Usher (or Ussher), James, an illustrious prelate, and a great luminary of the Irish Church, was born at Dublin, Jan. 4, 1580. He was educated at Trinity Col- lege, Dublin, being one of the first three scholars ma- triculated. In IGOl he was ordained ; in 1603 he became chancellor of St. Patrick's, and soon after professor of di- vinity at the university; in 1619 he was made bishop of Meath ; and in 1624 he became archbishop of Armagh and primate. During the troubles arising out of the war between Charles I and the Parliament, Usher had to leave Ireland, and was subjected to much hardship, his property being seized and his revenues distrained. He obtained the see of Carlisle (in commendam), but from that but little emolument accrued to him. He afterwards became preacher at Lincoln's Inn, and vvas one of the six divines allowed by Parliament to confer with Charles at Carisbrook. No man could be matched against him in debate, and during the Civil War he preached man}' bitter sermons against the Independents. In 1642 he removed to Oxford, but, the king's power declining, he retired to Cardiff. He was recognised as one of the greatest scholars of his time. Richelieu is said to have offered him a high position in France. He declined a professorship at Leyden. His later years were spent in the family of lady Peterborough at Rei- gate, where he died, March 21, 1656. Usher was a la- borious student, and amassed vast learning. His An- TKfles Vet. et Novi Test. (1650-54, fol.) established his fame as a scholar and a chronologist, and fixed the Bib- lical chronology which has since been generally follow- ed in this country, and which is adopted in the A. V. He wrote also De Gneca LXX, Versiunt Si/ntagina : —
Episfola ad L. Capellum de Variis Text. ITeh. Lectionihus (1652) : — Britannicariim Ecclesiarum Antiquitates (1639, fol. ; enlarged ed. 1677) : — and a multitude of works on the ecclesiastical controversies of the dav, and on some questions in theology. His library, for which he col- lected books and M8S. from all tjuarters, was, after his death, presented to the Dublin University, where it re- mains. He succeeded in obtaining six copies of the Samaritan Pentateuch and several MSS. of the Syriac version. His collected works have been edited by Dr. Elringtou (1847, 16 vols, 8vo), with a life of the author.
Usher, John (1), an American Episcopal minister, was born in 1689; graduated at Harvanl College in 1719; studied theology; went to England for holy or- ders, and returned as missionary of the Society for Prop- agating the Gospel in Foreign Parts; and was appoint- ed to the mission at Bristol, R. I. He died at Bristol, April 30, 1775. See Sprague, Annals of the Amer. Pul- pit, v, 48-50.
Usher, John (2), son of the preceding, was born at Bristol, R. I., 1722; graduated at Harvard College in 1743; practiced law for many years; commenced read- ing service, after the death of his father, in 1775; was ordained by bishop Seabury in 1793, and rector of the parish until 1800. He died July, 1804. See Sprague, Annuls of the Amer. Pulpit, p. 49.
Usous, in Phoenician mythology, was, according to tradition, banded down by Sanchoniathon as a brother of Hypsuranius, who at first protected his body with hides of animals which he had killed; and when rains and winds came, and fire broke out through friction of tlie trees one with another, he risked himself upon a tree, whose branches he had cut off, out upon the treacherous sea. He dedicated two pillars to tire and wind, and sac- rificed the blood of the animals he had slain. — VoUmer, Wurterh. d. Myihol. s, v.
Usque, Abraham, whose Christian name was Dn- arte Pinel, belonged to those inihappy Jewish exiles who were driven from the Spanish peninsula in 1492, He sought refuge at Ferrara, in Italy, where he established, under the name of Abraham Us(iue, a great printing establishment, in order to supply the Marranos with He- brew books. He not only edited various Rabbinical works, but also published the celebrated Spanish trans- lation of the Hebrew Scriptures entitled Bihlia en Len- gua Espanola, trnduzida Palubra por Palabra de la Verdudera Hebraica, por muy excelentes letrados. Vista y examinada por el Oficio de la luquisicion, which he dedicated to Hercules II and Donna Gracia Nasi (Fer- rara, 53 13 = 1553). There is a great deal of dispute about this Bible, since two editions of it were simultaneously printed — the one edited by Duarte Pinel, at the expense of Genhiimo de Varjas, and the other edited b_y Abra- ham Usque, at the expense of Jom Tob Athias. But the difhcidty is easily removed by identifying Usque with Pinel, De Vargas with Athias; Duarte Pinel be- ing the Portuguese name and Abraham Usque the Jew- ish, and so Genjnimo de Varjas being the Spanish and Jom Tob Athias the Jewish name. There is no doubt that both were Marranos, and used their Christian name in the edition which was printed for the Spanish-speak- ing Christians; wliile in the edition for their Jewish brethren they used their Jewish name, under which they have become knovvn. Usque, or Pinel, began this version in 1543 and completed it in 1553, after ten years of diligent labor. And though the names of the trans- lators are not given, it being simply remarked " made by very excellent scholars" ("por muy excelentes letra- dos"), j-et there can be but little doubt that he was the princijial author of it. He adopted tlie literal trans- lation of the Pentateuch published in the Constanti- nople Pentateuch Polyglot (1547), which was common- ly in use by the Jews in Spain in the middle of the 16th century, and which is most probably the early Spanish translation of the Middle Ages falsely attrib-