The Cambridge Apostles, 1820-1914: Liberalism, Imagination, and Friendship in British Intellectual and Professional Life 1st Edition
by W.C. Lubenow
Queer Places:
University of Cambridge, 4 Mill Ln, Cambridge CB2 1RZ
Edward O'Brien (December 6, 1806 – May 19, 1840) was born on December 6, 1806, in Dromoland, County Clare, the third son of Sir Edward O'Brien, 4th Baronet and Member of Parliament for Clare, and his wife Charlotte, daughter of William Smith of Cahirmoyle, County Limerick. His family background positioned him firmly within the Anglo-Irish gentry; his older brother was the Young Irelander William Smith O'Brien, and his younger sister was the Anglican saint Harriet Monsell.
Educated initially at Bewdley School in Worcestershire, Edward proceeded to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1829 and later earned his Master of Arts in 1832. During his time at Cambridge, he experienced a personal religious crisis that ultimately strengthened his faith, steering him toward a deeply conscientious, Christian outlook. Records and historical materials regarding his university years and wider social circle document links to the Cambridge Apostles; however his surviving personal correspondence and life path reflect orthodox Victorian religious and social conventions.
Following his time at Cambridge, Edward pursued a legal career, entering the Inner Temple in January 1828 and subsequently the King's Inns in Dublin. He was called to the Irish Bar in 1832. By 1837, he was based in London, practicing in legal partnership with Woronzow Greig, a Scottish barrister and close friend of his brother William.
On August 15, 1839, Edward married Louisa Susan, daughter of James Hewitt Massy Dawson of Ballynacourty, County Tipperary. The couple had one son, Edward Arthur O'Brien, born posthumously.
Edward's career and promising life were cut short less than a year after his marriage. He contracted a severe fever, reportedly caught as a result of intense personal over-exertion on behalf of Dublin charities. He died on May 19, 1840, at the age of thirty-three, at Whitkirk vicarage near Leeds, which was the home of his brother-in-law.
Two years after his death, in 1842, his manuscript work titled The Lawyer: his Character and Rule of Holy Life, after the manner of George Herbert was published posthumously. Extravagantly well reviewed and distributed with the help of Woronzow Greig, the book presented an idealized portrait of a lawyer whose primary objective was the pursuit of justice and the defense of his fellow men against moral temptations such as avarice and dishonesty. Contemporary friends and reviewers widely regarded the virtuous, cautious, and charitable ideal depicted in the text as a self-portrait of Edward O'Brien's own deeply held ethical and religious convictions.
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The Cambridge Apostles, 1820-1914: Liberalism, Imagination, and Friendship in British Intellectual and Professional Life 1st Edition by W.C. Lubenow |
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