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Persoonlijke gegevens William Neilson 

• Hij is geboren op 12 september 1774 in Rademon, Kilmore, County Down, Ierland.
• Titel: Rev. Dr.
• Beroep: Presbyterian minister.
• Hij is overleden op 27 april 1821 in Belfast, Ireland, hij was toen 46 jaar oud.
• Hij is begraven op 29 april 1821 in Rademon Non-Subscribing Presbyterian Graveyard.
• Een kind van Moses Neilson en Catherine Welsh
• Deze gegevens zijn voor het laatst bijgewerkt op 26 november 2010.

Gezin van William Neilson

Notities over William Neilson

He was a Doctor of Divinity and a minister to the Presbyterian congregation in Dundalk.

In 1818 Neilson was appointed professor of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Irish and Oriental languages at the Belfast Academical Institution. Opened four years earlier by liberal Presbyterians, the Academical Institution was at the time both a boys’ school, open to students regardless of sect or class, and a college for training Presbyterian ministers.

Neilson gave a lecture in Irish three times a week. He was also active in various Belfast societies. Neilson was elected to the Chair of Greek at Glasgow University in 1821. But before he could take up his appointment he died of rheumatic fever, aged only 46, leaving a widow and four children. Many thousands attended his funeral procession as it travelled from Belfast to Rademon.

The following is from an article in the "Irish Post"

The Pulpit and the Bar

One of the most active promoters of Irish in the early 19th century was the Rev. William Neilson, who published a textbook titled An Introduction to the Irish Language.

Neilson was born in 1774 in Rademon, Kilmore, Co. Down, where his father, the Rev. Moses Neilson, ministered to a mainly Irish speaking Presbyterian congregation. The Rev. Moses was fluent in Irish, Latin, Greek and Hebrew. He ran a famous school, Rademon Academy, which drew pupils from all denominations. He also collected ancient Irish tales and worked on an Irish grammar book. William seems to have grown up speaking Irish. He studied at Glasgow University, and at the age of 22 was appointed minister to the Presbyterian congregation of Dundalk. There he ran a school much like his father’s, open to all denominations.

His knowledge of Irish was essential for his new post. The congregation were descended from Scots Gaelic Settlers, and now were predominantly Irish speaking. All their ministers since 1700 had spoken either Scottish or Irish Gaelic.

During the rebellion of 1798, the Neilsons of Rademon were loyal to the crown. William spent much of that year working on a shortened version of an English-Irish dictionary originally published in 1732, but he failed to find a patron, so his version was never published.

He wrote an English grammar book and then a Greek one, both of which were widely used. He also enthusiastically collected Irish manuscripts.

In 1808 he published his best-known work," An Introduction to the Irish Language". At the request of the London Hibernian Society, he also wrote a 24 page book for beginners titled "Céad Leabhar na Gaoidheilge" (First Irish Book).

Financial support for Neilson’s Introduction came from a long list of subscribers, headed by two peers, both lord lieutenants of Ireland. The book was in three parts. The first two parts - a grammar, then phrases and dialogues - were printed in modern type, though using a dot about the letter to indicate séimhiú (softening) where a “h” would be used today.

The final part offered extracts from a long poem about Deirdre and the sons of Usnach, printed in the old Irish type, with English translations.

In his preface, Neilson mentions the historical and poetic value of the language, but stresses that his purpose is primarily practical: “It is, particularly, from the absolute necessity of understanding this language, in order to converse with the natives of a great part of Ireland, that the study of it is indispensable.

“If Irish be no longer the language of the court, or the senate, yet the pulpit and the bar require the use of it; and he that would communicate moral instruction, or investigate the claims of justice, must be versed in the native tongue, if he expects to be generally understood, or to succeed in his researches.
“In travelling, and the common occurrences of agriculture and rural traffic, a knowledge of Irish is also absolutely necessary.”

