lovers of the bottle, though the former did not dislike the delicacies of a luxurious table; perhaps he has mentioned a little too strongly this weakness of his friend; certain it is, that Parnell did not lose the respect of society, or the attachment of his patrons; for Archbishop King, at the request of Swift, gave him a prebendal stall in 1713, and in May, 1716, presented him with the vicarage of Finglass, in the diocess of Dublin, worth about four hundred pounds a year. [1] He did not, however, long live to enjoy his preferment and prosperity; and died at Chester in July, 1717, in his thirty-eighth year, while on his way to Ireland, and was buried at Trinity Church in that town.
His estate devolved on his only nephew, Sir John Parnell, whose father was younger brother to the
- ↑ There seems to be some error in the value which the biographers of Parnell have placed on this living; for Swift in his 'Vindication of his Excellency Lord Carteret,' speaks of him as bestowing on Mr. James Stafford the Vicarage of Finglass, worth about one hundred pounds a year. This was written in the year 1730. I have no doubt but that Goldsmith's valuation is erroneous; for Swift seems to doubt whether his own Deanery was worth more than four hundred pounds a year.
when the Queen's sudden death destroyed all his prospects, and at a juncture when he found preaching to be the readiest road to preferment. This fatal stroke broke his spirits; he took to drinking, became a sot, and soon finished his course.' See Ruffhead's Life of Pope, p. 492, who says that Pope gave the above account to Warburton; much difference exists between Pope's own account of his friends, and the characters of them, which Warburton subsequently gave as Pope's; see an instance of this in Johnson's Life of Rowe.
