Josiah Hort

Josiah Hort (c. 1674 – 14 December 1751), was an English clergyman of the Church of Ireland who ended his career as archbishop of Tuam. Born in Marshfield, Gloucestershire, son of John Hort, and brought up as a Nonconformist, Hort went to school with the hymn writer Isaac Watts, who was his lifelong friend. He began as a Nonconformist minister, but then conformed to the Church of England, attending Clare College, Cambridge. He was appointed in turn to the parishes of Wicken in East Anglia and Wendover in Buckinghamshire. In 1709 Hort went to Ireland to serve as chaplain for Thomas Wharton, 1st Marquess of Wharton, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and obtained a parish there, which he couldn't take up for several years pending litigation. In the meantime, he was granted the rectory of Haversham, Buckinghamshire. After two deaneries (Cloyne (1718–1720) and Ardagh (1720–1721)) and two bishoprics (Ferns (1721–1727) and Kilmore & Ardagh (1727–1742)), he became Archbishop of Tuam (1742–1751). He also served for a period as a preacher and a volume of his sermons on "practical subjects" went through several editions. Because the rise of the English clergy was unpopular in Ireland, Dean Jonathan Swift, launched a violent attack on him in a satirical poem. Later on, Swift became friendly toward Hort.