Josiah Hort was an English clergy

Clergy

Clergy is the generic term used to describe the formal religious leadership within a given religion. A clergyman, churchman or cleric is a member of the clergy, especially one who is a priest, preacher, pastor, or other religious professional....

man of the Church of Ireland

Church of Ireland

The Church of Ireland is an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. The church operates in all parts of Ireland and is the second largest religious body on the island after the Roman Catholic Church...

 who ended his career as archbishop of Tuam

Archdiocese of Tuam (Church of Ireland)

The Archbishopric of Tuam existed from the mid twelfth century until 1839, with its seat at Tuam.St Jarlath is considered to have founded Tuam as the seat of a bishop in about 501, and he stands first in the list of bishops of Tuam...

 (1742–1751).

Brought up as a Nonconformist, Hort went to school with the hymn writer Isaac Watts

Isaac Watts

Isaac Watts was an English hymnwriter, theologian and logician. A prolific and popular hymnwriter, he was recognised as the "Father of English Hymnody", credited with some 750 hymns...

, who was his lifelong friend. He began as a Nonconformist minister, but then conformed to the Church of England

Church of England

The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

, attending Clare College, Cambridge

Clare College, Cambridge

Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1326, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. Clare is famous for its chapel choir and for its gardens on "the Backs"...

.

In 1709 Hort went to Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 to serve as chaplain for the Earl of Wharton

Thomas Wharton, 1st Marquess of Wharton

Thomas Wharton, 1st Marquess of Wharton PC was an English nobleman and politician. He was the son of Philip Wharton, 4th Baron Wharton and his second wife, Jane Goodwin, only daughter of Colonel Arthur Goodwin of Upper Winchendon, Buckinghamshire, and heiress to the extensive Goodwin estates in...

, Lord-Lieutenant, and obtained a parish there. After two dean

Dean (religion)

A dean, in a church context, is a cleric holding certain positions of authority within a religious hierarchy. The title is used mainly in the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church.-Anglican Communion:...

eries and two bishop

Bishop

A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

rics (firstly of Ferns

Bishop of Ferns and Leighlin

The Bishop of Ferns and Leighlin was the Ordinary of the Church of Ireland diocese of Ferns and Leighlin in the Province of Dublin. The diocese comprised all of counties Wexford and Carlow and part of counties Wicklow and Laois in Ireland....

, then of Kilmore & Ardagh

Bishop of Kilmore and Ardagh

The Bishop of Kilmore and Ardagh was the Ordinary of the Church of Ireland diocese of Kilmore and Ardagh in the Province of Armagh. The Diocese of Kilmore comprised most of County Cavan and parts of counties Leitrim, Fermanagh, Meath and Sligo...

), he became Archbishop of Tuam. He also served for a period as a preacher

Preacher

Preacher is a term for someone who preaches sermons or gives homilies. A preacher is distinct from a theologian by focusing on the communication rather than the development of doctrine. Others see preaching and theology as being intertwined...

 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

Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer , poet and cleric who became Dean of St...

, launched a violent attack on him in a satirical poem. Later on Swift became friendly toward Hort.

In his will he exorted his children to carry out his intentions "without having recourse to law and the subtility of lawyers," and in the case of difficulty to refer questions to "the decision of persons of known probity and wisdom, this being not only the most Christian, but the most prudent and cheap and summary way of deciding all differences."

Preaching

Hort used his own personal experiences as prefaces to his sermons. After being disabled from preaching by an overstrain of his voice, he warned "all young preachers whose organs of speech are tender," and said, "Experience shows that a moderate Degree of Voice, with a proper and distinct Articulation, is better understood in all Parts of a Church than a Thunder of Lungs that is rarely distinct, and never agreeable to the Audience." His sermons were expressed in simple, dignified language.

Family

He married the Lady Elizabeth Fitzmaurice, daughter of the 1st Earl of Kerry

Thomas FitzMaurice, 1st Earl of Kerry

Thomas FitzMaurice, 1st Earl of Kerry PC was an Irish peer and politician.He was the son of William FitzMaurice, 20th Baron Kerry, and Constance Long, and succeeded his father in March 1696/97 and was invested as a Privy Counsellor before April 1711...

. Their second son, John

Hort Baronets

The Hort Baronetcy, of Castle Strange in the County of Middlesex, is a title in the Baronetage of Great Britain. It was created on 8 September 1767 for John Hort, Consul-General at Lisbon, Portugal. He was the second son of The Right Reverend Josiah Hort, Archbishop of Tuam. The second Baronet sat...

, married a woman who belonged to a branch of the Butler family and was appointed consul-General at Lisbon in 1767. That same year he was made a baronet. Sir John Hort was the grandfather of the English theologian F. J. A. Hort

Fenton John Anthony Hort

Fenton John Anthony Hort was an Irish theologian and editor, with Brooke Westcott of a critical edition of The New Testament in the Original Greek.-Life:...

 and great grandfather of Richard Garnons Williams

Richard Garnons Williams

Richard Davies Garnons Williams was a Welsh international rugby union and forward who played club rugby for Brecon and Newport...

, soldier and international rugby player.

Two of Josiah Hort's daughters married into well known Irish families of that day and not many years after Hort's migration to Ireland the Hort family had established a fair claim to be considered Irish.

Josiah Hort is the earliest of the family name of whom any record is preserved. His father, of whom little is known, lived near Bath, England.