Ireland -- History -- Rebellion of 1798; Women -- Ireland -- Biography
When Tone and his wife and family were obliged to leave Ireland for
America, Mary Tone accompanied them, sharing the dangers and hardships
of the journey, and the anxieties and deprivations of life in an unknown
land. When the summons came for Theobald to leave them, and start off on
his hazardous mission to France, Mary Tone joined her sister-in-law in
urging him to answer the call. When the moment of parting came her
firmness and courage were as great as Matilda’s: “We had neither tears
nor lamentations, but on the contrary, the most ardent hope and the most
steady resolution.”
On the voyage across the Atlantic which she made with Matilda Tone and
her children towards the end of 1796, in order to rejoin Theobald, Mary
Tone made the acquaintance of a young Swiss merchant named Giacque, who,
though “just beginning the world with little or no property, thought
proper to fall in love with her.” The first letter Tone received from
his wife after their arrival in Hamburg, was accompanied, we learn from
the _Autobiography_, by one from Giacque “informing me of his situation
and circumstances, of his love for my sister, and hers for him, and
praying my consent. There was an air of candour and honesty in his
letter which gave me a good opinion of him, nor did I consider myself at
liberty to stand in the way of her happiness, which my wife mentioned to
me was deeply interested. I wrote therefore, giving my full consent to
the marriage, and trust in God they may be as happy as I wish them. It
is certainly a hazardous step in favour of a man whom I do not know;
but, as she is passionately fond of him, and he of her, as he perfectly
knows her situation, and has by no means endeavoured to disguise or
exaggerate his own, I am in hopes they may do well.”
After their marriage, the Giacques appear to have continued to live with
Mrs. Tone and her children, first at Hamburg, and afterwards at Paris.
After the death of Theobald, Mary and her husband went to St. Domingo;
and, according to her nephew, she met her death there, of yellow fever,
contracted through nursing a sick friend, who had been abandoned by her
family and servants. Another account, quoted by Madden, states that she
and her husband were killed by the negroes in the insurrection of that
island, about the year 1799. At all events she shared the tragic fate of
her immediate family—Theobald, William, Matthew, and Arthur—none of whom
reached thirty-six years of age.
LADY LUCY FITZGERALD
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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