Jane married first Robert Woods, of Lakon, in the county of Sligo, and secondly, Edward Muns, of Ussy, in the county of Roscommon, by whom she had issue, Edward and Jane.

Robert, the elder son and grandfather to the poet, who seems to have exercised no profession, married Catherine, daughter of Thomas Crofton, D. D., dean of Elphin, and settled at Ballyoughter, near the residence of his father-in-law; and Dr. Edward Goldsmith, his relative already mentioned, being afterwards promoted to the same deanery, the branches of the family were thus brought together. By this lady, who enjoyed a moderate fortune, he had a family of thirteen children, nine sons and four daughters. Of this numerous progeny, which through mistake of his early biographers was given to the father instead of the grandfather of the poet, several died young; John, the elder, who had been educated at Trinity College* preparatory to studying for the bar, afterwards relinquishing thoughts of that profession, settled on the family property at Ballyoughter where Oliver once was an inmate, and where his talents were first supposed to be discerned.

Such is the account of the more remote connexions of Goldsmith, derived from various sourcest after considerable research; but where the individual has interested us, the illustration of family history becomes a matter of reasonable curiosity. He himself was accustomed to say that by the female side he was remotely connected with the family of the Protector, Oliver Cromwell, from whom his Christian name was derived. By the father's side he claimed affinity with General Wolfe, the conqueror of Quebec, whose mother, Henrietta Goldsmith, as well as her husband, it would appear from some circumstances, were natives of Ireland.

Charles, the second son of Robert and father of the Poet, brought up to the sacred profession, passed through Trinity College with credit, and is said by his son to have had, as well as his uncle John, some knowledge of the poet Parnell. To the former this acquaint

"1697, Sep. 23°. Johannes Goldsmith Pensio:-Filius Roberti Goldsmith generosi-Annum agens 18—Natus villa dicta Ballioughter Com Roscommon-Educatus Stroakstown sub Mago. Cugh-Tutor Eu: Loyd."

† For several particulars, I am indebted to the kindness of my friend Sir William Betham, Ulster King of Arms.

In the obituaries of the time, this lady is mentioned as aunt to Edward Goldsmith, Esq., of Limerick, a promising young man, who died in 1764. Of the regard of this lady for the true interests of Ireland, the following is a proof: "On Friday, the executors of the late Mrs. Henrietta Wolfe, mother of the late brave General Wolfe, paid the legacy of 1000l. left by her to the Incorporated Society in Dublin, for promoting the English Working Schools in Ireland." Lloyd's Evening Post, May, 27-29, 1765.

In an Irish obituary for 1771 is mentioned the death of Major Walter Wolfe, uncle to the General, who had served under Marlborough, and to whose early and judicious instructions, it is said his nephew was indebted for much of his knowledge of the art of war.

$1707, Carolus Goldsmith Pens-Filius Rob:-Ann: ag: 17-Natus prope Elphin-Educ: ibid. sub Dno, Griffith-Tutor Joh. Weatherby."

"1690. 250. die Novembris-Thomas Parnell Pensionarius-Filius Thomae Parnell Armigeri—Annum agens decimum tertium-Natus Dublinii—Educatus ibidem sub Magistro Jones-Tutor Eu. Lloyd,”

ance may have occurred at a later period, or by College tradition, for they were not contemporaries; but his uncle John was there for a portion of the same time and under the same tutor. His father, it likewise appears, enjoyed the acquaintance of Thomas, grandfather of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, who was of the same standing in the University, having entered it the 18th of October, 1707.

The Rev. Charles Goldsmith is represented to have first filled a curacy in the diocess of Dublin, and afterwards of a place of which there is no satisfactory account, probably from an error in orthography, but supposed Dusham or Duneham. These appear to have been but temporary employments, for he was without occupation, when, in 1718, he married Ann, daughter of the Rev. Oliver Jones, master of the diocesan school at Elphin, where he had received his preliminary education, and where the attachment commenced. This union was not approved by the friends of either; he was destitute of the means of providing for a family, and the father of his wife having a son and three other daughters to provide for, her portion was small. As some support however became necessary for the young couple, the Rev. Mr. Green, uncle to Mrs. Goldsmith and rector of the parish of Kilkenny West, provided them a house about six miles distant from himself, at a place called Pallas, in the adjoining county of Longford. Here they took up their abode, and continued for a period of twelve years; Mr. Goldsmith officiating partly in the church of his uncle, and partly in that of the parish in which he resided.

