sight, hearing, and faculties, to the last moment. He died, April 1, 1807, at Beerhaven, in Ireland, aged one hundred and eleven, and left behind him only two hundred and fifteen nephews and nieces.
THOMAS PARNELL,
A poet of some fame, was descended from an ancient family, settled for some centuries at Congleton, in Cheshire. His father was attached to the republican party, in the reign of Charles I. and on the Restoration quitted England for Ireland, carrying with him considerable sums of money, with which he purchased estates in that kingdom. These, with the lands he had in Cheshire, descended to the poet, who was born in Dublin in 1679, in which city he was educated; and at the age of thirteen entered of Trinity college, Dublin. He took his degree of M.A. in 1700, and in the same year was ordained deacon, although under the canonical age, by a dispensation from the primate. Three years after he was admitted into priest's orders; and in 1705, Dr. Ashe, Bishop of Clogher, conferred upon him the arch-deaconry of Clogher. About the same time he married Miss Anne Minchin, by whom he had two sons, who died young, and a daughter who long survived him.
About this period he gave some occasional specimens of his poetical talents; but being partial to the enjoyments of social life, and the company of men of wit and learning; and as this was a taste he could gratify at home in a very small degree, he contrived many excursions to London, where he became a favourite. Goldsmith tells us he was unequal in his temper, and that he was always too much elevated, or too much depressed; and that, when under the influence of spleen, he would fly with all expedition to the remote parts of Ireland, and there receive a gloomy kind of satisfaction in giving hideous descriptions of the solitude to which he retired. Having tried this imaginary remedy for some time, he used to collect his revenues,
