Ralph Ouseley (7 May 1739[1][2]–1803[2]) was an Irish antiquarian and major in the British Army. (The family name is variously spelled Ouseley or Ousley.[3])
Ralph himself had several children by two wives.
By his first wife Elizabeth Holland of Limerick (whom he married on 1 April 1763) he had three daughters and two sons, William who became an orientalist and Gore who became a Baronet.[1][2]
Elizabeth died on 28 November 1782, and he took a second wife, Mary Collins, with whom he only had 1 surviving child, Joseph Walker Jasper Ouseley who also became an orientalist.[2]
Ralph was a member of the Royal Irish Academy and was a collector and an antiquarian.[1]
He was published several times in the Transactions of the Academy, including for example Ouseley 1788 which recounted his discovery of three Later Bronze Age horns in Carrigogunnell, County Limerick.[1]
A partial account of his personal collection of antiquities was reported by Charles Étienne Coquebert de Montbret [fr], who visited him in 1790.[1]
Works
Ouseley, Ralph (1 January 1788). "An Account of Three Metal Trumpets, Found in the County of Limerick, in the Year 1787". The Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy. 2: 3–5. JSTOR30079247.
Ouseley, Ralph (1787). "An account of the moving of a bog, and the formation of a lake in the Co. of Galway. With 1 plate". The Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy. 2: 3–5. JSTOR30079226.
