Page:A Compendium of Irish Biography.djvu/487

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20,000 men and a well-appointed park of artillery. His dispositions were made with great ability ; but he had not communi- cated his plans to any of his subordinates — even to Sarsfield, second in command, whom he had placed on the left, with directions not to leave his post. De Gin- kell's attack did not begin imtil five in the afternoon. The early part of the battle went entirely in St. Euth's favour. The Irish fought with stubborn resolution. In high spirits, St. Ruth headed a charge of cavalry, and just as he cried in French, " The day is ours, my boys, we will drive them before us to the walls of Dublin," a chain-shot took oif his head. On the loss of their leader the cavalry were thrown into a state of confusion, which communi- cated itself to the rest of the army. De Ginkell pressed the attack, and the battle was lost to the Irish. St. Ruth's corpse, wrapped in his cloak, was carried from the field and laid in the old monastery at Lough- rea. His spurs, his crest, and the shot by which he was killed, hang on the wall of the south transept of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, over Schomberg's monument. '^^ ^^'^

Sampson, William, a distinguished United Irishman, the son of a Presbyte- rian clergyman, was born in Londonderry, 17th January 1764. When eighteen, he held a commission in a Volunteer corps ; and shortly afterwards entered Trinity College. Ini79ohemarried,andremovedto London to complete his terms at Lincoln's Inn. Returning to Belfast, he entered warmly into politics, and became a United Irishman and a contributor to the Northern Star. He more than once acted as counsel for members of the brotherhood, when brought to trial. His name was included in the list of those marked for arrest on 1 2th March 1 798. He escaped to England, was arrested at Whitehaven, and sent to Carlisle jail, whence he was returned to Ireland. He was eventually permitted to retire to the Continent, and in July 1 806 removed to the United States, where he was called to the Bar, was joined by his wife and family in 1810, and rose to con- siderable eminence. The latter part of his life was largely devoted to literature. He edited American reprints of CurrarCs Life hy his Son, and Taylor's History of the Irish Civil ^Yars. He published his Memoirs in 1807, and a work on the Catholic Question in America in 1 8 1 3. He died in New York, 28th December 1836, aged 72. His daughter married a son of Wolfe Tone. ^ 3^'

Sandford, Daniel, Bishop of Edin- burgh, was born at Delville, near Dublin, in 1766. He was educated at Christ

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Church, Oxford, where he proceeded to D.D. in 1802. He subsequently settled in Scotland, and became a popiilar preacher, and in 1806 was consecrated Bishop of Edinburgh. The Gentleman's Magazine says : " He became the happy means of commencing and completing the union of Scottish and English Episcopalians. . . His piety was pure and unaffected." He died 14th January 1830, aged 63, and was interred in the buryiug-ground adjoin- ing St. John's Chapel, Edinbm-gh. His Remains, with a Memoir, edited by his son, were published a few months after his death. '^^

Sandford, Francis, an author of some note, was born in the County of Wicklow in 1630. Upon the Restoration he was made Pursuivant-at-Arms, which office he sold in 1689, because he could not take the oaths to William and Mary. His principal works were : A Genealogical History of the Kings of Portugal (London, 1664), and A Genealogical History of the Kings and Queens of England (Savoy, 1677). An edition of this last work, continued to the Scottish Union by Samuel Stebbing, is "considered as among the gi-eat guns, even of magnificent collections." He died in January 1693. '^ 339

Sarsfield, Patrick, Earl of Lucan, was born at Lucan about the middle of the 17th century. [An ancestor, William Sarsfield, Mayor of Dublin, was knighted by Sir Henry Sidney in 1566, for his ser- vices against Shane O'Neill. On the female side he is said to have been descend- ed from Rury O'More. His father's estates at Lucan and elsewhere were sequestrated by Cromwell, but were recovered after the Restoration through the influence of the Queen-mother. Patrick's elder brother, William, married Mary, natural daughter of Charles II., and sister of the Duke of Monmouth.] Patrick Sarsfield bore a com- mission in the English Life Guards ; he fought under Monmouth on the Continent, and against him at Sedgemoor, where he was severely wounded. He retired with James II. to France, and accompanied him to Ireland in March 1689, ranking as a brigadier-general. Soon after, upon the death of his elder brother, William, he suc- ceeded to the family estates, considered to be "worth £2,000 per annum. It was pro- bably about this period that he married Honora Burke, daughter of the 7th Eai'l of Clanricard. Macaulay says : "He had, Avaux wrote, more personal influence than any man in Ireland, and was, indeed, a gentleman of eminent merit, brave, upright, honourable, careful of his men in quarters, and certain to be always found at their 463