(Oliver’s Elder Brother.)
Very little is known about the eldest son of the Revd. Charles
Goldsmith, Henry, who was born at Pallas on the 9 February, 1722 (Prior
I, 14). He was educated at Dr. Neligan’s school at Elphin, afterwards
matriculating at Trinity College, Dublin, on 4 May, 1741 (Prior I, 34,
note). He was elected a scholar on Trinity Monday, 1743: “but returning
home in the succeeding vacation, flushed probably with his recent
triumph, he indulged a youthful passion and married” (Prior I, 35).
All that the Percy Memoir of 1801 (I, 3) says about Henry is: “Of his
eldest son the Revd. Henry Goldsmith, to whom his brother dedicated
_The Traveller_, their father had formed the most sanguine hopes, as
he had distinguished himself both at school and at College, but he
unfortunately married at the early age of nineteen: which confined him
to a Curacy, and prevented him rising to preferment in the Church.”
As he was born at Pallas in February, 1722, Henry must, if this
statement be accurate, have become a married man in 1741, about the
time he matriculated at Trinity College. There is evidently inaccuracy
somewhere as to Henry’s age, and it may be doubted whether his marriage
took place before or after his election as a scholar of his College on
Trinity Monday, 1743. From some guarded words used by Prior (the most
painstaking investigator into the family history) it is possible the
marriage was a secret one, as Prior suggests that when it took place
“he must have been three years older [than stated above], or have
formed this connexion previous to entering the University. To some men
this tie becomes a stimulus to exertion: to others it seems a clog upon
every effort at rising in life” (I, 35). Prior seems to decide that
in Henry’s case it was a clog. He speaks of Henry having “indulged
a youthful passion and married,” and continues shortly afterwards:
“Finding residence in College no longer eligible, the advantages of
his scholarship were sacrificed: he retired, as appears from the
college books, to the country: established a school in his father’s
neighbourhood: and in this occupation added to that of curate at ‘forty
pounds a year,’ though possessed of talents and character, he passed
the remainder of life.” (Prior I, 35.)
It is nowhere very clearly stated, that it would seem that Henry
acted as curate to his father at Kilkenny West, and perhaps after his
father’s death in 1747 he continued in office under the new Rector,
the Revd. Mr. Wynne (Prior I, 73). John Forster says (I, 427): “In
his early life Dr. Strean succeeded Henry Goldsmith in the curacy of
Kilkenny West, which the latter occupied at the period of his death
(1768) and as he is careful to tell us, in its emoluments of £40 a
year, which was not only his salary but continued to be the same when I
[Strean] a successor, was appointed to that parish.”
The two brothers Henry and Oliver had a strong and abiding affection
for one another. Oliver had corresponded with his brother whilst he
was abroad, though none of his letters have been preserved. Part of
_The Traveller_ had been sent to Henry from Switzerland, and when it
was completed and published at the end of 1764, the poem was dedicated
to him. The opening paragraph contained this sentence: “It will throw
a light upon many parts of it when the reader understands that it is
addressed to a man who, despising fame and fortune, has retired early
to happiness and obscurity, with an income of forty pounds a year.” And
the opening lines of the poem itself contain the familiar phrase:
“Where’er I roam, whatever realms to see,
“My heart untravelled fondly turns to thee:
“Still to my brother turns, with ceaseless pain
“And drags at each remove a lengthening chain.”
Later on there is the well-known description of the village preacher:
“A man he was to all the country dear,
“And passing rich with forty pounds a year.”
There is only one letter from Oliver to Henry known to exist: that
addressed “about 1759” to Henry at “Lowfield, near Ballymore in
Westmeath Ireland” seeking his assistance in the disposal of copies of
his book on “Polite learning” describing his own physical looks, giving
Henry advice as to the education of his son, asking about his mother
and other members of the family, and ending up: “by telling you what
you very well know already, that I am your most affectionate friend and
brother Oliver Goldsmith.”
Henry was the subject of Oliver’s solicitude when he was granted an
interview with the Earl of Northumberland (Dr. Percy’s friend) who
was about to proceed to Ireland as Lord Lieutenant. We owe the report
of this interview to the unsympathetic pen of Sir John Hawkins in
his _Life of Johnson_ (p. 419). In answer to the Earl’s remark that
he was going to Ireland and hearing that Goldsmith was a native of
that country he would be glad to do him any kindness, Oliver is made
to reply: “I would say nothing but that I had a brother there, a
clergyman, that stood in need of help.” Hawkins’ sour comment was:
“thus did this idiot in the affairs of the world trifle with his
fortunes and put back the hand that was held out to assist him.”
The Revd. Henry Goldsmith died at Athlone at the end of May, 1768, at
the age of forty-five. A suit of mourning for him ordered of Oliver’s
tailor William Filby cost £5:12:6 (Forster II, 113). The brother
seems to have at once written a letter of affectionate sympathy with
the family--probably to the widow, and to his nephew Henry he sent a
separate letter which has only just come to light in North America,
having doubtless been preserved till now by descendants of the original
recipient. It is now the property of Mr. William Harris Arnold of
Nutley, New Jersey, to whose kindness I owe permission for its
reproduction:
London, June 7th, 1768.
My dear Henry,
Your dear father’s death has afflicted me deeply. The news of this
dreadful event only reached me yesterday and though I have already
sent my love and condolences in a letter which you will see I pen
this further line to my dear Nephew to express the hope that you and
your Brother, young as you both are, will bear yourselves as the sons
of such a man should. As to your own future I shall not rest until I
hit upon some means of serving you; and it may be that through the
influence of some of my friends here you may procure a situation
suited to your talents.
Meanwhile attend diligently to your studies, neglect nothing that
can advance your interest when an opening occurs. Are you still
inclined towards a military career? That would necessitate, besides a
certain temper and constitution, a considerable sum of ready money.
Something, however, might be managed abroad--in the Indies or in
America.