In the more remote districts of Ireland, the necessaries of life being cheap, come within reach of a small income; homeliness was then and is occasionally now characteristic of the country; what are called the comforts of life in England, were not in the sister kingdom sought by many who possessed nevertheless means of procuring them; and to this early familiarity with what many would consider privation, may be ascribed that indifference to it remarked of the Poet in future life. Mr. Charles Goldsmith, besides the emoluments of his profession and the contributions of his friends, supported an increasing family, by renting some land in the vicinity upon which his leisure hours were employed. His first permanent support appears to have been a gift from his mother-in-law of fifty acres of land, procured at a nominal rent by the exertion of that address which an Irish tenant sometimes plays off upon a necessitous landlord; and the story is still told by her descendants. The heading of one of the leases still in existence, of the date July 30th, 1729, between William Conolly, Esq., one of the Lords Justices, &c. &c. and Ann Jones, &c. runs thus:-" To have and to hold in and during the natural lives of and Ann Goldsmith, wife of the Rev. Charles Goldsmith of Pallacemore, in the county of Longford, clerk, one of the daughters of the said Ann Jones," &c. &c.*

The activity and spirit displayed by this lady on the occasion of procuring the lease are thus mentioned by Mr. Jones Lloyd, proprietor of Smithhill, or Ardnagowan, her great grandson:

Pallas, or Pallasmore, that is the greater or highest Pallas, in the parish of Forgany or Forney, in the county of Longford, consists of an ordinary farm-house or two; and in a direct line, is about a mile and a half from the town of Ballymahon, though by the road, which is circuitous, double that distance. It lies to the south-east of Newcastle a seat of the Countess Dowager of Rosse, and being on a rising ground, overlooks on one side a low tract of country occasionally flooded by the river Inny; a stream which in passing Ballymahon in its course to the Shannon, assumes a very picturesque appearance. The road to Pallas leads past Forney church: here it turns to the left, and after proceeding more than a mile, takes a second abrupt turn also to the left by a lane, which if the traveller have resolution to traverse will lead to the object of his pursuit. This place was visited on a fine day in December; but rocky inequalities of the lane in some parts and deep sloughs in others, rendered it inaccessible to the usual conveyance, a jaunting car: even the common rough country cars find a portion of it difficult, and the remainder defies any wheeled vehicle whatever. The route to the house was therefore pursued on foot; and after a fatiguing walk through fields and over hedges, the spot was at length reached, but it is feared with many poetical associations subdued by the uncivilised nature of the approach.

At Pallas, OLIVER GOLDSMITH was born, on the 10th of November, 1728; the house however in which it took place has been long levelled to the ground. By the present occupier of the farm, a squalid-looking though it is said opulent person for his class, we were informed that little more than its foundation remained when he first became tenant, about forty years before; and as may be supposed, even that is now obliterated. He pointed out a portion of its wall overgrown with grass, forming a part of the fence of the orchard. To several questions he replied, that it had been, as he was told, a "good country house," the front looking toward Forney church; and he had heard that Oliver Goldsmith, the poet, was born in the best bed-room, which looked in the same direction. These details were confirmed by others. Afterwards it would appear this house became the residence of a branch of the Edgeworth family,*

"The Rev. Oliver Jones had rented a considerable tract of land from Mr. Conolly, one of the lords justices of the kingdom, which at the death of the former fell out of lease, and the widow was told she could not have a renewal. Not dispirited by this intimation, she determined to try her personal influence, and undertook, what was then thought an unusual effort for a woman, a journey to Dublin. No public conveyance existed; the roads were in a most wretched state; but, mounting a pillion behind her son on horseback, proceeded in this manner to the metropolis. The whole of the lands were refused to her application; but having, as a final argument, judiciously provided herself with one hundred guineas, she once more urged her suit to the landlord, and in addition to her solicitations displayed the gold before him. This had its due effect: necessity has ever been master in Ireland: and the temptation was sufficient to procure a fresh lease of half the lands on the same easy terms as before. She used jocularly to regret that she had not taken another hundred with her, and thus secured the whole. The journey, however, in consequence of a hurt, cost her the life of her son

* In an Irish Magazine (Exshaw's, for 1770) there is the following announcement

whose property the land still continues. Few persons now visit it from curiosity, partly from being little known, partly from the difficulties of the road; for to ladies and delicate or infirm persons it is nearly inaccessible; only one gentleman, as the farmer said, had ventured to explore it the preceding summer. The attention of literary pilgrims has been rather directed to Lissoy on the high road to Athlone, which became the subsequent residence of Mr. Goldsmith, and offered no difficulties of approach.

