Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 1.djvu/309

 298 CURRAN. 1 JOHN PHILPOT CURRAN. Tuis high-gifted individoal, whose genius, wit, and eloquence have rendered him an ornament to bis age and country, affords a striking instance of the buoyancy of a superior mind on the flood of early adversity; and which, in spite of all impediments, raised bim from the humblest state of friendless obscurity, not only to one of the highest stations in the legal profession which he adorned, but to the most honourable distinctions of an independent senator and incorruptible patriot. Mr. Curran was not a descendant from Irish ancestors; his first paternal stock, in the country so justly proud of his name, was a scion from a northern English family named CoRWEN; who found his way to the sister island as a soldier, in the army of Cromwell; but, from the humble fortunes of his posterity, he does not appear to have been enriched by the spoils of the land he helped to subjugate, like many other adventurers in the train of the usurper, whose descendants have long stood high in rank and fortune. Little more is known of the ancestry of this eminent man, than that his father James Curran filled the humble office of seneschal in the manor court of New- Market, in the county of Cork, the scanty emolument from which, with the produce of a small farm, were his only resources for the maintenance of a growing family. The maiden name of his wife was Philpot. She was descended of a respectable stock in that county, and although John, her eldest son, who bore aso the name of his mother as an additional prenomen, could boast no hereditary talents on the side of his father, whose educa- tion and capacity were as humble as his rank; he derived from his mother that native genius, which, moulded by her early example, and cherished by her instruction, laid the basis of that celebrity which afterwards so highly dis- tinguished her favourite boy. Though young Curran from the first dawn of intellect in bis puerile days, gave