Richard Kirwan (1733-1812)

Kirwan's life can be seen as a succession of phases whose boundaries were flexible. Born to a Catholic, land-owning family in Ireland, his youth and education were very much a product of those conditions, which in his case included higher education in France. After his return to Ireland and marriage, he spent time in Ireland, England, and on the Continent. During that period he studied law, the practice of which required his conforming to the Irish Anglican Church, now better known as the (Protestant) Established Church of Ireland. After a first (to his mind) unsuccessful effort at chemistry, but finding law practice unrewarding, he returned to chemistry, which included mineralogy. His stellar decade in London from 1777 to 1787 followed, during which time his chemistry earned him the Copley Medal of the Royal Society and he emerged as one of the leading advocates of phlogiston, backed by reasoning that many found compelling. He returned to Ireland in 1787 and lived in Dublin until his death. His interest in chemistry continued, but geology became his focus as he challenged James Hutton's (1796-1797) theory of the Earth, basing his arguments in part on his laboratory experience with rocks and minerals. A position as Irish Inspector of Mines revealed his experience with practical geology and fieldwork. Although he continued with technical publications fairly regularly until 1803, and sporadically thereafter, he became more philosophical and published on languages, space, and time. He was elected President of the Royal Irish Academy, a position that he held from 1799 until his death in 1812.