_Biographical particulars as to the members of Oliver Goldsmith’s
family, partly from unpublished sources._
Oliver Goldsmith died on 4 April, 1774. Although there was some talk
of a biography of him being undertaken by Johnson, it appears to have
become a common understanding, soon after the death, amongst the
members of The Club and their associates that the work of collecting
and preparing the materials for the biography would be done by Thomas
Percy. At that time Percy had achieved a certain reputation in literary
circles, but was by no means the important person in the ecclesiastical
sense that he afterwards became. He was then mainly resident in London
as Chaplain and Secretary to the Duke of Northumberland and as one
of the Chaplains of the King. It was not until 1778 that he was made
Dean of Carlisle, from which position he was promoted in 1782 to the
Bishopric of Dromore in Ireland.
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.