Maire, Christopher (1697–1767), Jesuit, son of Christopher Maire of Hartbushes, co. Durham, and Frances Ingleby of Lawkland, Yorkshire, was born on 6 March 1697, and entered the English College at St Omer about 1714. He was admitted to the Society of Jesus on 7 September 1715 at the novitiate at Watten. In 1718 he moved to the college at Liège to study philosophy. After a course of teaching at St Omer he returned to Liège for his theology studies and was ordained priest about 1727. He lectured in mathematics and logic there, returning to St Omer in 1733 as prefect of studies for a year. Back at Liège he taught Hebrew and theology until in 1739 he was appointed to the English College in Rome, becoming rector in 1744. He held that office until 1750. He returned to St Omer in March 1757, and died at the English Jesuit house in Ghent on 22 February 1767. Alban Butler calls Maire ‘an able mathematician’. At Liège, Maire had begun a study of astronomy and to make observations, and while in Rome was able to devote himself to this study. Pope Benedict XIV entrusted to him and Father Boscovich the task of making several precise meridian measurements together with a detailed map of the Papal States, their report being published in Rome in 1755, which concerned the shape and size of the earth as well as the geographical map of the Papal States, De litteraria expeditione per pontificiam
ditionem ad dimetiendos duos meridiani gradus et corrigendam mappam geographicam, jussu et auspiciis Benedicti XIV pont. max. Between 1744 and leaving Rome in 1750 Maire published a number of other astronomical works as well as a tract on the blessed Trinity in manuscript written in 1737. Thompson Cooper, rev. G. Bradley Sources G. Holt, The English Jesuits, 1650–1829: a biographical dictionary, Catholic RS, 70 (1984), 156 · G. Holt, St Omers and Bruges colleges, 1593–1773: a biographical dictionary, Catholic RS, 69 (1979), 169 · Gillow, Lit. biog. hist., 4.393 · J. Kirk, Biographies of English Catholics in the eighteenth century, ed. J. H. Pollen and E. Burton (1909), 154 · A. M. C. Forster, ‘The Maire family of county Durham’, Recusant History, 10 (1969–70), 332–46 · D. A. Bellenger, ed., English and Welsh priests, 1558–1800 (1984), 84 · M. E. Williams, The Venerable English College, Rome (1979) · G. Holt, ‘“An able mathematician”: Christopher Maire’, Recusant History, 21 (1992–3), 497–502 © Oxford University Press 2004–8 All rights reserved: see legal notice Maire, William (1704–1769), Roman Catholic priest, was born on 3 January 1704, the fifth son of Thomas Maire (1672–1752) of Hardwick, co. Durham, and Lartington Hall, North Riding of Yorkshire, and his wife, Mary Fermor of Tusmore, Oxfordshire. He entered the English College, Douai, on 16 August 1719, was ordained priest at Tournai on 23 December 1730, and became professor at Douai, first of rhetoric and afterwards of philosophy. He was chaplain at Lartington 1735–41, and served briefly at Gilesgate, in the city of Durham, before moving to the adjacent mission in Old Elvet in 1742. He was appointed vicar-general to Bishop Francis Petre in 1759 and was nominated as Petre's coadjutor in the northern district in 1767. He was consecrated bishop of Cinna in partibus on 29 May 1768. He was in ill health by this time and in November he retired to Lartington Hall, where he died on 25 July 1769. He was buried in the family vault in the parish church of Romaldkirk, and a memorial plaque was later
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installed in the mausoleum in the grounds at Lartington Hall. He published a translation of Charles Gobinet's Instruction de la jeunesse en la piété chrétienne (1687) in London in 1758 under the title A Treatise of the Holy Youth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Thompson Cooper, rev. Leo Gooch Sources G. Anstruther, The seminary priests, 4 (1977), 184 · A. M. C. Forster, ‘The Maire family of county Durham’, Recusant History, 10 (1969–70), 332–46 · Gillow, Lit. biog. hist. · L. Gooch, Paid at sundry times: Yorkshire clergy finances in the eighteenth century (1997), no. 61 Archives Ushaw College, Durham, register of visitations © Oxford University Press 2004–8 All rights reserved: see legal notice
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