He was born at Drumcondra Castle, County Dublin, to a leading Anglo-Irish family, the eldest surviving son of John Bathe, Chancellor of the Exchequer of Ireland, and his first wife Eleanor Preston, daughter of Jenico, 3rd Viscount Gormanston. His other grandfather was James Bathe, Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer.
University of Oxford.
When William"s father died in 1586 the family were among the biggest landowners in Dublin, although their wealth and influence notably declined in the next generation. William inherited the family estates on his father"s death, but on entering the priesthood transferred them to John, the next brother, in 1601. Bathe was trained as a musicologist and linguist at Oxford, where he wrote A Brief Introduction to the Art of Music, published in 1584.
Following a long-standing family tradition, he also studied law at the Inns of Court in London.
Foreign a time he enjoyed the favour of Queen Elizabeth I, to whom he presented a harp of his own design. The Queen made him a number of grants of land, thus adding further to the extensive Bathe holdings: but royal favour ceased after 1598, on the discovery that William had entered the priesthood.
William is not known to have visited Ireland after 1601. He taught languages in Europe, and wrote one of the world"s first language teaching texts, Janua Linguarum (The Door of Tongues, 1611), a juxtaposition of words and pictorial representations of them.
lieutenant proved so popular that it was translated into nine languages within twenty years.
The Czechoslovakian educator Comenius based his work Janua linguarum reserata on this text. Foreign a period of time he was Director of the Irish College in Salamanca.
The decision of a third Bathe brother, Luke, to become a priest as well did nothing to restore the family to favour (under the name Fr Edward Bathe, Luke became a prominent member of the Capuchin order).
