Tone, THEOBALD WOLFE, Irish patriot, was born the son of a coach-maker in Dublin, 20th June 1763. He had his education at Trinity College, Dublin, entered the Middle Temple, and was called to the bar early in 1789. But he soon plunged into political intrigues, acted some time as secretary of the Catholic Committee, and had a large share in the organisation of the United Irishmen. His active mind was impatient of constitutional methods, and from an early period of his career he dreamt of foreign invasion as the remedy. Naturally he found it necessary to take refuge, first in America, next in France. He laboured incessantly to induce the Republican government to take up the scheme of an invasion of Ireland, and held a command in the unlucky expedition under Hoche. In 1798 he again embarked in a small French squadron, which after a fierce fight was captured. Tone was taken to Dublin, tried, and condemned to be hanged as a traitor. He cut his throat in prison, 19th November 1798. His autobiography, edited by his son, an officer in Napoleon's army, and afterwards in the United States service, appeared at Washington in 1826. It is an interesting revelation of a mind of remarkable activity, and a character ruined by inordinate self-esteem and reckless unscrupulousness.
See his Autobiography (new ed. by Barry O'Brien, 1892); the Life in Dr Madden's United Irishmen (3d series, vol. i, 1846); and, as an antidote, two papers by the Duke of Argyll in the Nineteenth Century for May and June 1890.