Bishop Nathaniel Foy

Nathaniel Foy was born in York in 1646. He was educated at Trinity College Dublin, and was ordained an Anglican priest in 1670. During the Jacobite occupation on of Dublin he emerged as a prominent defender of the Church of Ireland. He was prevented from preaching on several occasions by James II’s guards, and was eventually imprisoned. After the Battle of the Boyne, William of Orange appointed Foy Bishop of Waterford and Lismore as a reward for his constancy. Upon his death in 1707, his will set out instructions to found the well-known Bishop Foy School, which produced many distinguished scholars. In its la er days the school was housed in the Bishop’s Palace, now a museum, until its closure in 1967. His tomb, originally placed in St Saviours chapel of the medieval cathedral, was shared with his late deceased mother.