MR. NICHOLS to the GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE. March 4, 1787. "MR. URBAN, "To comply with the wishes of R. H. in p. 103, accept this brief statement of the transaction he inquires after. Whatever pleasantry may have passed on the doubt whether the present Prebendary of Kilroot be now alive, you may be assured the following information was given to me, about Christmas 1784, by the Rev. Mr. Parker, who was then Prebendary of Kilroot, and seemed far from wishing to depreciate the character of his deservedly famous predecessor. I believe I am giving his very words; I am sure I give their exact import. "Speaking of Swift's general character, as a writer, a patriot, and a private man, the subject of his marriage with Mrs. Johnson, a striking epoch in the Dean's life, came naturally into discourse; and one of the reasons very commonly assigned for Swift's neglect of her (which no one who is acquainted with his history will require to be told here) was in consequence mentioned. “Mr. P. on this pleasantly observed, that he could scarcely suppose that to be the reason, and, in support of his opinion, assured me, that the true cause of Swift's quitting his first preferment was a love-adventure, in which he was more gallant than has been commonly supposed. In short, he was accused of attempting a rape; and the original examinations on this business are said to be preserved in the Dobbs family. The living (or prebend as it is usually called) of Kilroot is in the county of Antrim, about seven miles from Belfast; it was worth in Swift's time 1007. a year; and is now worth from 160l. to 1701. "Such simply, Mr. Urban, is the whole story, and such the authority on which it stands; and, when the occasion which produced the anecdote from his successor is recollected, will it tell very much against him, or deserve the clamour that has been raised about it? An almost idolizer of Swift as I have always shewn myself, I should not have scrupled inserting it in any account of him that I might have had occasion to give to the public; and from me the Annotator on the Tatler received the information. The particulars of Lord Wharton (quoted in Gent. Mag. vol. LVI. p. 694) from the late Dr. Salter, were printed literally from his own hand-writing; and the letters of the Lords Somers and Wharton, there mentioned, he assured me he had read, but that they were burnt in the fire which destroyed the chambers of the Hon. Charles Yorke. "I shall trespass no longer on the patience of your readers, than to add, that in June 1694 Swift (then being only 27, and a layman) had left Sir W. Temple about a month, not on the most friendly terms, and with intentions of being ordained in September, and making what endeavour he could for something in the Church; that he obtained Kilroot as soon as he was ordained, and quitted it 1696; that the Earl of Wharton was not made Lord Lieutenant till 1709; and that Swift's 'Ballad on the Dean of Ferns' was not written till 1730; a period of 34 years' distance from the time when this supposed youthful indiscretion had been committed; and which, having so long lain dormant among the papers of a private family, he had little reason to expect would be revived; or, conscious perhaps that the charge (which had never come to open trial) was much exaggerated, he might be perfectly indifferent about it. It is certain that a few years only after (in 1700) he paid his addresses to a lady of family in the North of Ireland, and wrote to her one of the best letters in the whole collection of his works. "Yours, &c. J. N." Bishop PERCY to Mr. NICHOLS. "DEAR SIR, 10 Nov. 1788. "I should long since have acknowledged the favour of your Letter, but I have been much indisposed with a lingering illness, which has hung on me near two months; but, it now abating, I take up my pen to beg you will continue to give room in a corner of your warehouse to the quires of the unpublished books you mention, till I can come over, as I hope, and complete them; and I will, with the greatest pleasure, pay any demand for warehouse room, or indemnify you to the utmost for any inconvenience or loss that, as you intimate, may have attended them; and shall besides remain, dear Sir, your much obliged servant, "THO. DROMORE." "DEAR SIR, Dublin, March 2, 1789. "In consequence of a letter from Dr. Calder, which I received about Christmas, I sent him a remittance of £35 by a draught on Messrs. Burton, Forbes, and Gregory, Bankers, in Aldermanbury, payable at one month after date, which was 31st December, 1788. In my letter to him I desired him to give my kind compliments to you, and to request that you would favour me with a statement of your account, how much I was indebted to you for interest on your principal of £50, and also for warehouse-room, &c. for the unpublished sheets of two or three publications, which I have not yet completed, in consequence of my having hitherto been prevented from coming over to England, but which I never desired or intended should remain such an incumbrance to you without making you all the satisfaction in my power. From the 31st of December to this day 2d March I have been expecting every post to receive advice from Dr. Calder, that my said remittance of £35 came safe to his hands, but I have never received a line from him on the subject since. And I also wished to receive by him an account from you how much I am indebted to you: because the moment you favour me with it I shall send a remittance to pay both principal and interest due on my note of £50, on which I think three years' interest will be due on the 9th of April next, viz. £7. 