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Life
?1770-?; ed. TCD and Oxford. The Monks of Trinity, a heroic poem (Dub. 1795); eldest son of Theophilus, his response to the execution of William Orr involved the reporter Finnerty in a fine; a United Irishman, he wrote a series of letters for The Press over the signature ‘Marcus’; proscribed in ’98 and later pardoned, he was living in Dublin in 1858. PI
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Commentary
Patrick Kennedy, ‘Quintessence of Loyalty’, in Modern Irish Anecdotes (London: Routledge 1872), pp.113ff, giving an account of the Swifts, father and son; Swift fights Lennox for impertinence of challenging Duke of York, and received a ball through the body; on Lennox becoming Viceroy as Duke of Richmond, he gives Swift two balls - i.e., invitations to Castle entertainments. Further, under ‘Married and Single Fellows, TCD’, Kennedy avers that the name Deane was bestowed on its holder in honour of Dean Swift; at the examination persuant on the pamphlet, Jonah Barrington interviews Dr. Jacky Barrett in the attempt to elicit information about fellows’ families and falls foul of a witty rejoinder when he reminds him, in desperation, that he himself had been christened by Barrett, to which Barrett: ‘Oh, indeed, I didn’t know you were a Christian’ [chk. personae]. On being duly imprisoned, Swift is later joined by Dr. Burrowes who himself served six months for a pamphlet gloating at his defeat.
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Thomas King Moylan, ‘The Little Green’, Dublin Hist. Record (Sept.-Nov. 1942), pp.152: account of Theophilus who ‘had a second son, Edmond, in Trinity College, where, in the father’s opinion “justice was not being done to the cleverest lad in Europe”’; launched bitter attack on Fellows; took up residence in Newgate as result of charges of libel; assocaited with Dr. Burrows, [sic] who, not satisfied with putting Swift in gaol, published an attack on his defeated opponent, who lost no time in engaging Sir Jonah Barrington to sue Burrows for libel’’ on being giving a room with two beds, one occupied by polite and respectable gentleman, he made th e’best of a bad bargain, agreed, and on being ushered into the room, found that his future room mate was none other than Theophilus. The humour of the situation was too much for both and they became reconciled ...’
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Theophilus Swift, in ‘Eminent Trinitymen: Edmund Swift’ (No.IV), in David A. Webb, ed., TCD: An Athology, 1845-1945 (Tralee: Kerryman [1945]), pp.5-7 [prev. in TCD Miscellany, 8 June 1933]. Webb quotes Theophilus Swift: ‘I seldom deliberate: my feelings are my only guide. They have never yet deceived me’; notes his challenge to Duke of Richmond, whom he had never met, and his defence of a criminal so degraded that the whole of the Irish bar declined the brief; recounts that he considered his son Edmund [sic] to be the finest scholar outside of Dr. Barrett, and thought by him to be the object of malevolence from Dr. Burrows; Edmund Swift entered TCD from Eton, July 1792; disparaged by Dr. Hall who said of him that ‘he possessed neither skill nor learning for Latin verse was nothing but a “knack”’; Theophilus charged his son with writing a Latin epigram against Hall, which his elder brother translated into portentous English; distributed by the father to all the Fellows; Edmund ‘plucked’ at examinations next term by Dr. Burrows, as being deficient in Locke and Euclid; quitted college; Theophilus Swift searched up the Statures; Dr. Burrows besought the students from the pulpit not to heed any libel of the Fellows; Animadversions on the Fellows of Trinity College (oct. 1794), 180pp., confused and agitated, with an appendix containing specimens of his son’s verse; called the Fellows ‘literary buffoons’ who ‘filled their young pupils with narrow notions’; the college was called ‘the Silent Sister’, held under ‘the bondage of Monkery; proposed a new university at Armagh with lower salaries for the Fellows, who would not, like those in TCD, be won’t to ‘chambering without the walls, and misleading their pupils from the paths of knowledge and virtue; accused the Fellows of perjury and fornication since many had married ‘Int he face of Queen Elizabeth and the Holy Evangelists’; united to women not legally their wives; information granted against Swift for libel; spent 12 months in Newgate; Burrows published denunciation of Swift, also libellous, resulting in a suit by Swift, and a term of 6 months for Burrows; Swift publishes a further pamphlet; Dr. Burrows forced to share a double room with Swift; calls Edmund’s move to Oxford unremarkable; passed life as Keeper of Crown Jewels, d. 28 Dec. 1875.
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