| AdminHistory | William Henry Ireland was born 1777; son of the author and engraver Samuel Ireland. Although he was baptised William Henry he was also sometimes called Samuel. He was educated at private schools in Kensington, Ealing and Soho before being sent to schools in France, c1790-c1794. Ireland was later apprenticed to William Bingley, a conveyancer in chancery of New Inn.
As a boy Ireland collected rare books and composed verses in imitation of early authors. His father was an admirer of Shakespeare, and with his son visited Stratford-upon-Avon, accepting as true many false traditions concerning Shakespeare, c1794.
William Henry's familiarity with old legal documents enabled him to forge a mortgage deed to which Shakespeare was purported to have been party and supplied his father with similar documents, and with verses and letters bearing Shakespeare's forged signature. From 1794 he produced early printed volumes in which he had inscribed Shakespeare's name and forged annotations. An exhibition in 1795 of the documents arranged by the elder Ireland was attended by the chief literary men of the day, many of whom were convinced of their authenticity. William Henry continued to add documents to the collection and his father published some of the documents in facsimile. Critics began to denounce these documents as forgeries, but after much negotiation Sheridan agreed to produce the forged play 'Vortigern' at Drury Lane. It was performed once, in 1796, and was greeted with ridicule.
Samuel Ireland's faith in the authenticity of the documents endured until his son eventually admitted his forgeries in 1796. Due to his association, Samuel Ireland was also believed to be responsible for the deliberate deceit, to his distress. William Henry left home but his father continued to defend the documents, publishing both 'Vortigern' and 'Henry II' in 1799. Samuel Ireland died, unreconciled to his son, in 1800.
William Henry Ireland opened a circulating library in Kennington in 1798 and sold imitations in his feigned handwriting of the famous forged papers. Book-collectors employed him to "inlay" illustrated books and he was employed by Princess Elizabeth, afterwards landgravine of Hesse-Homburg, to prepare a "Frogmore Fete" in 1802. He had numerous other publications, including 'Authentic Account' (1796) and 'Confessions' (1805), concerning his forgeries, and other works including poetry, novels and political satire.
Ireland settled at York some time before 1811 where his extravagance led to a temporary imprisonment in the castle. Nevertheless, he continued to obtain fairly regular employment from London publishers and died at Sussex Place, St George's-in-the-Fields, in 1835. |
| CustodialHistory | Part of the library of Charles Kay Ogden (1889-1957), linguistic psychologist, founder of the Orthological Institute and originator of the language system Basic English, whose interests in language systems are reflected in the subject matter of his collection, which comprised individual manuscripts and manuscript collections dating from the 14th to the 20th century. |