108.; and I shall, at the same time, be glad to discharge every other demand that you may have upon me, and particularly for whatever expense or inconvenience has been incurred (or may be in future, till I can dispose of them) for the bales of unpublished sheets above-mentioned. I hope, therefore, you will favour me with the same by return of post; and, if not too much trouble, I should be obliged to you if you could procure me information how much I am in arrear to the Antiquarian Society for my annual subscription, which I will, at the same time, get you to pay for me, who am, dear sir, your very obedient humble servant, THO. DROMore. "P.S. Dr. Calder stated, that there was a balance due to him of £32, and I desired his acceptance of £35; which I only mention lest it should have miscarried." Mr. NICHOLS to Bishop PERCY. "MY GOOD Lord, "March 3, 1789. "Agreeably to your Lordship's commands, communicated by Dr. Calder, I take the liberty of transmitting to your Lordship the particulars of my account. "When I assure your Lordship that, since the books have been in my custody, I have been obliged wholly to rebuild my warehouses; and that, by insuring a large sum on goods in trust, I have hitherto kept them free from risk by fire, I presume you will not think me unreasonable in wishing to be clear of them; nevertheless, I will continue to take care of them till your Lordship shall otherwise direct me. "I hope that your Lordship's health has been good, and that the ladies are all perfectly well. My children, seven in number, are all in good health. "I have the honour to remain, your Lordship's most faithful humble servant, J. NICHOLS." "MY GOOD Lord, "Three days before I was honoured with your Lordship's favour of March 2, I wrote to your Lordship, with a statement of my account. I have now only to add, that the arrears at the Society of Antiquaries to Christmas last are six guineas, and that the subscription to Lardner is closed. The price of that work is now £3. 178. common paper; and £5. 5s. fine paper. "Dr. Calder* being just happily married, will plead an excuse for his not writing earlier. "I have the honour to remain, your Lordship's most faithful humble servant, J. NICHOLS." Bishop PERCY to Mr. NICHOLS. "DEAR SIR, Dublin, 25th March, 1789. "I have received both your letters, and also Dr. Calder's, whom I wish very happy in his marriage; but he did not do well to leave me upwards of two months in anxious suspense about the fate of my remittance. "I hinted to you, that, upon inquiry, the story of Swift's ravishment appears to be ill-founded. Mr. Parker * On the 24th of January 1789, Dr. John Calder married to his second wife, Miss Martha Huddleston Green, of Croydon and Sandersted. He died June 10, 1815, aged 82; and his widow died April 1, 1819, aged 76. A selection from the Correspondence of Dr. Calder was given in Literary Illustrations, Vol. IV. pp. 799-848. had drawn up a narrative to exculpate himself, which I obtained a sight of, and, finding it contained a censure on you, I have got possession of the original (of which I inclose you a copy), and have kept it back some time from being published, till I can consult with you how to hit upon some statement to propose to Mr. Parker, which may do justice to Swift's memory, exculpate or satisfy Mr. Parker himself, and yet remove any blame from you. With regard to the fact itself, I have inquired of Mr. Dean Dobbs (Dean of Connor), who lives at Carrickfergus, at or near which place Swift himself resided when he was Prebendary of Kilroot, and he assures me there is not a vestige of any examination in the family, nor any remembrance or tradition that any such was ever taken by or offered to his grandfather, the Mr. Dobbs who was then justice of peace; and that, on a careful examination of the family writings at Castle Dobbs, their family seat, he could find no such thing. Yet he showed me a receipt paid for tithes by his grandfather to Jonathan Swift, when he had that parish, dated about 1694. "What if some such retractation as the following, to be inserted in the Gentleman's Magazine, printed in a larger character than usual, suitable to the dignity of the subject, were offered to Mr. Parker; which I perhaps could get some of his friends to prevail on him to accept of, and so end the matter, viz.* "Consider this matter maturely, and favour me with your answer. Justice is due to all men; much more to the illustrious dead, whose ingenious writings are bequeathed as a treasure to posterity. Now I cannot think that Swift has been fairly treated in that annotation to the Tatler. There seems to be wilful misrepresentation, in more respects than one. Thus the character of that shallow prater, poor Salter (one of the weakest boasters I knew, who was always affecting to retail anecdotes of great men), is magnified and raised above its true level, in order to give the greater weight to his hearsay evidence against Swift. So, again, the young woman said to be ravished is raised to the dignity of a farmer's daughter, without any ground even from the story, that I could ever hear, which makes no mention of her quality. This seems purposely done to increase the odium. In England the mention of a farmer's daughter suggested the idea of a The Bishop here gave a rough sketch of the Retractation, printed hereafter with letter of March 19, 1790, in p. 83. |