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THE

FAMILY OF SWIFT.*

Taken from Mr DEANE SWIFT's Effay.

THE

SECT. I.HE family of the SWIFTS was ancient in Yorkshire. From them defcended a noted perfon, who passed under the name of Cavaliero Swift, a man of wit and humour. He was made an Irish peer by King James or King Charles I. with the title of Baron Carlingford +, but never was in that kingdom. Many traditional pleafant ftories are related of him, which the family planted in Ireland hath received from their parents. This Lord died without iffue-male; and his heirefs, whether of the firft or fecond defcent, was married to Robert Fielding, Efq; commonly called Handfome Fielding. She brought him a confiderable estate in Yorkshire, which he fquandered away, but had no children. The Earl of Eglinton married another co-heirefs of the fame family, as he hath often told me.

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*This little Tract, Mr Swift tells us, was written by Dr Swift, about fix or eight and twenty years ago, as an introduction to his life, which he had reafon to apprehend would fome time or other become a topic of general converfation. Mr Swift got the original manufcript, under the Doctor's own hand, from his friend and coufin-german Mrs Whiteway.

Bernam Swift, Efq; created Viscount (not Baron) of Carlingford, in Ireland, March 20th 1627, the 3d of Charles I.

SECT. II. Another of the fame family was Sir Edward Swift, well known in the time of the great rebellion and ufurpation; but I am ignorant whether he left heirs or no.

SECT. III. Of the other branch, whereof the greater part fettled in Ireland, the founder was William Swift*, prebendary of Canterbury, towards the last years of Queen Elizabeth, and during the reign of King James I. He was a divine of fome diftinction. There is a fermon of his extant, and the title is to be feen in the catalogue of the Bodleian library; but I never could get a copy, and I fuppofe it would now be of little value.

SECT. IV. This William married the heiress of Philpot, I fuppofe a Yorkshire gentleman †, by whom he got a very confiderable eftate; which however fhe kept in her own power, I know not by what artifice. She was a capricious, ill-natured, and paffionate woman, of which I have been told feveral inftances. And it hath been a continual tradition in the family, that she abfolutely difinherited her only fon Thomas, for no greater crime than that of robbing an orchard when

Dr Swift is here mistaken. From the dedication of William Swift's fermon, it appears, that Thomas, the father of William, was presented, in 1569, to the parish of St Andrew, in Canterbury; and that, upon the decease of Thomas, William, in 1591, fucceeded his father.

Rather a gentleman of Kent, or fome of the neighbouring counties.

when he was a boy. And this much is certain,. that, except a church or chapter leafe, which was not renewed, Thomas never enjoyed more than one hundred pounds a-year; which was all at Goodrich, in Herefordshire, whereof not above one half is now in the poffeffion of a great-grandfon *.

SECT. V. His original picture is now in the hands of Godwin Swift t, of Dublin, Efq; his great-grandfon, as well as that of his wife's, whofeems to have a good deal of the fhrew in her countenance; whose arms as an heirefs are joined with his own: And by the laft, he seems to have been a person somewhat fantastic; for there he gives, as his device, a dolphin (in those days. called a Swift) twisted about an anchor, with this motto, Feftina lente.

SECT. VI. There is likewife a feal with the fame coat of arms (his not joined with his wife's) which the faid William commonly made ufe of; and this is alfo now in the poffeffion of Godwin Swift above mentioned.

SECT. VII. His eldeft fon Thomas §, feems to have been a clergyman before his father's death. He was vicar of Goodrich, in Herefordshire, within a mile or two of Rofs ||: He had like-wife

Deane Swift, Efq;

A 3

In the hands of Mrs Elizabeth Swift, relict of Godwin. In the hands of Mrs Swift above mentioned SHis only fon Thomas was a clergyman before his father's death.

Within four miles of Rofs.

wife another church-living, with about one hundred pounds a-year in land, as I have already mentioned. He built a houfe on his own land, in the village of Goodrich *, which, by the architecture, denotes the builder to have been fomewhat whimfical and fingular, and very much towards a projector. The house is above a hundred years old, and ftill in good repair, inhabited by a tenant of the female line +; but the landlord, a young gentleman, lives upon his own eftate in Ireland.

SECT. VIII. This Thomas was distinguished by his courage, as well as his loyalty to K. Charles I. and the sufferings he underwent for that prince, more than any perfon of his condition in England. Some hiftorians of those times, relate feveral particulars of what he acted, and what hardfhips he underwent for the person and cause of that bleffed martyr'd prince. He was plundered by the Round-heads, fix and thirty times, fome fay above fifty. He mortgaged his fmall eftate, and gathered all the money he could get, quilted it in his waistcoat, got off to a town held for the King; where being asked by the governor, who knew him well, what he could do for his Majefty? Mr Swift faid he would give the King his coat; and stripping it off, prefented it to the governor; who obferving it to be worth little, Mr

Swift

*Not in the village, but in the parish of Goodrich. That tenant of the female line hath been dead thefe many

years.

Swift faid, Then take my waistcoat. He bid the governor weigh it in his hand; who ordered it to be ripped, found it lined with three hundred broad pieces of gold; which, as it proved a feafonable relief, must be allowed to be an extraordinary fupply from a private clergyman with ten children, of a fmall eftate, fo often plundered, and foon after turned out of his livings in the church.

SECT. IX. At another time, being informed that three hundred horfe, of the rebel-party, intended in a week to pafs over a certain river, upon an attempt against the Cavaliers, Mr Swift having a head mechanically turned, he contrived certain pieces of iron with three spikes, whereof one must always be with the point upwards. He placed them over night in the ford, where he received notice that the rebels would pafs early the next morning; which they accordingly did, and loft two hundred of their men, who were drowned, or trode to death by the falling of their horfes, or torn by the spikes.

SECT. X. His fons, whereof four were fettled in Ireland, (driven thither by their fufferings, and by the death of their father) related many other paffages, which they learned, either from their father himself, or from what had been told them by the most credible perfons of Herefordfhire,

*He fhould have faid five. I fuppofe he forgot Dryden Swift, who died very young, and a batchelor, foon after he had come over to Ireland with his brothers.

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