The Real Story of John Carteret Pilkington Writen By Himself Published by the Ex-classics Project, 2017 http://www.exclassics.com Public Domain John Carteret Pilkington CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 3 BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE ............................................................................................. 4 TITLE PAGE. Of the First Edition ................................................................................ 5 DEDICATION. To The Right Honourable Georgina, Caroline, Countess Of Cowper. ........................................................................................................................................ 6 PREFACE. By the Author .............................................................................................. 7 A LIST OF THE SUBSCRIBERS. ................................................................................ 9 CHAPTER I. My Ancestry and Birth—My Mother's departure .................................. 16 CHAPTER II. I Run away to my Uncle in Cork .......................................................... 22 CHAPTER III. Life with My Uncle in Cork ................................................................ 28 CHAPTER IV. Expelled from my Uncle's House, I Return to Dublin and meet with a Musical Projector ........................................................................................................ 36 CHAPTER V. I Return to Cork and am Taken up by Mr. O'Neill .............................. 41 CHAPTER VI. With Mr. O'Neill at Ballyannan .......................................................... 48 CHAPTER VII. I return to Dublin in Great Style ....................................................... 58 CHAPTER VIII. My Stay in Shane's Castle ................................................................ 62 CHAPTER IX. I Leave Mr. O'Neill. Life with Students in Dublin. Theatrical Quarrels. I Resolve to go to Scotland. ......................................................................... 74 CHAPTER X. I Arrive in Scotland. ............................................................................. 81 CHAPTER XI. Frustrations of a Play-Writer. Conclusion of the Work ..................... 94 LETTERS OF LÆTITIA PILKINGTON Introduction ............................................... 98 LETTER I. From Lord KINGSBOROUGH, in the country, to PILKINGTON in Dublin. ......................................................................................................................... 99 LETTER II. From Mrs. PILKINGTON to Lord KINGSBOROUGH, at Abbe Boyle.100 LETTER III. From Lord KINGSBOROUGH to MRS. PILKINGTON ...................... 101 LETTER IV. From Mrs. PILKINGTON to Lord KINGSBOROUGH. ...................... 102 LETTER V. Answer to the foregoing, from Lord KINGSBOROUGH ...................... 104 LETTER VI. From Mrs. PILKINGTON to Lord KINGSBOROUGH. ...................... 105 LETTER VII. From Lord KINGSBOROUGH to MRS. PILKINGTON .................... 108 LETTER VIII. From Mrs. PILKINGTON ................................................................. 109 LETTER IX. To Mrs. PILKINGTON. ....................................................................... 110 LETTER X. From Mrs. PILKINGTON to Lord KINGSBOROUGH. ....................... 111 LETTER XI. From Lord KINGSBOROUGH to MRS. PILKINGTON ...................... 114 LETTER XII. From Mrs. PILKINGTON to Lord KINGSBOROUGH. ..................... 115 LETTER XIII. From Lord KINGSBOROUGH to MRS. PILKINGTON ................... 119 LETTER XIV. From Mrs. PILKINGTON to Lord KINGSBOROUGH. ................... 121 LETTER XV. From Lord KINGSBOROUGH to MRS. PILKINGTON .................... 124 LETTER XIV. Answer to Lord KINGSBOROUGH. ................................................. 124 POEMS BY JOHN PILKINGTON With remarks on their production and reception .................................................................................................................................... 127 -2- The True Story of John Carteret Pilkington INTRODUCTION John Carteret Pilkington was the youngest son of Lætitia Pilkington the poet, memoirist and friend of Jonathan Swift, whose memoirs are also on this site. After his father had cast her off, young John was so ill-treated that he decided to run away from home. This memoir is the story of some of his subsequent adventures. He alternated between being taken up by wealthy patrons, and being dropped by them and left to shift for himself. They are well-written with a very ingenuous honesty – he professes himself at a loss to understand why his company seemed to pall after a while with a patron, and his adventures with the inventor of musical instruments, with the Jacobite agents, and on the stage are funnier to us than