Life
1733-1795; miscellaneous writer, b. Glack, Co Tyrone; MA TCD, 1791; curate
of Clogher, 1761-72, collated to prebend of Tyholland, 1772; Chancellor
of St. Macartin’s [College], Clogher, 1773; met Archdall, who showed
him an illustration of an Irish torque; works on Irish topography and
history incl. notably A Philosophical Survey of the South of Ireland
(1778), which contains several illustrations of antiquarian treasures; wrote a diary of his
visits to England, 1775-92; planned a history of the Revolutions of Ireland,
using papers of the Earl of Totnes (George Carew), borrowed from Edmund
Burke; wrote part of Bishop Percy’s Memoir of Oliver Goldsmith
(1801); his ‘Diary of a visit to England in 1775 was discovered posthumously
in Sydney Court House, NSW, Australia, where it was carried by a kinsman,
and published in 1854; the DNB artcile is by D. J. O’Donoghue. DNB
PI FDA OCIL
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Works
A Philosophical Survey of the South of Ireland, in a series
of letters to J. Watkinson (London: W. Strahan 1777), xvi, 476pp.,
8o.; A Philosophical Survey of the South of Ireland in a series of
letters to John Watkinson MP (Dublin: W. Whitestone 1778) [infra];
A Defence, An Examination of the Bishop of Cloyne’s Defence of
his Principals with documents of some apologists particularly the Rev.
Stock, with a defence of the Church of Scotland from his Lordship’s
apologists (Dublin 1788); Strictures on the Ecclesiastical and
Literary History of Ireland from the Most Ancient times till the Introduction
of the Roman Ritual, and the Establishment of Papal Supremacy by Henry
II King of England, to which is added Sketch of the Cconstitution
and Government of Ireland Down to 1783 (Dublin 1789); Diary of
a Visit to England in 1775 (Sydney 1854).
Translation [anon.], Philosophische Uebersicht von Süd-Irrland in Briefen an Johann Watkinson ... Aus dem Englischen (Breslau: bey Gottlieb Löwe 1779), [12], 380pp. 8o.
A Philosophical Survey of the South of Ireland (Dublin: for W. Whitestone [& et. al] 1778), xvi, 478pp.; XLV letters whereof the subjects incl. Dublin (Bartholomew Mosse’s Hospital); Tar; Naps; Phoenicians (‘Ireland the ancient Scotia’); Tarah; Ossian an Irish bard; round towers, opinions on; Kilkenny (‘the richest soil and the poorest people, melancholy prospect’); Battles of Aughrim and Boyne; Lord Roscommon; deplorable state of clergy (R.C.); MUTUAL ADVANTAGE of commercial and political Union; Objections to (R.C.) toleration answered; Letter XXXIV summarises - i.e., propagates - William Molyneux’s Case; disputes accounts of massacres of 1641 in William Petty.
Dublin booksellers of Philosophical Survey (1778 Edn): Dillon Chamberlaine, fl.1760-1780; J. Potts, d. 1775; William Sleater, fl.1757-89; John Watkinson, M.D.; William Whitestone, fl. 1759-78; ThomasWilkinson, d.1802 [bookseller] (listed in COPAC).
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Criticism
Ann de Valera, ‘Antiquarian and Historical Investigations’ (NUI
thesis 1978), pp.188-92; 206-09.
Joseph Th. Leerssen, Mere Irish and Fior-Ghael (Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins 1986).
Joseph Th. Leerssen, Mere Irish & Fior-Ghael: Studies in the Idea of Irish Nationality, Its Development and Literary Expression Prior To The Nineteenth Century (John Benjamins Pub. Co., Amsterdam & Philadelphia, 1986).
James L. Clifford, ed., with intro. by S. C. Roberts, Dr. Campbell’s Diary of a Visit to England in 1755 (Cambridge UP 1949) [1st edn. 1947].
Maureen Wall, Catholic Ireland in the Eighteenth Century, ed. Gerard O’Brien (Dublin: Geography Publ. 1989), p. 192, n.77] Bibl.
Robert E. Ward, John F. Wrynn, S.J., & Catherine Coogan Ward, eds., Letters of Charles O’Conor (Washington: Catholic Univ. of America 1988), p.412, n.6., p.443, n.2, p.447.
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Notes
Dictionary of National Biography cites Philosophical
Survey of the South of Ireland (1778), and other works addressing
ecclesiastical topics; Campbell wrote diary which was discovered in MS
behind an old press in Sydney, NSW, which records meetings with Johnson,
Boswell, Goldsmith, etc.; enthusiastically Irish; left an unfinished history
of Ireland; some info. in Walker’s Hibernian Magazine, May
1795). LONG BML, ed. TCD, curacy at Clogher till 1772, Chanc. St. Macartin’s
Clogher, 1773; Phil. Tour supposed to be letters recording Irish
tour of Englishman, incl. description of chief towns; advocates commercial
and political union’; Boswell styled it ‘very entertaining’;
little better than big pamphlet against Valance and O’Conor, antiquarians;
Campbell regarded it as an essay only, and sought Burke’s help to
launch a larger work; Burke advises him to be brief with everything before
the Norman Conquest [i.e., Gaelic Ireland and antiquities.] A Diary,
printed in Sydney 1854, and reprinted in Napier’s Johnsoniana,
covers visits to London in 1775, ‘76-7, ‘81, ‘86, ‘87,
‘92 [The title page, infra, says 1775 only]. DNB remarks, ‘shrewd
but somewhat contemptuous observer’ of Johnson’s circle; d.
London, 1795.
D. J. O’Donoghue, Poets of Ireland (Dublin: Hodges Figgis 1912), b. Glack, Co. Tyrone; ‘A Letter to the Duke of Portland’; the English diary includes meetings with Johnson, Goldsmith, and others; diary found in Sydney, NS Wales; Rector of Gallstown. Enthusiastically Irish and fond of alluding to the achievements of Irishmen.
Seamus Deane, gen. ed., Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 1, notes that his Philosophical Survey was described by Boswell as ‘a very entertaining book’, and contained for the first time in print Johnson’s epitaph on Goldsmith; Campbell wrote part of the memoir on Goldsmith in Bishop Percy’s work (1801); advocate of political and commercial union. [Works & Comm. as supra.]
Ulster Libraries: University of Ulster Library (Morris Collection) holds A Philosophical Survey of the South of Ireland in a series of letters to John Watkinson, Dublin (1778), 478pp. [2 copies one of which, now rebound, bears autograph of one Charles Macmillan with pencilled note on title page stating “1st ed. 1777 for Strain and Caudal”; Printed for W. Whetstone and 17 others. Belfast Central Public Library holds History of Ireland (1789).
Going naked:
A Philosophical Survey ... &c.., contains a defence of nudity, especially among the peasant classes (see Spurgeon Thompson, ‘Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France and the Subject of Eurocentrism’, in Irish University Review, Autumn/Winter 2004, p.261 [ftn.].
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)