A RECENT article in belfastmedia.com described a visit by an American relative of Theobald Wolfe Tone to participate in the 1798 Belfast Walking Tour. The visitor, William Tone, actually traces his lineage to Tone’s father’s brother Thomas (one of a number of siblings).
Other direct descendants of Theobald Wolfe Tone and Matilda Tone (later Wilson) have lived in the United States. In the Belfast Media article Tone’s aversion to Americans is noted.The reason, accurately enough, includes “money-grabbing” and being “ripped off in a land deal.”
But, in addition, Tone was extremely upset over some of the politics in the new republic. Most significantly, he felt that President George Washington’s sending of John Jay to negotiate a secret treaty with the British was a betrayal of republican ideals. An aside, here, John Jay, who became the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, was vehemently anti-Catholic
Besides being a betrayal of France, an ally to whom the United States was indebted for its very existence, Tone felt it illustrated a trend that aristocracy was outweighing democracy in the new United Stats. And, of course, he would later engage in somewhat successful negotiations with the French for military support of the 1798 rising through appointing an ambassador from the United Irishmen, Edward Lewins (later called deLuynes).
While in America, Theobald Wolfe Tone considered himself closer to the politics of the nascent democratic-republicans, Madison and Monroe. In an odd way, this connection would have an impact upon the future of his wife and, indeed his son William as well. Through them a line of actual direct descendants would develop in the United States.
In fact, William Tone, after military training and action in France and the study of Law in America, was employed by the U.S. Department of War during the Monroe administration. William married the daughter, Catherine, of William Sampson. Sampson was a solicitor involved with the United Irishmen, and, upon settling in New York, practiced civil rights law along with Thomas Addis Emmet, Robert Emmet’s brother.
The only child of Catherine Sampson and William Tone was Grace Georgiana Sampson. All direct descendants of Theobald Wolfe Tone thus proceed through her line.
Here is what we know of it. She married Lascelles Chester Maxwell. They had a daughter Kay Maxwell who married Livingston T. Dickason. They lived in Short Hills in northern New Jersey and had three daughters, Mary Elizabeth, Katherine, and Anne Dickason.
These and their progeny would be the direct descendants of Theobald Wolfe Tone and Matilda Witherington Tone who have lived into this century. Wouldn’t it be so interesting to find them and invite them to take part in the 1798 Walking tour as well?
