MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE AND FAMILY OF THE LATE REV. MR. LAURENCE STERNE, WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. ROGER STERNE (grandfon to Archbishop Sterne), Lieutenant in Handafide's regiment, was married to Agnes Hebert, widow of a captain of a good family: her family-name was (I believe) Nuttlethough, upon recollection, that was the name of her father-in-law, who was a noted futler in Flanders, in Queen Ann's wars, where my father married his wife's daughter. (N. B. he was in debt to him), which was in September 25, 1711, Old Style.-This Nuttle had a fon by my grandmother-a fine person of a man, but a graceless whelp -what became of him I know not-The family (if any left), live now at Clonmel, in the South of Ireland, at which town I was born November 24, 1713, a few days after my mother arrived from Dunkirk.My birth-day was ominous to my poor father, who was, the day after our arrival, with many other brave officers, broke, and fent adrift into the wide world with a wife and two children-the elder of which was Mary; fhe was born at Lifle in French Flanders, July the tenth, one thousand feven hundred and twelve, Old Style.This child was most unfortunate-fhe married one Weemans, in Dublin-who used her moft unmercifully-fpent his fubftance, became a bankrupt, and left my poor fifter to shift for herself,-which fhe was able to do but for a few months, for fhe went to a friend's houfe in the country, and died of a broken heart. She was a moft beautiful woman---of a fine figure, and deserved a better fate.--The regiment in which my father ferved, being broke, he left Ireland as foon as I was able to be carried, with the reft of his family, and came to the family feat at Elvington, near York, where his mother lived. She was daughter to Sir George Jaques, and an heirefs. There we fojourned for above ten months, when the regiment was established, and our houfhold decamped with bag and baggage for Dublin-within a month of our arrival, my father left us, being ordered to Exeter, where, in a fad winter, my mother and her two children followed him, travelling from Liverpool by land to Plymouth. (Melancholy defcription of this journey not neceffary to be tranfmitted here.) In twelve months we were all fent back to Dublin. My mother, with three of us (for fhe laid in at Plymouth of a boy, Joram), took fhip at Briftol, for Ireland, and had a narrow efcape from being caft away, by a leak springing up in the veffel. At length, after many perils and ftruggles, we got to Dublin. There my father took a large houfe, furnished it, and in a year and a half's time fpent a great deal of money. In the year one thoufand feven hundred and nineteen, all unhing'd again; the regiment was ordered, with many others, to the Ifle of Wight, in order to embark for Spain, in the Vigo expedition. We accompanied the regiment, and were driven into Milford Haven, but landed at Bristol, from thence by land to Plymouth again, and to the Isle of Wight-where I rememftayed encamped fome time before the embarkation of the troops---(in this expedition from Bristol to Hampshire we ber we us. loft poor Joram-a pretty boy, four years old, of the small-pox)-my mother, fifter, and myself, remained at the Isle of Wight during the Vigo expedition, and until the regiment had got back to Wicklow in Ireland, from whence my father fent for We had poor Joram's lofs fupplied during our stay in the Ifle of Wight, by the birth of a girl, Anne, born September the twenty-third, one thoufand feven hundred and nineteen.-This pretty bloffom fell at the age of three years, in the barracks of Dublin-fhe was, as I well remember, of a fine delicate frame, not made to last long, as were most of my father's babes. We embarked for Dublin, and had all been caft away by a moft violent ftorm, but, through the interceffions of my mother, the captain was prevailed upon to turn back into Wales, where we ftayed a month, and at length got into Dublin, and travelled by land to Wicklow, where my father had for fome weeks given us over for loft. We lived in the barracks at Wicklow one year (one thousand feven hundred and twenty), when Devijeher (fo called after Colonel Devijeher) was born; from thence we decamped to ftay half a year with Mr. Featherston, a clergyman, about feven miles from Wicklow, who being a relation of my mother's, The invited us to his parfonage, at Animo.-It was in this parish, during our ftay, that I had that wonderful efcape in falling through a mill-race whilft the mill was going, and of being taken up unhurt-the story is incredible, but known for truth in all that part of Ireland---where hundreds of the common people flocked to fee me.---From hence we followed the regiment to Dublin, where we lay in the barracks a year. In this year, one thousand seven hundred and twenty-one, I learned to write, &c. regiment was ordered in twenty-two to Carrickfergus, in the north of Ireland; we all decamped, but got no further than Drogheda, thence ordered to Mullengar, forty miles weft, where by Providence we ftumbled upon a kind relation, a collateral defcendant from Archbishop Sterne, who took us all to his castle, and kindly entertained us for a year---and fent us to the regiment at Carrickfergus, loaded with kindneffes, &c.---a most rueful and tedious journey had we all, in March, to Carrickfergus, where we arrived in fix or feven days little Devijeher here died; he was three years old--he had been left behind. at nurse at a farm-houfe near Wicklow, but was fetch'd to us by my father. The fummerafter another child was fent to fill his place, Sufan; this babe too left us be |