis (Oxford, 1819); Primi Ezræ Libri ... Versio Æthiopica (ib. 1820); The Book of Enoch the Prophet (ib. 1821; other ed. 1832, 1838), from a manuscript in the Bodleian Library brought from Abyssinia by James Bruce; these were all provided with Latin and English translations. Though these editions have been superseded, through the discovery of better texts and the employment of better critical methods, Laurence is entitled to the credit of having revived the study of Ethiopic, which had been neglected in England since the time of Walton. He published also The Book of Job (Dublin, 1828) — the Authorized Version, arranged in conformity with the Masoretic text.

He died in Dublin in 1838.