Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 57.djvu/29

 of this Richard Tomson was an Antwerp woman, and one of her Flemish nephews, James Fesser, was a shipowner at Beeston. These Fessers, again, were cousins of John Fisher of Cley. Richard Tomson was for some years engaged in the Mediterranean trade, and in 1582 was involved in litigation with the Turkey company. He was also part owner of the Jesus of London, which was captured and taken to Algiers (ib. clxxviii. 83-4), to which in 1583 Tomson made a voyage to ransom the prisoners. In January 1588 he was in Flanders, and was there solicited by some Spaniards to undertake the delivery of a great quantity of iron ordnance, for which he would be handsomely paid. He refused their offer, and, knowing that the ordnance was for furnishing the Armada, informed Walsingham of it, so that he might prevent the export. He appears to have corresponded confidentially with Walsingham, and may have been a kinsman of [q. v.], Walsingham's secretary. In the summer of 1588 he was lieutenant of the Margaret and John, a merchant ship commanded by Captain John Fisher against the Armada, and mentioned as closely engaged with the galleon of D. Pedro de Valdes during the night after the first battle, in the battle of 23 July, in the capture of the galleass at Calais, and in the battle of Gravelines, of which he wrote an interesting account to Walsingham (Defeat of the Spanish Armada, Navy Records Society, freq.) Afterwards he was employed to negotiate with Don Pedro and other prisoners as to the terms of their ransom. On 3 April 1593 he wrote to Lord Burghley as to a permission lately given for the export of ordnance. This, he suspected, was for the Spaniards, and might cause trouble (State Papers, Dom. Eliz., ccxliv. 116). Towards the end of the century he was living in London, corresponding occasionally with Robert Cecil. It is possible that he was the Captain Tomson with the notorious pirate Peter Eston in 1611-12 (ib. James I, lx. 16; Docquet, 6 Feb. 1612); but the name is too common to render any identification certain. [Authorities in text. The writer is under particular obligations to Mr. F. O. Fisher for valuable notes and references.] 

TONE, THEOBALD WOLFE (1763–1798), United Irishman, eldest son of Peter Tone (d. 1805) and Margaret (d. 1818), daughter of Captain Lamport of the West India merchant service, was born in Stafford Street, Dublin, on 20 June 1763. His grandfather, a small farmer near Naas, was formerly in the service of the family of Wolfe of Castle Warden, co. Kildare (afterwards ennobled by the title of Kilwarden in the person of [q. v.]) Hence Theobald derived his additional Christian name of Wolfe. Upon the grandfather's death in 1766, his property, consisting of freehold leases, descended to his eldest son, Peter, at that time engaged in successful business as a coachmaker in Dublin; he subsequently was involved in litigation, and became insolvent, but towards the end of his life held a situation under the Dublin corporation.

The intelligence manifested by Tone as a boy led to his removal in 1775 from a 'commercial' to a 'Latin' school, but soon after this his father met with a serious accident and had to abandon business and retire to his farm at Bodenstown. Left to his own devices, Tone shirked his lessons, and announced his desire to become a soldier. Very much against his will he entered Trinity College, Dublin, as a pensioner in February 1781. At college he was incorrigibly idle, and, becoming mixed up as second to one of his companions in a duel, in which the opposing party was killed, came near to being expelled the university.

Meanwhile he fell in love with Matilda Witherington, who at the time was living with her grandfather, a rich old clergyman of the name of Fanning, in Grafton Street. He persuaded her to elope, married her, and went for the honeymoon to Maynooth. The girl was barely sixteen, he barely twenty-two. But, though much sorrow and privation awaited them, the union proved a happy one. The marriage being irreparable, Tone was forgiven, took lodgings near his wife's grandfather, and in February 1786 graduated B.A. But a fresh disagreement with his wife's family followed, and, having no resources of his own, he went for a time to live with his father. Here a daughter was born to him. With a view to providing for his family, he repaired alone to London in January 1787, entered himself a student-at-law in the Middle Temple, and took chambers on the first floor of No. 4 Hare Court. But this, he confesses, was about all the progress he made in his profession; for after the first month he never opened a law book, nor was he more than three times in his life in Westminster Hall. In 1788 he was joined by his younger brother, William Henry, who, having run away from home at sixteen and entered the East India service, found himself without employment, after he had spent six years in garrison duty at St. Helena. With him Tone generously shared his lodgings