IRELAND, WILLIAM HENRY , forger of Shakespearian manuscripts, born in London, was the son of Samuel Ireland, an engraver and author, and dealer in rare books and curios. In young Ireland, with his father, visited Stratford, where he met John Jordan, a local poet who had forged the will of Shakespeare's father. Seeing his own father's credulous interest, Ireland copied, in ink which had all the signs of age, Shakespeare's style and handwriting, and produced leases, con tracts with actors, notes, receipts, a profession of faith and even a love letter to Anne Hathaway with an enclosed lock of hair, to the delight of his unsuspecting father, and the deception of many scholars. Ireland invented an ancestor "William Henrye Irelaunde," to whom the documents had been bequeathed by Shakespeare in gratitude for rescue from drowning. At last the discovery of a whole new play named V ortigern was announced. Sheridan purchased it for Drury Lane theatre, and an overflowing house assembled on April 2, 1796, to sit in judgment upon it. But its one representation was greeted with shouts of (laughter. Samuel Ireland the elder had published in 1795 the Miscellaneous Papers and Legal Instruments under the Hand and Seal of William Shakespeare; including the Tragedy of King Lear and a small fragment of Hamlet (dated 1796). He had the fullest belief
in their authenticity, but the hostile criticism of Malone and others, and the unsatisfactory account of the source of the papers, made him demand a full disclosure from his son. Ireland at last confessed his fraud, and published (1796) an Authentic Account of the Shakespearian MSS., and in 1805, a more elaborate Con fession, entirely exculpating his father and making a full admission. The disgrace seems to have hastened the elder Ireland's death (July 18o0). Ireland died on April 17, 1835.
The more interesting publications on the Ireland forgeries are: Inquiry into the authenticity of certain Papers, etc., attributed to Shakespeare, by Edmond Malone (1796) ; the elder Ireland's Vindica tion of his Conduct (1796); An Apology for the Believers in the Shakespeare Papers (1797), and a Supplemental Apology (1799), both by George Chalmers. V ortigern was republished in 1832. The elder Ireland's correspondence with regard to the forgeries is preserved in the British Museum, with numerous specimens of his son's talent.