John Sterne

John Sterne (1660–1745) was an Irish Church of Ireland clergyman, bishop of Dromore from 1713 and then bishop of Clogher from 1717. by his wife Dorothy, daughter of Charles Ryves (died 1700), examiner in the chancery of Ireland, he was born in Dublin. He was educated at the cathedral school under Mr. Ryder, and entered Trinity College, Dublin, on 2 April 1674, his tutor being Philip Barbour. He graduated B.A. 11 February 1677, M.A. 12 July 1681, and D.D. in July 1705.

Having been ordained deacon in October 1682 by Anthony Dopping, bishop of Meath, Sterne served for a time as his domestic chaplain. About 1688 he was made vicar of Trim, County Meath; in October 1692 he was instituted to the rectory of Clonmacduffe, and in June 1703 to that of Killary, both in the diocese of Meath. On 11 September 1702, he was installed chancellor in St Patrick's Cathedral. On the death of his mother's kinsman Jerome Ryves, Sterne was elected dean of St. Patrick's, by the chapter, with the support of Jonathan Swift, then prebendary of Dunlavin (Sterne, however, retained with the deanery the curacy of St. Nicholas Without, which Swift claimed had been promised to him). In July 1707 Sterne was instrumental in the election of Swift to represent the chapter in Convocation. Soon afterwards he joined a small social club to which belonged Swift, Stella, and their common friends, the Walls and the Stoytes, who met on Saturdays for cards and other diversions. Swift's letters during this period are full of allusions to Sterne. Ormonde raised difficulties, and Sterne had enemies among the Protestant clergy in Ireland; but Ormonde then gave way, so that Swift could have the deanery. Sterne was consecrated bishop of Dromore on 10 May 1713, and made a member of the Privy Council of Ireland in 1714. In March 1717, on the move of St. George Ashe to Derry, he was translated to Clogher. There, as at Dublin and Dromore, he was famed for hospitality, as Jonathan Smedley noted. The remainder were distributed by lot among the poor curates of the diocese. His manuscripts, of which he had a significant collection, he bequeathed to Trinity College, Dublin; among them are the depositions of the sufferers in the Irish Rebellion of 1641.

Works Sterne's major work was Tractatus de Visitatione Infirmorum (Dublin, 1697; London, 1700, several editions). It was translated in 1840 as The Curate's Manual (London). The Tractatus was reprinted in the Clergyman's Instructor of 1807 and 1813; then in the 1843 edition it was replaced by Bishop Thomas Wilson's Parochialia.