Richard De Courcy

DE COURCY, Richard. b. Ireland, 1743; d. Shrewsbury, 1803. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and then ordained deacon in 1767, becoming curate at Loughrea to a noted evangelical, Walter Shirley*. He was refused ordination to the priesthood by the Archbishop of Dublin on account of his extreme views, and left for England, where he was taken up by the Countess of Huntingdon*, who made him one of her preachers and who became a close friend. Her pressure on the Bishop of Lichfield succeeded in allowing his ordination to the priesthood in 1770, and he became curate of Shawbury, Shropshire. In 1774 he was appointed Vicar of St Alkmond’s, Shrewsbury, where he remained until his...