Thomas Drennan, teacher at Francis Hutcheson’s school and father of William Drennan of the United Irishmen, died on St Valentine’s day, 1768.1 I have written about him previously, but for the day that is in it, this brief blog will describe how he met his wife.
The family story was that Thomas Drennan was a confirmed bachelor (which seems to be confirmed as a position of long standing based on Francis Hutcheson’s letter below). A minister in Belfast First Presbyterian congregation since 1736, aged forty-six, he was prevailed upon to accompany the twenty-three year old daughter of a prosperous Belfast merchant, Anne Lennox, to visit her cousins in Dublin.
A distance of over a hundred miles, which takes a couple of hours today, then would have taken three days at minimum by coach. Drennan proposed to Anne Lennox by the time they reached Swords, on the outskirts of Dublin 2.
The disparity in, not only their ages, but their situations (Thomas appears to have come from a poor family, while Anne had relations in the gentry via her mother, a Hamilton) meant that even when the rumours reached Francis Hutcheson, he did not believe them. A letter of 1st June 1741 clearly predates any thought of Drennan marrying, given it assumes he may visit Glasgow. Just over a month later, Hutcheson’s letter to Drennan is spilling over with amusement at the news3.
Dear Thom,
Tho’ I have often heard the rumour of your courtship without believing it, as I never thought your talent lay in fortune-hunting ; yet, of late, I have had such assurances that you’re actually married, as I could not question it any longer. My wife and I congratulate you most heartily, and wish you all the joys of that new relation, and with the same to Mrs Drennan, who shews a, more valuable turn of mind by her conduct than most young ladies, in such circumstances. We both long to see you both, and rejoice that we shall find another family of hearty friends in Belfast. If any interposal of mine be necessary to promote or hasten an entire satisfaction of other friends, with this step you have taken, pray let me know and it shall not be wanting.
While the bride gets praised for her valuable turn of mind (an implicit compliment to Drennan, given the suggestion she has chosen well), Drennan gets teased for the disparity in his fortunes compared to hers and the teasing continues with a memory of Thomas Drennan complaining of how his old comrades changed on marriage (perhaps in 1725 when Hutcheson himself was married?)
And now, dear Thom, that you have at last executed what you so often threatened, with Charles Moore, in your swift indignation at the foolish metamorphoses of your comerads by marriage ; display to us the glorious example ; let us see how we should behave. Away to Dublin every quarter : leave the wife behind you . or, if you take her along, don’t mind her : stay at the Walshe’s Head till 2 in the morning : saunter in Jack’s shop all day, among books : dine abroad : and then to the Walshe’s Head again, to Charles’ great consolation and edification. I’m sure you cannot be so foolishly fond, or so stupid, as to quit all Comerads, and sacrifice all merry conversation for one woman !
After this picture of (one assumes) Drennan’s usual recreation in his single early thirties which he could not understand his newly married friends giving up, Hutcheson turns to advice on how Drennan should handle his new circumstances (his wife’s fortune, in Hutcheson’s view, was not her husband’s but held in trust for he), and ends by saying, “Dear Thom, I just write to you as I would talk to you, if we were walking in Hackmer or on the Long Bridge, where I hope before I am many years older to have some pleasant walks with you and Mrs Drennan. Pray write me soon.”
The next letter Hutcheson sent made it clear that Drennan did NOT write soon, nor is there any evidence Hutcheson and Drennan went walking with their wives on the Long Bridge over the Lagan, or around Ballyhackamore. But Drennan’s deficiencies as a writer were made up for by his preserving of letters which give us an insight into his life, the life of Francis Hutcheson and the customs and mores of the time.
Featured Image: A drawing of the Long Bridge published in 1823 (Public Domain, wikimedia)
References
- A.T.Q Stewart “Drennan, William” in the Dictionary of Irish Biography (online) ↩
- Jane Agnew (ed) (198) The Drennan-McTier Letters 1776-1793, p. xi).
National Museums NI hold portraits of Thomas Drennan and Anne Drennan nee Lennox. ↩ - William Robert Scott (1900) Francis Hutcheson, his life, teaching and position in the history of philosophy Cambridge: The University Press, pp. 133-4) ↩