Godwin Swift d. 1688 Dublin, Dublin, Ireland: Irish Genealogy

Godwin Swift

- 1688

Notes

The eldest of his large family, Godwin, a barrister, went to Ireland, where he became wealthy; and some of his brothers followed him. One of them, Jonathan, who had married Abigail Erick, was made steward of the king's inns, Dublin, but he did not live long, and seven months after his death, on 30 November 1667, his only son, Jonathan, was born. The widow was left dependent mainly on her husband's brother, Godwin. A nurse took the child to Whitehaven, and kept him there three years; and, not long after his return to Dublin, his mother returned to her relatives in England, leaving the boy in his uncle's care. He was sent to Kilkenny school, where he met Congreve; and, when he was fourteen he was entered as a pensioner at Trinity college, Dublin. Why he afterwards felt so much resentment against his relatives is not clear; for his uncle gave him, ‘not the education of a dog,’ but the best obtainable in Ireland. Swift was often at war with the college authorities; but he got his degree in 1685.

source: Ward, Adolphus William and Alfred Rayney Waller. The Cambridge History of English Literature, Volume 9. London, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1920.

[S1] Wikipedia Contributors, Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia, "Jonathan Swift," https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Swift, (San Francisco, CA: Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.).
[S2] Adolphus William Ward and Alfred Rayney Waller, The Cambridge History of English Literature, Volume 9, (London, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1920).
[S3] Bernard Burke and Arthur Charles Fox-Davies, A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Landed Gentry of Ireland, New Edition, (London, UK: Harrison and Sons, 1912).

Godwin Swift