An amusing tradition respecting this house was repeated to us by a neighbouring magistrate. When from neglect and want of an occupier the roof first fell in, attempts made to repair it were continually thwarted by the hostility of an ill-looking, (for the peasantry are minute in their descriptions on such occasions.) powerful, supernatural personage accoutred in huge boots, who amused himself nightly in bestriding the roof as he would a horse, and by mimicking the motion of riding, pushed his legs through it and sometimes through the upper floor, thus rendering all attempts at reparation unavailing. The reason assigned for these pranks was as fanciful as the story. Being on a rising ground, in a retired part of the country and in the vicinty of water, it was favourable for the resort of the "good people," or Faries, during their midnight sports, who if the house became habitable would have had their privacy boken in upon; these means were therefore taken by this feared though imaginary race of beings to keep off intruders. It is perhaps in the natural order of things, that the spot where an admired poet first drew breath, should be the scene of popular fiction.

The place of his birth, notwithstanding the statement of his nearest relatives, is still disputed with considerable heat in the different districts which claim it; and the province of Connaught particularly deems her honour concerned in the struggle. The rival counties are Leitrim, Roscommon, Westmeath, and Longford; rather more than half the number of places which contended for the honour of having the father of poetry one of their fellow citizens

Septem urbes certant de stirpe insignis Homeri,

Smyrna, Rhodes, Colophon, Salamis, Chios, Argos, Athenæ.

The claim of Leitrim has never been esteemed valid; it is confined to the towns of Drumsna and Carrick-on-Shannon, where Goldsmith had relatives residing and which he occasionally visited in early life. That of Westmeath is equally objectionable, being merely entered in the admission book of Trinity College as the then residence of his father. Ardnagan, Ardnagowan, or in correct Celtic orthography as it is said Airdnagabha, near Elphin, the abode of his grandfather Jones, contests the matter more vigorously; and here, were his early biographers to be trusted, we should assign of birth-"The wife of Francis White Edgeworth, Esq., of Pallasmore, Co. of Longford, of a son."

* By the Rev. Dr. Strean of Athlone, to whom I feel obliged for the inquiries he has made.

his birth. Mr. Jones Lloyd, its present possessor, descended from another daughter of the Rev. Mr, Jones, points out from the information of his grandmother, the room and even the precise part of the room, where the Poet by this account first saw the light. At present this apartment forms the dairy, though at that time one of the principal in a house second only to that of the bishop of the diocess, and since considerably enlarged; and the confinement of Mrs. Goldsmith is stated to have occurred unexpectedly during a visit to her mother. No corroboration can be obtained of this story: the relater of it being about the same age as the Poet, could not herself be acquainted with the fact, while stronger testimony elsewhere satisfactorily disproves her statement. But as eminence commonly begets admirers and singularity is supposed to attend uncommon events, it was necessary perhaps to make the Poet peculiar even in his birth; and unlike the other children of the family, have his nativity assigned not to the house of his father, but to another which gratified a little family pride by being of more importance.

A document has been lately recovered which sets the matter at rest. This is the leaf of the family Bible in which the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Goldsmith and the births of their children are recorded, now in the possession of Dr. Neligan of Athlone, great grandnephew of the poet, from which the following transcript was made by his permission during a visit to that town in 1830. The marginal portion of the leaf being unluckily worn away by age, the two last figures of the century in which Henry, Jane, and Oliver were born are thus lost; the age of the Poet is, however, sufficiently ascertained by the recollection of his sister, and by his calling himself when writing from London in 1759, thirty-one. The year of his birth is therefore 1728.

"Charles Goldsmith of Ballyoughter was married to Mrs. Ann Jones ye 4th of May 1778.

"Margaret Goldsmith was born at Pallismore in the county of Longford ye 22d August 1719.

"Catherine Goldsmith born at Pallas ye 13th January 1721. "Henry Goldsmith was born at Pallas Febry 9th 17

"Jane Goldsmith was born at Pallas Febry 9th 17

"Oliver Goldsmith was born at Pallas November ye 10th 17 "Maurice Goldsmith was born at Lissoy in ye county Westmeath ye seventh of July 1736.

"Charles Goldsmith jun born at Lishoy Augt 16th 1737. "John Goldsmith born at Lishoy* ye 23d of (month obliterated) 1740."

This paper corrects some errors into which Mrs. Hodson, elder

The reader will observe many variations in orthography; thus, Lissoy or Lishoy are used as the whim of the moment prompts; thus also we have Pallas, Pallasmore, Pallismore, and Pallacemore, all meaning the same place; and the family of Hodson near Athlone, into which the Poet's sister Catherine married, is now by their own relatives called and spelt Hodson or Hudson indiscriminately; the latter indeed most commonly. Few things perplex an inquirer in Ireland more than these needless and arbitrary variations.