Editing Wolfe Tone (section)

==Early life==
[[File:41- 45 Stafford Street, Dublin.jpg|thumb|44 Stafford Street, Dublin where Wolfe Tone was said to have been born]]
Tone was born on 20 June 1763. His father, Peter Tone, was a prosperous coach-maker who had a farm near [[Sallins]], [[County Kildare]] and adhered to the established [[Church of Ireland|Anglican church]]. Although records are absent, he is said to have been the descendant, from the 17th century, of a [[Cromwellian conquest of Ireland|Cromwellian]] soldier ("the first Tone to settle in Ireland")<ref name=":1222">{{Cite book |last=Kee |first=Robert |title=The Most Distressful Country, The Green Flag, Volume 1 |publisher=Quartet Books |year=1976 |isbn=070433089X |location=London |pages=}}</ref>{{rp|47}} and of French [[Huguenot]] refugees.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ó Ruairc |first=Pádraig Óg |date=2019 |title=Take it down from the mast, 'Irish patriots' … |url=https://www.historyireland.com/take-it-down-from-the-mast-irish-patriots/ |access-date=2023-12-20 |website=History Ireland}}</ref> His mother, Margaret Lamport, the daughter of a sea captain in the [[West Indies|West India]] trade,<ref name="Tone2">[https://archive.org/stream/autobiographyoft00toneuoft#page/4/mode/2up Tone, Theobald Wolfe. ''The Autobiography of Theobald Wolfe Tone'', Sean O'Faolain ed., Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd., London, 1937]</ref><ref name=":042" /> was a Catholic who according to Tone's early biographer, [[Richard Robert Madden|R.R. Madden]], converted to her husband's church only when Tone was already eight years old.<ref>Madden, R. R. (1843), ''The United Irishmen: Their Lives and Times'' London: J. Madden & Company, p. 160.</ref><ref name=":042"/> Tone, nonetheless, was baptised a Protestant, with the name Theobald Wolfe in honour of his [[Godparent|godfather]], Theobald Wolfe of Blackhall, [[County Kildare]], a first cousin of [[Arthur Wolfe, 1st Viscount Kilwarden]].<ref name=":0" />{{rp|11}}

In 1783, Tone found work as a tutor to Anthony and Robert, younger half-brothers of [[Richard Martin (Irish politician)|Richard Martin]], a [[Irish Patriot Party|Patriot]] member of the [[Parliament of Ireland|Irish Parliament]] for [[Jamestown, County Leitrim]]. Tone fell in love with Martin's well-connected wife, [[Elizabeth Vesey]]. While Tone later wrote that it came to nothing, a Martin biographer suspects that he was the father of the Martins' first child Laetitia born in 1785.<ref name=":0" />{{rp|24–25, 29}}

Tone studied law at [[Trinity College Dublin]], where Kilwarden remembered him as a "sparkling conversationalist and rising talent".<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Elliott |first=Marianne |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hxISHyhgrCIC |title=Wolfe Tone |date=2012 |publisher=Liverpool University Press |isbn=978-1-84631-807-8 |language=en}}</ref>{{rp|387}} Tone was active in the [[College Historical Society]], which had a record for honing oratory skills and preparing members for a life in politics. He was made a scholar in 1784 and graduated BA in February 1786.<ref>{{cite book |title=Dublin University Calendar, A Special Supplemental Volume for the year 1906–7 |date=1907 |publisher=Hodges, Figgis, and Co. Ltd. |volume=III |location=Dublin}}</ref><ref name="Lee222">{{cite DNB|wstitle=Tone, Theobald Wolfe|volume=57|page=23}}</ref> In 1788, after training in London's [[Middle Temple]], he qualified in Dublin's [[King's Inns]], as a barrister, a profession with which he was already disenchanted.<ref>{{cite archive|item=Students' Ledger 1781–1797|collection=Middle Temple Archive|institution=The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple|item-url=http://archive.middletemple.org.uk/Shared%20Documents/Ledgers/VOL%203%201781-1797%20F.pdf}}</ref>

As a student, he had eloped with [[Matilda Tone|Martha (Matilda) Witherington]], daughter of William and Catherine Witherington (née Fanning) of Dublin.<ref name="Webb3">{{Cite web |title=Webb, Alfred. "Tone, Theobald Wolfe", ''A Compendium of Irish Biography'', MH Gill & Sons, Dublin, 1878 |url=http://www.libraryireland.com/biography/TheobaldWolfeTone.php |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190630120019/https://www.libraryireland.com/biography/TheobaldWolfeTone.php |archive-date=30 June 2019 |access-date=10 September 2010}}</ref> When they married, Tone was 22, and Matilda was about 16.<ref>{{cite web |title=Tone, Matilda (c. 1769–1849) |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/tone-matilda-c-1769-1849 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190526163428/https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/tone-matilda-c-1769-1849 |archive-date=26 May 2019 |access-date=26 May 2019 |website=www.encyclopedia.com}}</ref> With the arrival of their first daughter, and his father's bankruptcy denying him an inheritance, he cast about for new employment. To [[British prime minister|British Prime Minister]] [[William Pitt the Younger|William Pitt]], in 1788 he submitted a plan for a [[Colonia (Roman)|Roman-style military colony]] on [[James Cook|Captain Cook]]'s newly reported [[Hawaiian Islands|Sandwich Islands]].<ref name=":4" />{{rp|83–84}} When this elicited no response, he sought enlistment as a soldier in the [[East India Company]] but applied too late in the year to be shipped to [[south Asia]].<ref name="Tone2" /> Styling himself an "independent Irish [[Whigs (British political party)|Whig"]], he followed the example of a number of college friends and began reporting on the proceedings of the [[Parliament of Ireland|Irish Parliament]] and the conduct of the London-appointed [[Dublin Castle administration|Dublin Castle executive]].<ref name=":4" />{{rp|40}}