they were to him. Also appended to the book are a number of letters between his mother and Lord Kingsborough, of which the account of her meeting with John Wesley is the most interesting. It seems he was in private a much less austere personality than he showed in public to his followers. -3- John Carteret Pilkington BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE The Real Story of John Carteret Pilkington, Written by Himself was first published by subscription in 1760. A second edition appeared in 1762. This Ex- Classics edition is taken from a facsimile of the first edition. Spelling and capitalisation have been modernised, and names abbreviated with dashes have been filled in as far as we have been able to find out. -4- The True Story of John Carteret Pilkington TITLE PAGE. Of the First Edition THE REAL STORY OF JOHN CARTERET PILKINGTON Written by HIMSELF. ================================= All on the sea of life, some calms have seen, Whatever bursting tempests raged between; But I have still by adverse winds been tossed, And always shipwrecked e'er I reached the coast. ================================== LONDON: Printed in the YEAR MDCCLX. -5- John Carteret Pilkington DEDICATION. To The Right Honourable Georgina, Caroline, Countess Of Cowper. MADAM, AS the following pages contain an account of my life, I know not to whom I can with more propriety inscribe them, than to Lady Cowper; whose goodness, I am proud to acknowledge, has been the preserver of it. Publicly to confess we have received favours from illustrious personages, is a public innuendo that they know something of us; thus, Madam, we have an opportunity to show our pride and gratitude at the same time. I flatter myself, Madam, that no part of a book, thus honoured with the sanction of your Ladyship's name, will occasion your being a penitent to your own virtues, or regretting the good offices your humanity has led you to do for a little family, whose greatest crime has been their distresses; which, indeed to some minds, appear an accumulation of all human faults. Your Ladyship was kind enough, not only to befriend the writer, but to pity the man; not only to subscribe to him as an author, but to administer to his necessities: whether the world may praise or condemn this conduct in your Ladyship, you have at least the consciousness of a generous intention, and the prayers and praises of an unfeignedly grateful heart. I have the honour to be, MADAM, Your Ladyship's most obliged, and most obedient, humble servant, JOHN CARTERET PILKINGTON. St. James's-Park, August 12, 1758. -6- The True Story of John Carteret Pilkington PREFACE. By the Author CONSIDERING the number of grave, learned and divine authors, that become so cheap a purchase at every stall, it might be a matter of wonder how a book, of this size and price, could have made its way into the republic of letters; or how a young man, with so small a share of merit, and so much smaller degree of interest, could have obtained such a number of noble adventurers to deposit half a guinea, for a work they had never seen, and of which, from the title, they could have but little conception; after having, as themselves repeatedly assured me, been considerable losers by subscribing to books, which never were even written, much less intended for publication. If any, or perhaps the greatest part of my benefactors, imagined that might be the case with me, how amiable, how generous, how condescending was it in them, to contribute to the support of a family, merely on a probability that the son of Mrs. Pilkington might have some merit? This single circumstance may clear the present age of imputations that have been thrown on some former ones, that they "suffered these great geniuses to want, whose writings are now the highest delights of retirement." My success has occasioned a learned gentleman of my acquaintance, who is very misanthropic in his disposition, to declare, that "if anything could reconcile him to entertain a tolerable opinion of mankind, it would be the notice and favour I have found amongst them." The number of books daily published for instruction, by persons qualified through great parts and study to bestow it, are, I hope, sufficient to answer their upright intentions: 'tis a character I confess myself unequal to in every respect; having as much occasion for it as most men; therefore the reader is to expect nothing in the following pages but entertainment. If I can give that in a rational and inoffensive manner, so as to kill two winter afternoons, I see no reason any of my subscribers will have to regret their purchase, as two Italian operas would cost the same money, for which they have nothing afterwards to show; whereas, after this has been read, the binding, gilding, and lettering,