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DR JONATHAN SWIFT was defcended from a younger branch of an antient family of that name in Yorkshire. But the account of his family fhall be as fhort as pofble; fince, (as Lord Orrery obferves), though his ancestors were perfons of very decent and reputable cha racters, [and the elder branch of the family ennobled], he himself has been the herald to blazon the dignity of their coat. Bernam Swift, Efq; otherwife called Cavaliero Swift, a gentleman of great wit and humour, who, in the reign of K. James I. poffeffed the paternal estate, was on the 20th of March 1627, by K. Charles I. created a Peer of Ireland, by the title of Lord Viscount Carlingford, though it is faid he never went into that kingdom. He died without male iffue; and the family-inheritance defcended to his daughters; one of whom married Robert Fielding, Efq; commonly called Handfame Fielding, and the other the Earl of Eglington. Fielding foon diffipated his wife's patrimony; and that of her fifter being transferred to the family of Lord Eglington, the principal estate of the Swifts was divided from the name for

ever.

ONE of the younger branches from the fame ftem was Sir Edward Swift, who diftinguished himself by his attachment to the royal caufe in the war between King Charles I. and his parliament, from whom there is no defcendent of the name.

ANOTHER of the younger branches was the Rev. Mr Thomas Swift, vicar of Goodrich, Herefordshire, with which he also held another ecclefiaftical living.

His father William Swift, rector of St Andrew's in Canterbury, married the heiress of Philpot; who contrived to keep her eftate, which was very confiderable, in her own hands. She is faid to have been extremely capricious and ill-natured, and to have difinherited her fon Thomas, an only child, merely for robbing an orchard when he was a boy. But however this be, it is certain, that except a church or chapter leafe, which was not renewed, Thomas never poffeffed more than 100 1. a-year. This little eftate, which lay at Goodrich, in Herefordshire, he mortgaged for 300 broad pieces; and having quilted them into his

waiftcoat,

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waistcoat, he fet out for Ragland caftle, whither King Charles I. had retired after the battle of Nafeby, in 1645. The Governor, who well knew him, asked what was his errand? "I am come," faid Swift, "to give his Majesty my coat;" at the fame time pulling it off, and prefenting it. The Governor told him pleafantly, that his coat was worth little. Why then," faid Swift, "take my waistcoat.” This was foon found to be an useful garment by its weight; and it is remarked by Lord Clarendon, that the King received no fupply more seasonable or acceptable than thefe 300 broad pieces during the whole war, his distress being then very great, and his refources cut off. The zeal and activity of this gentleman for the royal cause expofed him to much danger, and many fufferings. He was plundered more than thirty times by the parliament's army, was ejected from his church-livings, his estate was fequeftered, and he was himself thrown into prison. His eftate however was afterwards recovered, and part of it fold to pay the money due on the mortgage, and fome other debts; the remainder, being about one half, defcended to his heir, and is now poffeffed by his grandfon, Deane Swift, Efq; *

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THIS Mr Thomas Swift married Mrs Elifabeth Dryden, of an antient family in Huntingdonshire, fifter to the father of the famous John Dryden the poet; by whom he had ten fons and four daughters. He died in 1658; and of his fons, fix furvived him, Godwin, Thomas, Dryden, William, Jonathan, and Adam.

THOMAS was bred at Oxford, and took orders. He married the eldest daughter of Sir William D'Avenant; but dying young, he left only one fon, whofe name alfo was Thomas, and who died in May 1752, in the 87th year of his age, rector of Puttenham, in Surrey, a benefice which he had poffeffed fixty years.

GODWIN

The grandmother of this gentleman, one of the wives of Godwin Swift, was heirefs to Adm. Deane, one of the Regicides; whence Deane became a Christian name in the family.

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GODWIN was a barrister of Gray's inn; and William, Dryden, Jonathan, and Adam, were attorneys.

GODWIN having married a relation of the old Marchioness of Ormond, the old Duke of Ormond made him his attorney-general in the palatinate of Tipperary in Ireland. Ireland was at this time almost without lawyers, the rebellion having made almoft every man, of whatever condition, a foldier. Godwin therefore determined to attempt the acquifition of a fortune in that kingdom; and the fame motives induced his four brothers to go with him. Godwin foon became wealthy; and the reft obtained fomething more than a genteel competence; though Dryden and Jonathan, who died foon after their arrival, had little to bequeath.

JONATHAN at the age of about three and twenty, and before he went to Ireland, married Mrs Abigail Erick, of Leicestershire +. The family of this lady was defcended from Erick the Forefter, who raised an army to oppofe William the Conqueror; by whom he was vanquifhed, and afterwards made commander of his forces. But whatever was the honour of her lineage, her fortune was fmall; and about two years after her marriage, fhe was left a widow with one child, a daughter, and pregnant with another; having no means of fubfiftence but an annuity of 201. which her husband had purchafed for her in England, immediately after his mar riage.

