Trench, Richard Chenevix (1807–1886)

Irish churchman, philologist, and poet. An Anglican, he held a number of prominent teaching and ecclesiastical posts, including professor of theology at King's College London 1847–56, dean of Westminster 1856–64, and Archbishop of Dublin 1864–86. Trench was responsible for instigating the huge lexicographical project, the New English Dictionary, later the Oxford English Dictionary. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Born in Dublin and educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge, Trench was appointed curate in 1841 to the reformer Samuel Wilberforce, and in 1845 became rector of Itchenstoke. He published six volumes of poetry between 1835 and 1846. In philology, his work The Study of Words 1851 popularized the scientific scrutiny of words. His principal religious writings were Notes on the Parables of our Lord 1841, and Notes on the Miracles of our Lord 1846.