MASONIC BIOGRAPHIES FAMOUS FREEMASONS

Theobald Wolfe Tone 20 June 1763 - November 19, 1798 A founder of the non-sectarian United Irish Society in early October 1791, Wolfe Tone was a tireless advocate of Catholic emancipation and franchise, and of an independent sovereign Ireland. "The founder of the United Irish Society, the first of his countrymen who called on the people to unite, without discrimination of faith, for the independence of their country."1 Anti-mason Edith Starr Miller claimed that he was a freemason, citing his autobiography. There is in fact no reference to Freemasonry in his autobiography. 2 Non-mason 1.Life of Theobald Wolfe Tone, founder of the United Irish Society and adjutant general and chef de brigade in the service of the French and Batavian republics. Edited by his Son, William Theobald Wolfe Tone. vol. i p. 1. Washington : Gales & Seaton, 1826. Portrait frontispiece by Katherine Sampson Tone, engraved by W. Harrison, Georgetown, DC. 2.Neither the two-volume collection of his papers, Life of Theobald Wolfe Tone (1826) nor The Autobiography of Theobald Wolfe Tone, abridged and edited by Sean O'Faolain in 1937, contain any reference to Freemasonry. The 1893 edition by Barry O'Brien "omitted the letters, the political esseys, the account of Tone's family after his death, and some minor material." "There is also a French edition of the Autobiography with the title Mémoires secrets de Wolf Tone (Paris, 1888.)" [O'Faolain, xxvii]. A death-mask, the original manuscript notebooks and Farrell's bust of Tone are held by Trinity College, Dublin.

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