Thomas Parnell was born in Dublin in 1679. He came from a wealthy family of mercers and drapers in Congleton. His father, Thomas, espoused republican principles, as the family had during the civil war, and left his Cheshire estates after the Restoration to settle on a newly-acquired estate in Ireland. He married Anna Grice in 1674 and had two sons, the elder being Thomas the poet. The other son, John, became a lawyer and was the ancestor of Charles Stewart Parnell (1846-1891), the Irish nationalist and campaigner for Home Rule. Thomas was educated first at a school run by a Dr. Jones, where he demonstrated considerable accuracy of memory, and afterwards at Trinity College Dublin, which he entered at the early age of thirteen. He took t

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First published 30 June 2002

Citation: Baines, Paul. "Thomas Parnell". The Literary Encyclopedia. 30 June 2002.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5005, accessed 9 February 2010.]