Percy had already written out in his own hand a Memorandum dictated to him by Goldsmith himself “one rainy day at Northumberland House” (28 April, 1773) giving dates and many interesting particulars relating to his life, and this Memorandum is still in existence. Too much importance must not be attached to it. Percy no doubt regarded it as a Memorandum only, which might prove useful under future conditions that had not then arisen, and how much of it is Goldsmith and how much Percy must for ever remain unknown. The Statement was communicated to Johnson; not used by him: returned by his executors to the wrong person (Malone), sent by him to Percy, and apparently not used textually by him for the purpose of his Memoir of his friend. In any case, there is not much in it about the members of Oliver’s family. Sir James Prior was ignorant of the existence of this Memorandum, when preparing his _Life of Goldsmith_ (Murray, 1837): but with his praiseworthy carefulness, he set about whilst he was in Ireland in the early part of the nineteenth century to dig up such particulars as he could discover about Oliver’s parentage; and what he says concerning “the Goldsmith Family” in his first Chapter is the fullest and most authoritative history of the poet’s forebears that was capable of being written within half a century of Goldsmith’s death and with the information at that time available. It is not necessary for present purposes to go further back than Oliver’s grandfather, whose name was Robert Goldsmith of Ballyoughter (not John, as in Dr. Percy’s Statement). The following facts are known about this ancestor of the poet. 1. ROBERT GOLDSMITH OF BALLYOUGHTER. (Oliver’s Grandfather.) Robert, elder of two sons of the Revd. John Goldsmith, of Newton, Co. Meath, and Jane Madden, of Donore, Co. Dublin, does not appear to have gone to College or to have exercised any profession. He “married Catherine, daughter of Thomas Crofton, D.D., Dean of Elphin, and settled down at Ballyoughter, near the residence of his father-in-law” (Prior I, 5). By his wife, “who enjoyed a moderate fortune, he had a family of thirteen children, nine sons and four daughters.” Several of them died young. John, the eldest son of Robert, “who had been educated at Trinity College preparatory to studying for the bar, settled down on the family property at Ballyoughter” (Prior I, 5). The second son Charles, who also went to Trinity College, was the father of the poet (_see_ § 2). One of the daughters, Jane, married the Rev. Thomas Contarine of Oran (_see_ § 4). 2. THE REVD. CHARLES GOLDSMITH. (Oliver’s Father.)