32 Facts About Wolfe Tone

Theobald Wolfe Tone, posthumously known as Wolfe Tone, was a leading Irish revolutionary figure and one of the founding members in Belfast and Dublin of the United Irishmen, a republican society determined to end British rule, and achieve accountable government, in Ireland.

Wolfe Tone was active in drawing Irish Catholics and Protestants together in the United cause, and in soliciting French assistance for a general insurrection.

Wolfe Tone died in advance of his scheduled execution, probably, as modern scholars generally believe, by his own hand.

Theobald's father, Peter Wolfe Tone, was a coach-maker who had a farm near Sallins, County Kildare and belonged to the Church of Ireland.

Wolfe Tone's mother came from a Catholic merchant family who converted to Protestantism after Theobald was born.

Wolfe Tone was baptised as Theobald Wolfe Tone in honour of his godfather, Theobald Wolfe of Blackhall, County Kildare, a first cousin of Arthur Wolfe, 1st Viscount Kilwarden.

However, it was widely believed that Tone was the son of Theobald Wolfe, which, if true, made him a half-brother of the poet Charles Wolfe.

In 1783, Wolfe Tone found work as a tutor to Anthony and Robert, younger half-brothers of Richard Martin MP of Galway, a prominent supporter of Catholic emancipation, at Dangan, the Martin family home.

Wolfe Tone fell in love with Martin's wife, but later wrote that it came to nothing.

Wolfe Tone studied law at Trinity College Dublin, where he became an active member in the College Historical Society debating club and was elected its auditor in 1785.

Wolfe Tone would go on to change her name to Matilda, at Tone's request.

Wolfe Tone expressed contempt for the constitution Grattan obtained from the British government in 1782.

Himself an Anglican, Wolfe Tone urged co-operation between the religions in Ireland as the only means of obtaining redress of Irish grievances.

Wolfe Tone's aim was to unite both into a revolutionary army of Irish "men of no property".

Wolfe Tone himself admitted that with him hatred of England had always been "rather an instinct than a principle," though until his views should become more generally accepted in Ireland he was prepared to work for reform as distinguished from revolution.

Wolfe Tone's principles were drawn from the French Convention, and he was a disciple of Georges Danton and Thomas Paine.

Wolfe Tone drew up a memorandum for Jackson on the state of Ireland, which he described as ripe for revolution.

Wolfe Tone lived briefly in West Chester and in Downingtown, Pennsylvania.

Wolfe Tone was sent to France to claim the support of the Directory, under the express condition that the French should come to Ireland as allies, and should act under direction of the new government, as Rochambeau had done in America.

The Directory possessed information from Lord Edward FitzGerald and Arthur O'Connor confirming Wolfe Tone, and prepared to despatch an expedition under Louis Lazare Hoche.

Wolfe Tone accompanied it as "Adjutant-general Smith" and had the greatest contempt for the seamanship of the French sailors, who were unable to land due to severe gales.

Napoleon Bonaparte, with whom Wolfe Tone had several interviews at this time, was less disposed than Hoche had been to undertake in earnest an Irish expedition; and when the Rising broke out in Ireland in 1798 he had started for Egypt.

When Wolfe Tone urged the Directory to send effective assistance to the Irish rebels, all that could be promised was a number of raids to descend simultaneously around the Irish coast.

Wolfe Tone was brought ashore at Letterkenny Port and all French forces of the Hoche were taken to Lord Cavan's Letterkenny home where he faced arrest.

Wolfe Tone's eloquence was in vain, and his request to be shot was denied.

Wolfe Tone was adopted by the Young Ireland movement of the 1840s as an iconic figure, as the father of Irish republicanism and above religious divisions.

Only his son William Theobald Wolfe Tone survived to adulthood.

Wolfe Tone was a naturalised French citizen on 4 May 1812.

Wolfe Tone was at the battles of Lowenberg, Goldberg, Dresden, Bauthen, Muhlberg, Aachen, and Leipzig.

Wolfe Tone received six lance wounds at the Battle of Leipzig, was promoted to lieutenant and aide-de-camp of General Bagneres and was decorated with the Legion of Honour.

Matilda Wolfe Tone emigrated to the United States, and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.

William Wolfe Tone was survived by his only child, his daughter Grace Georgina.