THE KENRICK FAMILY-DERIVATION OF THE NAME. 9 talents for commerce, but for the liberal arts, as may still be seen by the noble structure of Christ Church Cathedral, as well as by many interesting relics of their régime preserved in the Royal Irish Academy. A large number of notable Dublin families trace their origin to this period, and if that of the Kenricks were of the same stock the fact would, so far from militating against their intellectual claims or their patriotic standing, only strengthen the belief in the benefits of an admixture of the strongest races in the development of the highest physical and spiritual types. A process of mutation has been going on in the spelling of family names ever since the English language was introduced into Ireland and endeavored to accommodate its characters to the different sounds and signs of the Gaelic speech. Still it is hard to conceive how the change from Kendrick, as sometimes spelt, to Kenrick could have taken place, since the d is, in such a position as in this case, a forcible factor in the determination of the sound, not to be eliminated by the natural tendency to drop such letters as finals. Kendrick and Kenrick may have been originally entirely distinct family names. Indeed genealogists might find a purely Irish derivation for Kenrick by tracing its connection with the other Irish patronymic MacEnery, by presuming that in course of time the common process of ellipsis had worn away the first two letters of the Mac and left the strong final consonant as the first and determining particle of the parent name. This is notoriously the case with regard to many Irish names, such as Guinness or Ginnis, evidently an abbreviation of MacInnis or Innes, Keever from MacIvor or Eever, and so on. There are in existence a couple of convincing proofs that even those connected closely with this particular Kenrick family believed that the proper orthography of the name included the d; and this fact starts the query whether any members or branches of it had conformed to the State religion in the penal days, for certain it is that at least one Kendrick is found in that unfortunate position. This individual, moreover, was one who had acquired a certain share of reflected fame by his connection with immortal genius, and lives in biography, although in most cases anonymously. It is known that during the earlier part of the eighteenth century one Roger Kendrick was City Surveyor to the city of Dublin, and afterwards Verger of St. Patrick's Cathedral. He acted in the latter capacity to the famous Dr. Jonathan Swift. When the Dean on a certain occasion had prepared to address a congregation, he only found the official Verger present. However, in no manner disconcerted, the witty Dean commenced his sermon with the words, "My dearly beloved Roger," and the discourse was rendered brief, as the circumstances very properly required. This Roger Kendrick, however, appears to have had talents beyond the needs of a verger-in fact, had claims to a literary distinction of his own. Some years ago there lived in Werburgh street, in Dublin, a curious antiquarian -one who combined archæology with commerce in a very prosaic way-Mr. Edward Evans. Like the Scottish devotee, he might describe himself as cultivating the Muses on oatmeal, since while his shelves upstairs were loaded with the rarest literary treasures he dispensed meal and flour from behind his counter to customers with the unaffected bonhomie of the genuine philosopher. Within recent years his precious collection was put under the auctioneer's hammer, and amongst the rare volumes disposed of was a collection of Sir James Ware's works (Walter Harris' edition). In the catalogue of these was found the following note: "The first volume ('History of the Bishops,' etc.) belonged to a subscriber, Roger Kendrick, City Surveyor to the Corporation of Dublin, and afterwards Verger of A KENDRICK FRIEND OF SWIFT. II St. Patrick's Cathedral; it contains his autograph and numerous interesting MS. marginal notes by him; several of the subscribers are noted as being his friends; after Dean Swift's name is written: 'Under God, my best friend.' It afterwards passed into the possession of the Ven. Archdeacon Cotton (has his autograph), who made corrections in the addenda; and it subsequently became the property of the present owner, who, with great labour and research, compiled, as a supplement, in clearly written MS., The Succession of the Roman Catholic and Protestant Archbishops and Bishops of Ireland from the Reformation to the present time, with the Ecclesiastical Division of the Dioceses, Biographical Memoirs and Notices of the most distinguished Ecclesiastics, and an Index, thus rendering it a Unique Copy of the Work, and an invaluable contribution to the Ecclesiastical History of Ireland." The man who could claim Swift as "his best friend under God" enjoyed a rare distinction, and if he were a real Kenrick it is to be regretted that such an intellect was to be found on the side of those who made the laws to oppress the more steadfast Kenricks and men of like genius and fidelity, and scattered them all over the globe. Whatever doubt exists as to the exact birthplace of one of the Archbishops, it has been shown clearly enough that Thomas Kenrick, the father of the two famous prelates, lived in No. 16 Chancery lane; later on he kept a scrivener's office in York street, a thoroughfare running eastward from Aungier street to St. Stephen's green. It was at that day an exceedingly select section, and, indeed, it has not very much deteriorated since. The business of scrivener was an important and respectable one; for all legal documents were then required to be copied by hand, to be rigidly correct in the minutest particular, following set legal formulæ, and abounding in quaint Latin and Norman-French phrases and abbreviations. In this office the two youths successively spent several years before entering on their clerical studies; and it was here that the wonderfully gifted, "most musical, most melancholy" Irish poet, James Clarence Mangan, spent an apprenticeship which he seemed to regard as a kind of Promethean fetterment. This may be gathered at least from an article of his on the life of Dr. Petrie, the renowned archæologist, in whose company he afterwards. spent several years in the Record Office of Dublin. A true poet is a sort of unconsecrated priest-though in his material life he may be the very antithesis of one, as the world knows too well. Mangan seems to have had all the refinement of the spiritual nature; but he possessed, unfortunately for himself, that species of fatalistic melancholy against which the sacred calling is, in sensitive and high-strung natures, the only true shield and antidote. His sublime gloom-worse by many degrees than that of Byron-was intensified by poverty. He was compelled to drudge at the scrivener's desk for the support of a helpless family; and to make his servitude all the more poignant, he had betaken himself to the deadly solace of drink -some say opium besides. The poet's plaint of this period when he felt, like Samson, "in brazen fetters doomed to grind," is heartrending; yet it compels the tribute of sympathy and admiration, for in its deepest agony his spirit confessed the hand of the Divinity and acknowledged his own lamentable weakness, as in the opening note of that cry of anguish unmatched since the threnody of Job. "The Nameless One" "Roll forth, my song, like a mighty river Under all his trials and mental submersions Mangan MANGAN, THE POET, AND THE KENRICKS. 13 carried the rectitude of the Catholic heart. To his exemplary conduct in the scrivener's office the late Archbishop of St. Louis, who had spent some years there along with him, bore unqualified testimony in a letter to Mr. John McCall, of Dublin, in October, 1877. His Grace said: "I knew James Mangan for several years very intlmately, and highly esteemed him for his talents and virtue. After my father's death, in 1817, his office was continued for some years, in which both Mangan and myself were engaged. The office was in York street." It was Father Francis Kenrick who continued the office for those years. He conducted it for the benefit of the widow and children of his brother. We may be sure that this holy priest would have no one in his employment who was unworthy of confidence and respect. Great, then, must be the admiration felt for the gifted poet's character when he is found bearing up manfully with a condition which was repugnant wholly with his aspirations, for the sake of those who were cast helplessly on his hands. He was at this time a lad in his teens, and the power of poetical expression which even at that early age was his is indicated in those lines which he afterwards recalled when penning his article on his departed friend, Dr. Petrie : "O Genius! Genius! all thou dost endure The earth-bound and the blind, who cannot feel And lofty as the mountain snows, and zeal In whom that fire, struck like the spark from steel, Of such, thrice blest are they whom, ere mature |