In this diftrefs fhe was taken with her daughter into the family of Godwin, her husband's eldest brother; and, on the 30th of November 1667, about seven months after her husband's death, fhe was in Hoy's alley, in the

This lady was greatly beloved and esteemed by all the family of the Swifts. Her converfation was extremely polite, chearful, and agreeable. She was of a generous and hofpitable nature, very exact in all the duties of religion, attended the public worship generally twice a-day, was a very early rifer, and was always dressed for the whole day at about fix o'clock in the morning. Her chief amusements were needle-work and reading. She was equally fond of both her children, notwithstanding some disagreements that fubfifted between them.. D. S. p. 22. 23.

the parish of St Warburgh, Dublin, delivered of a fon, whom the called Jonathan in remembrance of his father, and who was afterwards the celebrated Dean of St Patrick's. [D. S. p. 22.]

Of all the brothers of Mrs Swift's husband, Thomas excepted, Godwin only had fons; and by these fons fhe was fubfifted in her old age, as she had been before by their father and their uncles, with fuch liberality, that the declared herfelf not only happy, but rich. [D. S. p. 23.]

IT happened, by whatever accident, that Jonathan was not fuckled by his mother, but by a nurse, who was a native of Whitehaven: and when he was about a year old, her affection for him was become fo ftrong, that finding it neceffary to vifit a relation who was dangeroufly fick, and from whom, fhe expected a legacy, fhe found means to convey the child on fhipboard, without the knowledge of his mother or his uncle, and carried him with her to Whitehaven. At this place he continued near three years; for when the matter was difcovered, his mother fent orders not; to hazard adfecond voyage till he fhould be better able to bear it. The nurfe however gave other teftimonies of her affection to Jonathan: for, during his ftay at Whitehaven, he had taught him to fpell; and when he was five years old, he was able to read any chapter in the Bible [0. let. 1.]

Mrs Swift, about two years after her husband's death, quitted the family of Mr Godwin Swift, in Ireland; and retired to Leicester, the place of her nativity but her fon was again carried to Ireland by his nurse, and replaced under the protection of his uncle Godwin. [O. let. 1.]

IT has been generally believed, that Swift was born in England: a mistake to which many incidents befides this have contributed. He had been frequently heard to fay, when the people of Ireland difpleafed him, "I "am not of this vile country, I am an Englishman," and would infift, that he was stolen from England when a child, and brought over to Ireland in a band-box. Mr Pope alfo, in one of his letters to him [in vol. 4, p. 189.] mentions England as his native country. But

whatever

whatever the motives were that prevailed on Dr Swift to speak in this manner, they were not borrowed from any fort of contempt which he had fecretly entertained against Ireland considered merely as a nation, but rather proceeded from several other fources, which will appear afterward. [D. S. p. 26.] This account of his birth is taken from that which he left behind him in his own hand writing; and while he lived, he was fo far from seriously denying or concealing his being a native of Ireland, that he often mentioned, and even pointed out the house in which he was born.

He has also been thought by fome to have been a natural fon of Sir William Temple: a mistake which was probably founded upon another; for till the publication of his letter to Lord Vifc. Palmerston, among his pofthumous works, [in vol. 4. p. 238.] he was thought to have received fuch favours from Sir William as he could not be supposed to bestow upon a perfon to whom he was not related, and but distantly related to his wife+. However, fuch a relation between Sir William and the Dean appears beyond contradiction to have been impoffible; for Sir William Temple was refident abroad in a public character from the year 1665 to 1670, first at Bruffels, and afterwards at the Hague; as may be prov ed by his letters to the Earl of Arlington, and the rest of the miniftry fo that Dr Swift's mother, who never croffed

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+ In the year of the revolution, his uncle Godwin Swift had fallen into a kind of lethargy, or dotage, which deprived him by degrees of his speech and memory, and rendered him totally incapable of being of the leaft fervice to his family and friends. But, in the midit of this distressful fituation, as if it was ordained that no incident fhould bereave mankind of fuch a genius, Sir William Temple (whofe lady was related to Dr Swift's mother) most generously stept in to his affiftance, and avowedly fupported his education at the university of Oxford. Acts of generofity seldom meet with their juff applause. Sir William Temple's friendship was immediately conftrued to proceed from a consciousness, that he was the real father of Mr Swift; otherwife it was thought impoffible, that he could be fo uncommonly munificent to a young man, no wife related to him, and but diftantly related to his wife. I am not quite certain, that Swift himself did not acquiefce in the calumny. Perhaps, like Alexander, he thought the natural fon of Jupiter would appear greater than the legitimate fon of Philip. 0. let. 2.

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