Homes and Haunts of the Most Eminent British Poets, Vol. 1 (of 2)Howitt, William
History
Homes and Haunts of the Most Eminent British Poets, Vol. 1 (of 2)
Howitt, William
Literary landmarks -- Great Britain; Poets, English -- Homes and haunts
There is much that we naturally are anxious to know connected with the
final fate and family of Spenser. How his children actually escaped.
What became of them and their claim on the property? When was the
property of Kilcolman lost to the poet's descendants? Of all this next
to nothing is known. The literati of that age do not seem to have given
themselves any trouble to preserve the facts of the history of their
illustrious cotemporaries. Shakspeare and Spenser were left to the cold
keeping of careless tradition. The particulars, beyond what we have
already given, are very few.
Spenser's widow returned to Ireland, and there brought up her children.
Of these, Sylvanus, as eldest son, inherited Rennie and Kilcolman. It
appears that he found some difficulty with his mother, Spenser's widow,
who married again, to a Roger Seckerstone, and was obliged to petition
the Lord-chancellor of Ireland, to obtain from his mother and her new
husband documents belonging to his estate, which they withheld. He
married, as already stated, Ellen Nagle, of Monanimy, south of
Kilcolman, of a Catholic family, a circumstance which had a great effect
on the fortunes of their descendants, as connecting them with the
unsuccessful party in the troubles of Ireland. His eldest son died
without issue, and his second son, William, succeeded to Kilcolman. The
property of William, being seized on by the Commonwealth party, was
ordered to be restored to him by Cromwell, but is supposed to have only
been regained at the Restoration. He had three other grants of land in
the counties of Galway and Roscommon, in the latter, the estate of
Ballinasloe. At the Revolution he joined King William, who for his
services granted him the estate of his cousin Hugoline, of Rennie. This
Hugoline was the son of Peregrine, the poet's youngest son, who had
Rennie made over to him by his eldest brother, Sylvanus. Hugoline took
part with his Catholic relatives, and, siding with King James at the
Revolution, was outlawed, and his property at Rennie made over to his
cousin William. Thus the descendants of Sylvanus, or the eldest son of
the poet, became the only known posterity of the poet. The descendants
of William, and therefore of Sylvanus Spenser, the elder male line,
possessed Rennie till 1734, soon after which this line became extinct.
There are still in Ireland persons claiming to be descendants, by the
mother's side, from Spenser; and the Travers, of Clifton, near Cork, are
lineal descendants of Spenser's sister Sarah and John Travers, a friend
of the poet's, who accompanied him to Ireland, and had the town lands of
Ardenbone and Knocknacaple given to him by Spenser as his sister's
marriage dowry. The descendants of this sister number among many
distinguished families of Ireland, those of the Earls of Cork and
Ossary, Earl Shannon, Lord Doneraile, Earl of Clanwilliam, &c.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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