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Wolfe Tone and his Family Connections with County Kildare

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  • 19-10-2011 1:03pm
    #1
    Exile 1798
    Registered Users Posts: 709 ✭✭✭


    Published in The Kildare Nationalist, September 2009

    Theobald Wolfe Tone is one of the most commemorated patriots in Irish History, but there is very little known of his County Kildare connections apart form the fact that he is buried in Bodenstown.

    The Tone family are of French Protestant origin, and moved from Glascony to England in the late 16th century due to religious persecution. A branch of the family moved to Ireland in the early 17th century and settled in Dublin.

    In the mid 18th century William Tone obtained a leasehold in the Bodenstown area and came to live in the townland of Blackhall. He also acquired land in the townlands of Sallins and Whitechurch. In 1755 he purchased the leasehold of the entire townland of Castlesize which is situated on the Sallins to Clane road and this brought the Tone family holding to an area exceeding 400 statute acres. At the time there was no village in Sallins and the Tone family always made reference to residing in either Clane or Blackhall. Some historians suggest that the Tone family dwelling was situated in Glebe land opposite Bodenstown graveyard. This house is marked on the first OS map of 1837.
    And on it goes, a long and very informative article from a respected historian. Not focused on the politics at all, only mentioning it as far as it had an impact on the family. Worth a read if it's the sort of thing you'd be interested in.

    http://seamuscullen.net/wolfetone.html

    My main take away is that popular history tends to overestimate the wealth of the Tone's. While they had property, money was always an issue for them. Their businesses flourished and failed and at various times family members would lose their homes and have to move in with one another. Theobold himself was not considered marriage material by his sweetheart's family because he had no money. So they eloped and promptly moved in to live with his father. We should avoid the mistake I've been guilty of myself in describing him as "upper class" just because he wasn't a peasant. He was unmistakeably middle class, and reading about his family background one can definitely get a feeling for the current in which the Presbyterian radicals swum in.


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