Page:A Compendium of Irish Biography.djvu/108

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CLI
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they underwent, amongst them a son and daughter of Mr. Clinton. In the spring of 1731 he formed a flourishing settlement in the County of Ulster (now Orange County), New York, where he pursued the occupation of farmer and surveyor. Before long, he became a county judge and Lieutenant-Colonel of the local militia. In 1758 he served as a Lieutenant-Colonel in DeLancy's regiment at the siege and capture of Frontenac. He died in Ulster, New York, 19th November 1773, aged about 83. His sons Alexander and Charles were physicians, James became Major-General in the American revolutionary army, and George rose to be Vice-President of the United States. 37*

Clive, Catherine, a celebrated comic actress (daughter of a lawyer named Raftor, originally of Kilkenny), is generally stated to have been born in the north of Ireland in 1711. "When young she was married to Richard Clive, a barrister; but the union was unfortunate, and a separation taking place, she adopted the theatrical profession, in which she attained a distinguished rank. She filled and adorned a variety of comic parts, and whether she exhibited the woman of good sense, of real fine breeding,—the humorous, the fantastic, the affected, the rude, the awkward, or the ridiculous female in any rank of society—she was sure to fascinate the audience." 3 Dr. Johnson said: "Mrs. Clive was the best player I ever saw … What Clive did best she did better than Garrick, but could not do half so many things well. She was a better romp than any I ever saw in nature." Her composition and spelling are described as "audacious" in their incorrectness. Leigh Hunt writes: "She was the favourite Nell of the stage in the Devil to Pay and similar characters; and, according to Garrick, there was something of the devil to pay in all her stage life. She might have been Macklin's sister for humour, judgment, and sturdiness of purpose, amounting to violence, not unmixed with generosity. The latter part of her life she spent in retirement at Strawberry Hill, where she was a neighbour and friend to Horace Walpole, whose effeminacy she helped to keep on the alert. It always seems to us as if she had been the man of the two, and he the woman." Her private character was exemplary. She died at Twickenham, near London, 6th December 1785, aged about 74. 3 38 146


Clyn, John, an annalist, a Franciscan friar of Kilkenny, first custodian of the Monastery of Carrick-on-Suir, founded by one of the Earls of Ormond in 1336. His Annals are written in Latin; they extend from the birth of Christ to 1349. He thus concludes his entry for 1348: "But I, brother John Clyn, a Franciscan friar, of the Convent of Kilkenny, have in this book written the memorable things happening in my time, of which I was either an eye-witness, or learned them from the relation of such as were worthy of credit … Expecting death among the dead, … I leave behind me parchment for continuing it if any man should have the good fortune to survive this calamity, or anyone of the race of Adam should escape this pestilence, and live to continue what I have begun." He probably died next year in the plague to which he refers. Besides his Annals, he wrote some other works of small importance. The friary in which he lived in Kilkenny was lately a racket-court. "Clyn lived ninety years after Matthew Paris, and was not many years older than Froissart, but … instead of the striking details of the monk of St. Alban's, instead of Froissart's pictured pages, … we have here, for the most part, only mere entries of names and of facts—the ashes of history in which there is no fire." His Annals, edited by the Rev. Richard Butler, were published by the Archaeological Society in 1849. 83


Coemghin, or Kevin, Saint, was born about 498, of a princely family in Tir Tuathal, comprising part of the present County of Wicklow. He is described as having been a beautiful youth: he was baptized by St. Cronan, and educated under "Petrocus, a holy Briton." He was specially intimate with SS. Columcille and Ciaran; and when the latter died at Clonmacnoise, Coemghin made a special pilgrimage thither to watch by his body. Round his cell at Glendalough a large community of disciples gathered, attracted by his learning and sanctity; and the ecclesiastical remains there are intimately associated with his name, although it is extremely unlikely that any of them date from his lifetime. St. Coemghin is generally represented with a bird in his hand, in token of his extreme love of animals. The legend concerning him and Kathleen has been embodied in poetry both by Moore and Gerald Griffin. He is stated to have died in 618, aged 120. His festival is the 3rd of June. 119 234 235


Coffey, Charles, a dramatic author, born the end of the 17th century, wrote nine successful pieces. He died 13th May 1745, and was buried at St. Clement Dames, in the Strand, London. But one of his works has kept its hold on the stage—The Devil to Pay, or the Wives Meta-

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