Neilson’s desire to be practical is evident in the lengthy dialogues, one of which drew on Patrick Lynch’s work for Bolg an Solair, printed in 1795.

The dialogues give an insight into life at the time.

Here, for example, a doctor is dealing with patients:
- Seo chugainn bea, agus leanabh na hucht.
- Here comes a woman with her child in her arms.

- Go de so air do leanabh, a bhean mhacánta?
- What is the matter with your child, good woman?

- Och! a dheag ghradhm is air atá na tarraingte aidmheala.
- O Sir, it has terrible convulsions.

- A bhfeictear go gcuireann sé piasta trid?
- Does it seem to pass any worms?

- A mbíonn sé crinn le na fiaclaibh ina chodladh? no piocagh a shróin?
- Does it grind its teeth when asleep? Or pick its nose?

- Ní se gach cuid diobhta go minic.
- It does both very often.

- Tabhair asteach é; sgribhe me ní eigin dho air báll.
- Bring it in; I will prescribe for it presently.

Courtesy of the Irish Post

The following is from the Dictionary of Ulster Biography.

NEILSON, WILLIAM 1774-1821

William Neilson was born in Rademon, County Down, and was educated in his father's school, Patrick Lynch's Irish school at Loughinisland, and Glasgow University. He became a schoolmaster and later a Presbyterian minister in Dundalk, where he opened his school, the Classical and Mercantile Academy, which admitted children of every religion and class. He often preached in Irish and in 1805 was awarded a Doctorate of Divinity by the University of Glasgow. While a student he had written an English grammar, Elements of English Grammar Expressed in Easy Language, which became a textbook in English schools and his Greek Exercises in Syntax, Ellipsis, Dialects, Prosody and Metaphrasis passed through eight editions in forty-two years. Among his other works are an abridgment of Begley's and McCurtin's English - Irish Dictionary; An Introduction to the Irish Language (specifically County Down Irish); Greek Idioms; and Elementa Linguae Graecae. In 1810 he published, Cead Leabhar na Gaoidheilge. He was Moderator of the General Synod of Ulster at the age of thirty-one and a member of the Royal Irish Academy. In 1818 he moved to the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, where he was appointed headmaster of the Classical School and Professor of Latin, Hebrew, Greek, Irish and Oriental Languages. He was a member of Belfast Literary Society and served as its President from 1809 to 1820, and as a dedicated musician he revived the Harp Society. He was a leading member of the Belfast Society for Promoting Knowledge. In 1821 he learned that he had been appointed Professor of Greek at Glasgow University, but died before he could take up the post.

William Neilson was the son of Rev Moses Neilson, who had come as a Presbyterian minister from the Strabane region to Rademon near Crossgar in Kilmore parish in 1767. Moses Neilson was an Irish speaker, and used Irish in Rademon, as already noted.

William was born in 1774. He was schooled first by his father, and later by Lynch at Loughinisland. He attended Glasgow University from 1789 until 1791, and became a minister in 1796. He spent the years 1797–1818 in Dundalk, where he is known to have preached regularly in Irish. His arrest in 1798 after preaching in Irish during a visit home has already been mentioned; he was released from Downpatrick court the following day. He went on to become a professor in the Belfast Academy from 1818 until his death in 1821, and one of his pupils there was Robert McAdam. We can thus trace a line of academic descent from Pádraig Ó Loinsigh, through William Neilson, to Robert McAdam.

In 1769, Moses Neilson began to compile a book on Irish grammar, and this work was taken over and completed by William, leading to the publication of "An introduction to the Irish Language" in 1808. This famous book consists of three sections: grammar; phrases and conversations; and extracts from the ancient books. The conversations are the most valuable part of it, and are reported to be partly based on those published earlier by his old teacher Lynch, though it has also been suggested that they have an even longer history.[60] A second and somewhat altered edition of the book was published in 1843, long after the author’s death. A facsimile reproduction of the first edition has recently appeared.

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