DE FOE FAMOUS IN HIS GENERATION. 3 ration for politics and poetry, especially the former,"* and to whom Johnson allows "considerable merit," as an author who had "written so variously and so well,"+ may be introduced with propriety by a remark of his own upon another occasion: "If ever the life of any man was remarkable, this which I am going to treat upon is so to a very eminent degree. It affords such a variety of incidents, and is accompanied with such diversity of circumstances, that it includes within it what must yield entire satisfaction to the most learned, and admiration to persons of a moderate understanding."+ Although but little is known concerning the parentage of De Foe, who, so far as celebrity is concerned, may be considered as the first and last of his family; yet even upon so obscure a subject, it is natural that some degree of curiosity should be awakened. If it could be gratified, however, to any extent, but little interest would attach to a bare recital of names and dates, which are the common properties of every pedigree; and his family does not appear to have been of sufficient consequence for the acquisition even of this knowledge. Until of late years, indeed, it remained doubtful in what town or county he was born, and even whether he was an Englishman or a foreigner. This difficulty was farther increased by the foreign prefix to his name, which it now appears was of his own adoption. A Tory writer, who published a lampoon upon him in the reign of Queen Anne, under the title of "The True-born Hugonot; or Daniel De Foe, a Satyr," supposes him to have been of French extraction, and to have come into England with the persecuted Protestants, or as this author would term them, the rebellious subjects of Louis XIV. He speaks thus:— Out of this rebel herd our rebel sprung, Biog. Brit. Art. Arbuthnot, 1st. ed. + Boswell's Life of Johnson, iii. 286. Life of Duncan Campbell, p. 3. 4 ORIGIN OF HIS NAME. A mild behaviour and a fluent tongue; With uplift eyes, and with ambitious heart, On England's theatre to act his part. The name of Foe is said to be of Norman origin; and for centuries there was a family of that name seated in Warwickshire. This we learn from De Foe himself, who, speaking of the ancient castle of Warwick, says, "Here we saw the ancient cell or hermitage, where they say, the famous Guy Earl of Warwick ended his days in a private retreat for his devotions, and is from him called Guy-Clift, by others Gib-clift. "Tis now, as Mr. Camden gives an account, which Mr. Dugdale also confirms, the pleasant seat of an ancient Norman family of the name of De Beau-Foe, whose posterity remain there, and in several other parts of the county, retaining the latter part of their sirname, but without the former, to this day. Mr. Dugdale gives the monuments of them; and it appears they removed hither, on account of some marriage, from Seyton in Rutlandshire, where they were lords of the manor, and patrons of the church, and where several of the name also still remain."* (A) Whether De Foe was entitled to claim a remote affinity to this family is uncertain; but his immediate ancestors moved in a more humble sphere, and possessing only a slender Tour through Great Britain. II. 129. Letter III. (A) If it be lawful to hazard a conjecture upon so uncertain a subject as the etymology of names, it has occurred to the writer whether De Beau-Foe should not be written De Beau-Foy, and whether it was not originally bestowed upon the family for some signal act of fidelity from a vassal towards his superior lord: should this derivation be right, the awkward name of our author will be converted into the more agreeable one of Foi, or, according to its ancient spelling, Foy, which is a name still in use, both in this country and upon the continent. From the same source, there can be little doubt, is derived the sir-name of Beaufoy. That there is some ground for the conjecture may be readily imagined from its affinity to other names, which may be easily traced to some peculiar circumstance in the early history of the family; such as Beauclerc, Beaufort, Beaumont, Beaudesert, Beauchamps, Beauchateau, Beaulieu, Beaumarchais, Beausobre, and others that might be mentioned. REMARKS UPON HIS DESCENT. 5 patrimony, followed the pursuits of trade. But, as Sprat remarks of his friend Cowley, "what he wanted in titles of honour, and the gifts of fortune, was plentifully supplied by many other excellencies, which make, perhaps, less noise, but are more beneficial for example." It is an advantage almost peculiar to the state of society in this country, and arising out of its political institutions, that there is ample scope for the exertion of talent and enterprize in the most humble individuals. The haughty but ill-treated Wolsey, and the more amiable but unfortunate Cromwell, the one the son of a butcher, and the other of a blacksmith, arose by dint of talent to the highest offices in church and state; and similar instances might be gleaned from the history of our own times. In the walks of literature, we have seen some of its brightest