The Family Letters of Oliver Goldsmith: A Paper Read Before the Bibliographical Society, October 15th, 1917Clarke, Ernest
General
The Family Letters of Oliver Goldsmith: A Paper Read Before the Bibliographical Society, October 15th, 1917
Clarke, Ernest
Goldsmith, Oliver, 1730?-1774
“I am fixed here in the Commissariat Department and have a family
of nine children, five sons and four daughters. The eldest Henry,
follows the profession of the law: Hugh Colvill is I hope ere this, a
lieutenant in the Navy: Oliver is with a merchant at Boston: Charles is
a midshipman on this station, and Benjamin a boy. The daughters Ann,
Catherine, Eliza and Jane are at home with me, and promise to be all I
wish them.” (Prior II, 568.)
Hugh Colvill Goldsmith (1789-1841) referred to in his father’s letter,
merits a passing mention as being the young sailor who on 8 April,
1824, shocked Cornish susceptibilities by displacing the famous rocking
Logan Stone at the Land’s End, and had to arrange for its replacement
later in that year (29 October to 2 November) in its original position,
which as the weight of the stone is variously given as 60 to 80 tons,
was no easy matter. Doubtless because of this foolhardy exploit, he has
a niche in the _Dictionary of National Biography_, being in fact the
only member of the Goldsmith family other than the poet who is thus
honoured. He was born at St. Andrews, New Brunswick, on 2 April, 1789,
and was at the time of the Logan Rock incident a Naval Lieutenant in
command of the “Nimble” revenue cutter off the coast of Cornwall. He
was never promoted, and died at sea off St. Thomas in the West Indies
on 8 October, 1841. An incidental reference to Charles Goldsmith (also
referred to in his father’s letter of 1808 as a midshipman) shows that
he was afterwards a Commander in the Navy. His dates are 1795-1854.
10. CATHERINE, DAUGHTER OF THE REV. HENRY GOLDSMITH.
(Oliver’s Niece.)
The facts as to the daughter of Henry Goldsmith are easier to piece
together, as Bishop Percy drew up when in London in July, 1800, a
memorandum as to her case which has fortunately been preserved in
manuscript, and gives incidentally some particulars as to other members
of the Goldsmith family.
There are a number of pitiful letters from this poor little lonely and
suffering soul addressed to the Bishop at dates ranging from 1794 to
March, 1803, with drafts of two of the Bishop’s replies, mercifully
modified before despatch, referring to his monetary advances already
made to her, and speaking of the “constant source of plague and
vexation” which the question of the publication of the _Memoir_ had
been to him. The end came in July, 1803, when one McDonnell wrote
to the Bishop’s secretary that Catherine had died “after a painful
illness to which her dependant and helpless situation must have greatly
contributed.” McDonnell had seen to her being decently buried, and
thought 8 or 9 guineas would reimburse the total cost. No doubt the
Bishop sent him this.
11. MAURICE GOLDSMITH.
(Oliver’s Brother.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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