The Goldsmith family; Rev. Charles Goldsmith, of Pallas; Oliver Goldsmith born there, November 10, 1728; removal to Lissoy, 1730; Oliver's first teachers, Elizabeth Delap and Thomas Byrne; childish characteristics; has the small-pox; anecdotes connected therewith; further schooling at Elphin, Athlone, and Edgeworthstown; adventure at Ardagh; sizar at Trinity College, Dublin, June 11, 1744; his tutor Theaker Wilder; dislike to mathematics and logic; involved in a college riot, May, 1747; gets a small exhibition; disastrous results; runs away from college; returns; writes songs for ballad-singers; anecdote of his benevolence; takes his B.A. degree, February 27, 1749; relics of college life.
F the researches of the first biographers of Oliver Goldsmith are to be relied upon, the Goldsmith family was of English origin, the Irish branch having migrated from this country to Ireland somewhere about the sixteenth century. One of the earliest members traced by Prior was a certain John Goldsmyth, who, in 1541, held the office of searcher in the port of Galway, and was shortly afterwards promoted by Henry VIII. to be Clerk of the Council. A descendant of this