ornaments emerging from obscurity, and rising to distinction in spite of all the disadvantages of birth and education. If De Foe could not. boast of exalted parentage, he possessed the inheritance of a virtuous example, which, combined with a good education, had an important influence upon his future character; and if he never attained to dignity nor opulence, yet his talents procured him political importance, and caused him to occupy a respectable station in the republic of letters. No person who possesses any claim to good sense, will undervalue the advantages of station because he does not happen to possess them; but at the same time he will agree with our author in giving the precedency to character: "Honour by virtue only is upheld, And vain are all the trophies vice can build; The reputation's rotten, like the cause: 6 ACCOUNT OF HIS FATHER, JAMES FOE. No force nor fraud can such a fame remove, It pleases men below, and God above."* The earliest of our author's ancestors, of whom there is any mention, was his grandfather, DANIEL FOE, a substantial English yeoman, who farmed his own estate at Elton, in Northamptonshire. He was, I believe, of the royal party, and addicted to the sports of the field, an amusement not encouraged by the graver sort of puritans, but occasionally indulged in by his grandson. For the diversion of himself and his friends, he maintained a pack of hounds, from whence it may be inferred that he moved in a respectable station of life. The fact is mentioned by De Foe himself, with a remarkable circumstance annexed to it. Having occasion to notice the absurd custom of bestowing names that were the result of party animosity upon the brute creation, a practice common in his time, he says, "I remember my grandfather had a huntsman, that used the same familiarity with his dogs, and he had his Round-head, and his Cavalier, his Goring, and his Waller, and all the generals of both armies were hounds in his pack; till the times turning, the old gentleman was fain to scatter the pack, and make them up of more dog-like sirnames." As De Foe is known to have possessed property in land, there can be little doubt that he inherited it from this relation. (B) Our author's father, JAMES FOE, was most probably a younger son of the foregoing; and having his own industry chiefly to depend upon, was sent to London at a proper age, and placed as an apprentice with John Levit, citizen and Collection of his Writings, I. 114. + Review, vii. Pref. (B) “I have both a native, and an acquired right of election," says he, "in more than one place in Britain, and as such am a part of the body that honourable House (the Commons of Britain), represents: and from herce, I believe, may claim a right in due manner, to represent, complain, address, or petition them.—Review, vi. 477. HIS COLLATERAL RELATIONS. 7 butcher. This trade he afterwards followed upon his own account, in the parish of St. Giles's, Cripplegate, but retired from the cares of business, upon a decent competency, several years before his death. He was living at an advanced age in 1705, when he signed the following testimonial to the character of a servant who had formerly lived with him :-"Sarah Pierce lived with us, about fifteen or sixteen years since, about two years; and behaved herself so well, that we recommended her to Mr. Cave, that godly minister,* which we should not have done, had not her conversation been becoming the gospel. From my lodgings, at the Bell, in Broad Street, having lately left my house in Throgmorton Street, October 10, 1705. Witness my hand, JAMES FOE."(c) The good old man did not survive very long after this; for in the Review for September 23, 1708, De Foe alludes to him as his "late father," These are all the particulars that can be collected of our author's immediate ancestors. He had some collateral relations, to whom he alludes occasionally in his writings, but with too much brevity to ascertain the degree of kindred. In his "Tour through Great Britain," he mentions a relative See Calamy's Acc. p. 159. Contin. p. 227 (c) For the above document, we are indebted to an octavo tract, bearing the following singular title: "An Account of Mr. Thomas Ridgley, an Independent minister and preacher at the Three Cranes in Thames-street, his wilful and malicious blaspheming the work of the Spirit of God in a member of that Church; and how he and Mr. Peter Pindar, and Mr. Robert Hancock, laboured to drive her to distraction and despair: with a copy of the things they persecuted her for; and the copy of three letters she sent to Mr. Ridgley to read, and then to give Mr. Pindar his; and the offence Mr. Barton had given her; with the Scriptures she applied; and a copy how it was tried before the Church; and also how the sufferer declared all to his face at Pinner's Hall, before the ministers, and he did not contradict one word she said. And also the copy of the witnesses' hands against them; and the testimony of twenty witnesses, what her life and conversation has been from her childhood. Printed for the sufferer, Jan. 2, 1707-8. Price 6d. pp. 44." |