Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 2.djvu/506

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502 SANDFORD. sions.” It is scarcely possible, however, to read it or characterise it with gravity, it being a series of pious medi tations perpetually interrupted with records of too much whiskey, piggish or swinish eating, and i l l temper. Had his friends been left t o their own judgment, this strange farrago would never have appeared; but b y a clause i n his will, his executors were obliged t o publish i t . Nor after all, does i t exhibit a real character o f the man; who, we are assured b y his friends (in the preface), was correct and temperate i n his conduct and mode o f living, a man of great benevolence, and a very useful, a s h e certainly was a very learned, physician. FRANCIS SANDFORD, A very celebrated herald and heraldic writer, was de scended from a very ancient and respectable English family, and was born i n 1630, i n the castle o f Carnow, i n the province o f Wicklow. He partook, i n n o small degree, o f the miseries o f the period which marked his youth. At the early age o f eleven years, h e sought a n asylum i n Eng land, being driven b y the rebellion from Ireland. No sooner had h i s commiserating relatives determined t o educate him t o some profession, than they were proscribed for adhering t o the cause o f their sovereign; h e received, therefore, only that learning which a grammar school could give. As some small recompence for the hardships h e and his family had undergone, h e was admitted a t the Restoration a s pursui vant i n the College o f Arms; but conscientiously attached t o James II. h e obtained leave, after the Revolution, t o resign his tabard t o Mr. King, rouge dragon, who paid him 220l. for his office. He retired t o Bloomsbury, o r its vicinity, where h e died, January 16, 1693, and was buried i n S t . Bride's upper church-yard. The last days o f this valuable man (we are informed) corresponded but too unhappily with the first. He married Margaret, daughter o f William Jokes, o f Bottington, i n the county o f Mont gomery, relict o f William Kerry, b y whom h e had issue. His works are “A Genealogical History o f the Kings