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ANDERSON, Paris

ANDERSON, Paris, b. 1819, d. Cincinnati (OH) 1857. Novelist, poet, editor and antiquary, PA was the son of Louis Anderson and Eliza Carpenter and cousin of the antiquary and Church of Ireland minister Revd James Graves. At age 16, PA contributed a story to the Dublin Penny Journal and later wrote verse, published in the Kilkenny Moderator . From 1835 to 1838 he resided at Belvedere Place, Dublin, and in 1839 went to England as a schoolteacher. A year later he became editor of a paper in Macclesfield (Ches.). He returned to Ireland to become secretary of the Barony of Kilkenny Relief Committee for the Famine. In 1853 he left for America, partly in protest against the dealings of the Church of Ireland. Nooks and corners of the County Kilkenny , formerly ascribed to him, is actually by his relative John G.A. Prim (republished Dundalk, 2003). His single novel The warden of the marches (Kilkenny, 1884) was published after his death. Source Brady, p. 4; Brown, p. 19; C. Manning, preface to Nooks and corners of the County Kilkenny (repr. Dundalk, 2003), pp xiii-xviii; W.J. Phelan, ?Paris Anderson? in Old Kilkenny Review 11 (1959), p. 31; Hogan 2, p. 106; IBL, 10 (1919), p. 92; O'Donoghue, p. 10; Personal communication, Con Manning, July 2003; Personal communication, George Gossip, July 2003; RIA/DIB.

  • A67
    The warden of the marches. A Kilkenny story of the Pale (Paris Anderson)
    • + Kilkenny: Printed at the 'Moderator' Office, 1884. Source Brown, 127. Location D, NUC, InND Loeber coll.
    COMMENTARY Historical fiction first published in the Kilkenny Moderator (1884). Adv. as being published by P.M. Egan in Kilkenny, but appeared at the Moderator Office in that city. Said to be an old legend still current in the nineteenth century; the story is partly based on historical documents. Set in Co. Kilkenny in and around the marches of Ballygowran. The period is the middle of the fourteenth century. Cantwell, while on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, falls in love in Florence, marries, and brings his Italian wife to Ireland. His marriage is not happy, because he is jealous, and because of his wife?s connection with the alleged witch, Alice Kyteler, which meant that she is in disfavour with the church. Oliver De La Fraine, on hearing that the church would take action against Cantwell's wife, convinces her to flee with him from her home. On their way, however, they are embroiled in a skirmish with Le Poer and Cantwell's men and are taken to be imprisoned in Kilkenny. They escape and flee to De La Fraine's territory. Eventually, Cantwell kills De La Fraine and takes his wife home with him. She, however, poisons him that same day. She is taken prisoner, but dies before a sentence can be pronounced [ML; Brown; C. Manning, preface to Nooks and corners of the County Kilkenny (repr. Dundalk, 2003), p. xviii].
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