Page:The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, Volume 1.djvu/555

Rh brought him a considerable estate in Yorkshire, which he squandered away, but had no children: the earl of Eglington married another coheiress of the same family, as he has often told me.

Another of the same family was sir Edward Swift, well known in the times of the great rebellion and usurpation, but I am ignorant whether he left heirs or not.

Of the other branch, whereof the greatest part settled in Ireland, the founder was William Swift, prebendary of Canterbury, toward the last years of queen Elizabeth, and during the reign of king James the First. He was a divine of some distinction: there is a sermon of his extant, and the title is to be seen in the catalogue of the Bodleian Library, but I never could get a copy, and I suppose it would now be of little value.

This William married the heiress of Philpot, I suppose a Yorkshire gentleman, by whom he got a very considerable estate, which however she kept in her own power; I know not by what artifice. She was a capricious, ill-natured, and passionate woman, of which I have been told several instances. And it has been a continual tradition in the family, that she absolutely disinherited her only son Thomas, for no greater crime than that of robbing an orchard when he was a boy. And thus much is certain, that except a church or chapter lease, which was not renewed, Thomas never enjoyed more than one hundred pounds a year, which was all at Goodrich, in Herefordshire, whereof not above one half is now in the possession of a great great grandson.

His original picture is now in the hands of Godwin Swift, of Dublin, esq., his great grandson, as well as