(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.