Ussher, James

ush'er, James (1581-1656), a celebrated Irish clergyman. He was born at Dublin and was educated at Trinity College in that city. In 1624 he became the Protestant archbishop of Armagh. He was an ardent supporter of the celebrated Strafford administration in Ireland, and at the execution of the latter attended him on the scaffold. In theology his views verged toward Presbyterianism. He had the confidence of James I. He was a man of great learning. His arrangement of scriptural dates was followed by the translators of the King James, the common version, of the Bible. During the Civil War he adhered to the fortunes of Charles I, yet was won over by Cromwell, and was buried finally in Westminster Abbey. See Strafford; Cromwell; James