“My chiefest benefactress on earth is my mother; she hath brought me to heaven. And blessed be the memory of my father which hath influenced my life. I have no children to bequeath these blessings to; let them descend upon all the faithful children of Abraham, and diffuse themselves the more for not being confined to a single line, till after many descents they shall come at last to meet themselves at the great day of jubilee. O all ye that love God, this is my legacy. The blessing, descended on me from my father and mother, I leave among you.”
During the reign of James II., public servants, popishly inclined, were apt to be thrust into offices, especially in Ireland; however, Mr. Bonnell, though an enthusi- astic Protestant, was not a politician, and was undisturbed. His office was coveted by an influential gentleman in the next reign, by whom he expected to be super- seded; but no change took place. When the abdicated king was in temporary possession of Dublin, Mr. Bonnell shared in the general consternation. In Sir Henry Ellis’s volumes of Letters there is one from the Rev. Theophilus Harrison to Rev. John Strype, dated Dublin, August 23, 1690, and containing this sentence:— “Mr. Bonnell tells me he acquainted you with the transactions of King James’s government here, and how severely the poor Protestants were handled; their churches, contrary to the royal word, seized and profaned by idolatrous worship.” Bonnell’s biographer says, “In the progress of the war, the Protestants in Dublin were denied the exercise of their religion, their churches turned into prisons, and their ministers confined." The victory of the Boyne was, according to the old style, on the 1st July (though now celebrated on July 12th), and two days after, Dublin felt the results. “How did we see the Protestants (writes Mr. Bonnell) on the great day of our Revolution, Thursday, the Third of July . . . congratulate and embrace one another as they met, like persons alive from the dead!” Mr. Bonnell soon formed a firm resolution to become a clergyman, and after long negotiations he agreed with a gentleman to be his successor in his office under Government. In the end of 1693 he married Jane, daughter of Sir Albert Conyngham, by whom he had two sons, Albert and Samuel (who predeceased him), and one daughter. His feeble health did not permit him to receive holy orders, and a malignant epidemic fever was the cause of his early death (i.e., in the 46th year of his age), on the 28th April 1699. Now (said he) must I stand or fall before my great Judge. It was answered that no doubt he would stand firm before Him, through the merits of our crucified Saviour. His reply was, It’s in that I trust. He knows it’s in that I trust. He was buried in St. John’s Church, Dublin, and his epitaph was contributed by Bishop King (afterwards Archbishop of Dublin).[1]
P. M. S.
JACOBI BONNELII, ARMIGERI,
Regibus Carolo IIdo. Jacobo IIdo. et Gulielmodo.
Erat a rationibus generalibus, in Hiberniâ, temporibus licet incertis, fidus —
ab omni factione immunis, nemini suspectus, omnibus charus.
Natus est Novembris 14o. 1653.
Patre Samuele, qui, propter suppetias Regiae Familiae exulanti largiter exhibitas,
Officio Computatoris-Generalis Fisci Hibernici, Ano. Dom. 1661
unà cum filio remuneratus est —
Avo Daniele —
Proavo Thomâ qui sub Duce Albano, Religionis ergo, Flandriâ patria sua exul,
Norvicum in Angliâ profugit, ubi mox civis, et demùm praetor.
Pietate avitâ et penè congenitâ, imò primaevâ et Apostolicâ,
Eruditione, prudentiâ, probitate, comitate, et morum simplicitate conspicuus —
Mansuetudine, patientiâ, et (super omnia) charitate insignis —
Urbem hanc, exemplo et praeceptis meliorem, morte maestam, reliquit.
Obiit Aprilis 28, 1699.
Monimentum hoc ingentis doloris publici,
praesertim sui, exiguum pro meritis, posuit conjux moestissima
Jana e Coninghamorum gente.
- ↑ His funeral sermon was preached by Bishop Wetenhall. The Bonnell motto was Terris Peregrinus et Hospes.
