Author: Ireland, William Henry
Biography:
IRELAND, William Henry (1775-1835: ODNB)
He was born in London, the illegitimate son of Samuel Ireland, who was an engraver and Shakespeare enthusiast, and Anna Maria de Burgh Coppinger, q.v., (or "Mrs. Freeman"). In 1794, in what appears to have been at first an attempt to please his father, he began to produce manuscripts purporting to be in Shakespeare's hand. These were “authenticated by some eminent literary men, among them Sir James Bland Burges, Henry James Pye, and Richard Valpy, qq.v. Samuel Ireland mounted exhibitions and published facsimiles of the documents in 1795. When the fraud was exposed, William Henry Ireland assumed full responsibility but fell out with his father and left home. (A point in Ireland's favour in the disputed authorship of Chalcographimania [1814] is the fact that it is dedicated to James Bindley, one of the experts who had authenticated the fraudulent papers.) Ireland married Alice Crudge at St. James, Clerkenwell, on 4 July 1796; they had at least one child. At St. Giles without Cripplegate, on 26 Nov. 1804, after her death, he married a widow, Martha Pugh, with whom he had two children. The family lived from hand to mouth, the main source of income being Ireland's prolific writing, which included works in many genres under a bewildering array of pen-names, for example "H. C.," "W. H. C. Ireland," Charles Clifford," "S. W. H. Ireland," and "Samuel William Henry Ireland." In one of his letters of application to the RLF he explained that he resorted to pseudonyms because reviewers did not judge his work fairly otherwise. He made two applications to them in 1803 and 1811, on both occasions from a debtors’ prison; he was awarded five guineas the first time. He died at his home in Sussex Place, Kent Road, and was buried on 24 Apr. 1835 at St. George the Martyr, Southwark. His widow applied again to the RLF seeking help with funeral expenses and was granted £20 but a further application made by her daughter in 1841 after her death was ruled ineligible. (ODNB 7 June 2019; ancestry.com 25 June 2023; findmypast.com 25 June 2023; RLF #134) HJ
Other Names:
- W. H. Ireland