Page:A Compendium of Irish Biography.djvu/95

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and requested her to go to the house of his mother, who lived not far distant, and was related to Cannera. At length, however, on understanding that she was near her end, and that she wished to receive the Holy Eucharist, he complied with her desire. As she died very soon after, her wish to be interred in that holy place was also fulfilled." If she is the same as St. Cainder, as stated in the Martyrology of Donegal, her festival is the 28th January. 119 234


Canning, George, an author, an Irishman, appears to have taken his degree of B.A. at the University of Dublin in 1754. His father, a gentleman of property in the north of Ireland, disinherited him for marrying, in 1768, Miss Costello, a dowerless beauty. George Canning was the author of some poems, and of a translation of Anti-Lucretius. He was called to the Bar, but never pursued his profession with earnestness, and his sojourn in London, on an allowance from his father of, £150 per annum, was a perpetual struggle against adverse circumstances. Nevertheless he and his wife were received into some of the best literary circles, and led a respected, if not a contented and happy life. He died in the Temple, London, 11th April 1771, one year after the birth of his son, the great George Canning. 67 146


Cantwell, Andrew, M.D., was born in the County of Tipperary, in the beginning of the 18th century. He took his degree in 1729, at Montpelier, and six years afterwards removed to Paris, where he became eminent as a physician and professor. A voluminous writer on medical questions, he was noted as a bitter opponent of inoculation for the small-pox, then first practised; he spent some time in England pursuing the study of inoculation and confirming his conviction of its inutility and danger. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, and contributed three papers printed in the Philosophical Transactions. He died in Paris, 11th July 1764. 34 42


Carew, Sir Peter, was born at Ottery-Mohun, in Devonshire, in 1514. After a varied and eventful military career, he appeared in Ireland in August 1568, as claimant for the old Leinster and Munster estates of his ancestors, which had gradually been re-occupied by the Irish chieftains during the wars of the Roses. He first landed at Waterford, and then repaired to Dublin, where he resided during the prosecution of his claims. He was a prominent figure in Irish politics for the next seven years; and his presence materially contributed to the wars of the Butlers and other chieftains who naturally resented the Government putting him in the possession of estates which had been in their occupation for centuries. In 1568 Sir Peter was appointed governor of Leighlin. We are seriously told that "he so courteously dealed, and so friendly entreated his tenants, the Kavanaghs, and so liberally bestowed them, that, albeit it were some grief unto them to be dispossessed of the possessions which so long time they had held and enjoyed, yet they most gladly served him and became his tenants." Several attempts were made to assassinate him. Sir Edmund Butler, brother to the Earl of Ormond, especially resented his claiming some of his lands, and in 1569 raised an insurrection, and gave the Government no small trouble. Sir Peter distinguished himself in the ensuing war, chiefly in the capture of Clogrenan Castle. In 1572, after a short visit to England, he repaired to Cork and prosecuted his claims to certain Munster estates. He died at Ross, 27th November 1575, and his body was interred at "Waterford in great pomp, in presence of Lord-Deputy Sidney and other notables. He is described as "of a mean stature, but very well compact, and somewhat broad, big boned and strongly sinewed, his face of a very good countenance, his complexion swarte or cholyryke, his hair black, and his beard thick and great." 39 70


Carew, Sir George, Earl of Totnes, soldier and statesman, son of Dean Carew, was born in 1558, probably at Exeter. After studying at Oxford, he and his brother Peter came over to Ireland in 1575, under patronage of their kinsman Sir Peter Carew. After Sir Peter's death, both of the brothers are mentioned as being engaged in the Irish wars. They appear as captains of a company of Devon and Cornishmen that landed at Waterford in 1579, and were afterwards appointed to keep the Castle of Adare, where they were besieged by the Earl of Desmond. Peter was slain in a sally, 25th August 1580. In a letter to Walsingham, three months afterwards, George is able to boast that "Hope of revenge did … breed me comfort: … it hath been my good hap to kill him that slew my brother." 69 On midsummer eve of 1583, being in Dublin with his company, and hearing that one O'Nasye, a follower of the Cavenaghs, who was in town on Government business (having brought in prisoner Walter Eustace, brother of Viscount Baltinglass) and with a Government safe conduct, had boasted that he was concerned in his brother's death (in battle), George sallied forth and stabbed him mortally. Although, in answer to the representations of the Lords-Justices, Wal-

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