TONE, THEOBALD WOLFE (1763-1798), Irish rebel, the son of Peter Tone, a Dublin coachmaker, was born in Dublin on June 20, 1763. He entered Trinity college, at twenty two he married Matilda Witherington, a girl of sixteen, took his degree in 1786 and went to London. He was entered at the Middle Temple, and afterwards read law in Dublin, being called to the Irish bar in 1789. Tone wrote two pamphlets in 179o, one of which, A Review of the Conduct of Adminis tration attracted some notice from the Whigs.
Tone made the acquaintance of Thomas Russell (1767 1803), Napper Tandy (q.v.) and others, and the society of the "United Irishmen" was formed (1791). The original purpose of this society was simply the formation of a political union between. Roman Catholics and Protestants, to secure parliamentary re form; it was only when that object appeared to be unattainable by constitutional methods that the majority of the members adopted the more uncompromising opinions which Wolfe Tone held from the first, and conspired to establish an Irish republic by armed rebellion. Tone desired to root out the popular respect for Charlemont and Grattan, and to transfer to more violent leaders the conduct of the national movement. Grattan was a reformer and a patriot without a tincture of democratic ideas; Wolfe Tone was a revolutionary whose principles were drawn from the French Convention. Grattan's political philosophy was allied to that of Edmund Burke; Tone was a disciple of Danton and Thomas Paine.
In 1794 the United Irishmen, persuaded that their scheme of universal suffrage and equal electoral districts was not likely to be accepted by any party in the Irish parliament, began to found their hopes on a French invasion. An English clergyman named William Jackson, who had imbibed revolutionary opinions in France, came to Ireland to negotiate between the French com mittee of public safety and the United Irishmen. For this emissary Tone drew up a memorandum on the state of Ireland, which he described as ripe for revolution; the paper was betrayed to the government, and in April 1794 Jackson was arrested on a charge of treason. Several of the leading United Irishmen, in cluding Reynolds and Hamilton Rowan, immediately fled the country; the papers of the United Irishmen were seized; and for a time the organization was broken up. Tone, who had not attended meetings of the society since May 1793, remained in Ireland till after the trial and suicide of Jackson in April 1795. He was enabled to make terms with the government, stipulating only that he should not be called on to give evidence against Rowan and the others, and was permitted to emigrate to America, where he arrived in May 1795.
He went to Philadelphia where he met fellow exiles, and the French minister, Adet, who gave him letters of introduction to the Committee of Public Safety in Paris. In February 1796 he arrived in Paris and had interviews with De La Croix and L. N. M. Carnot, who were greatly impressed by his energy, sincerity and ability. A commission was given him as adjutant-general in
the French army, which he hoped might protect him from the penalty of treason in the event of capture by the English. He drew up two memorials representing that the landing of a con siderable French force in Ireland would be followed by a general rising of the people, and giving a detailed account of the condition of the country. The French directory, which possessed informa tion from Lord Edward Fitzgerald (q.v.) and Arthur O'Connor confirming Tone, prepared to despatch an expedition under Hoche. On Dec. 15, 1796, the expedition, consisting of 43 sail and carry ing about 15,000 men, sailed from Brest. Tone, who accompanied it as "Adjutant-general Smith," had the greatest contempt for the seamanship of the French sailors, which was amply justified by the disastrous result of the invasion. The ships were dispersed by a storm off the coast of Kerry.
But the Dutch fleet was delayed by bad weather, and before it put to sea in October, only to be crushed by Duncan in the battle of Camperdown, Tone had returned to Paris; and Hoche, the chief hope of the United Irishmen, was dead. Bonaparte, with whom Tone had several interviews about this time, was much less disposed than Hoche had been to undertake in earnest an Irish expedition; and when the rebellion broke out in Ireland in 1798 he had started for Egypt. When, therefore, Tone urged the directory to send effective assistance to the Irish rebels, all that could be promised was a number of small raids to descend simultaneously on different points of the Irish coast. One of these under Humbert succeeded in landing a force in Killala bay, and gained some success in Connaught before it was subdued by Lake and Cornwallis, Wolfe Tone's brother Matthew being cap tured, tried by court-martial, and hanged; a second, accompanied by Napper Tandy (q.v.), came to disaster on the coast of Donegal; while Wolfe Tone took part in a third, under Admiral Bompard, with General Hardy in command of a force of about 3,00o men, which encountered an English squadron near Lough Swilly on Oct. 12, 1798.
Tone, who was on board the "Hoche," refused Bompard's offer of escape in a frigate before the action, and was taken prisoner when the "Hoche" was forced to surrender. At his trial by court martial in Dublin, Tone made a manly straightforward speech, avowing his determined hostility to England and his design "by fair and open war to procure the separation of the two countries," and pleading in virtue of his status as a French officer to die by the musket instead of the rope. He was, however, sentenced to be hanged on Nov. 12; but on the I 1 th he cut his throat with a penknife, and on Nov. 19, 1798, he died of the wound. He was buried in Bodenstown churchyard.
See Autobiography of Theobald Wolfe Tone, edited with introduc tion by R. Barry O'Brien (a vols., 1893) ; R. R. Madden, Lives of the United Irishmen (7 vols., 1842).