(Oliver’s Nephew.)
Henry, the son, Prior describes as “distinguished for spirit,
intelligence and personal beauty.... A commission being obtained for
him in the army, he quitted Ireland for North America about the year
1782.” A constant friend and correspondent of his, the Revd. Thomas
Handcock wrote on 7 October, 1799 (Prior II, 564) that Henry had been
a lieutenant in the 54th Regiment, and that “with an uncommon flow
of spirits (he) possesses a large portion of his uncle’s genius.” He
married an American lady from Rhode Island and “after the peace settled
with her somewhere in Nova Scotia.”
“He plunged through unheard of distresses and difficulties until
very lately, when accident made our young Prince, the Duke of Kent,
acquainted with his person and history: and His Royal Highness lost
no time in raising him, a wife and ten children, considerably above
want, as I learn by a letter from Goldsmith within these last six
weeks. I had ... received his rent and managed his affairs, and in
his distresses he often urged me to sell his interest in the Deserted
Village [Lissoy] which I continued to avoid, to his present very great
satisfaction.”
The particular way in which Henry Goldsmith’s needs were brought under
the notice of the Duke of Kent is not recorded, but His Royal Highness
had been sent to Canada in 1791, and was Commander-in-Chief of the
forces in British North America in 1799-1800. What Mr. Handcock says
in his letter is confirmed by an unpublished letter written by Henry’s
sister Catherine to Bishop Percy on 6 January, 1802, apropos of her
uncle Charles’ statement to the Bishop that “the name is extinct except
in his family”:
“He never considered,” said she, “that I had cousins in this country
that had male heirs, as also a much lov’d brother now residing at
Halifax in North America, who has ten children, and has either four or
five sons lawfully by an amiable wife. From my brother’s account, his
Children possess uncommon abilities. His eldest son Henry he intends
for the Bar: his second son is a midshipman, and his third son Oliver,
he mention’d in a letter to me he would have educated in Ireland. The
Duke of Kent, my brother’s particular Patron and Friend, has got him
the place of Assistant Engineer at Halifax, and means to provide for
him in a better way when opportunity offers.”
A letter by Henry Goldsmith to a kinsman dated 20 March, 1808, brings
the story of this Nova Scotian family up to a somewhat later date.
“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.