There are certain persons who are born heralds and genealogists; there
are many more to whom these useful gifts have been denied. With
apologies to both classes, to the one for sins of omission, to the
other in the reverse sense, I find that an excerpt from the
Talbot-Lowry pedigree must be inflicted upon them.
With all brevity, let it be stated that Dick Talbot-Lowry possessed a
father, General John Richard, and General John Richard had an only
sister, Caroline. Caroline, fair and handsome, like all her family,
was "married off," as was the custom of her period, at the age of
seventeen, to elderly Anthony Coppinger, chiefly for the reason that
he was the owner of Coppinger's Court, with a very comfortable
rent-roll, and a large demesne, that marched, as to its eastern
boundaries, with that of Mount Music, and was, as it happened, divided
from it by no more than the Ownashee, that mountain river of which
mention has been made. It was, therefore, exceedingly advisable that
the existing friendly relations should be cemented, as far as was
practicable, and the fair and handsome Caroline was an obvious and
suitable adhesive. To Anthony and Caroline, two children were born;
Frederica, of whom more hereafter, and Thomas. By those who lay claim
to genealogic skill, it will now be apparent that these were the first
cousins of Dick Talbot-Lowry. Thomas went into the Indian Army, and in
India met and married a very charming young lady, Theresa Quinton, a
member of an ancient Catholic family in the North of England, and an
ardent daughter of her Church. In India, a son was born to them, and
Colonel Tom, who adored his wife, remarking that these things were out
of his line, made no objection to her bringing up the son, St.
Lawrence Anthony, in her own religion, and hoped that the matter would
end there. Mrs. Coppinger, however, remembering St. Paul's injunctions
to believing wives and unbelieving husbands, neither stopped nor
stayed her prayers and exhortations, until, just before the birth of a
second child, she had succeeded in inducing Tom Coppinger--(just "to
please her, and for the sake of a quiet life," as he wrote,
apologetically, to his relations and friends, far away in Ireland) to
join her Communion. She then died, and her baby followed her. Colonel
Tom, a very sad and lonely man, came to England and visited St.
Lawrence Anthony at the school selected for him by his mother; then he
returned to his regiment in India, and was killed, within a year of
his wife's death, in a Frontier expedition. He left Larry in the joint
guardianship of his sister, Frederica, and his first cousin, Dick
Talbot-Lowry, with the request that the former would live with the boy
at Coppinger's Court, and that the latter would look after the
property until the boy came of age and could do so himself; he also
mentioned that he wished his son's education to continue on the lines
laid down by his "beloved wife, Theresa."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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