Gordon Lucy: David Bailie Warden: a united Irishman and an Ulster-Scot

First, on 8 June 1798, Warden, an Ulster-Scot, a licentiate of the Presbytery of Bangor and a United Irishman, waited in the fields until the early morning for his fellow United Irishmen to assemble preliminary to an attack on Newtownards but ‘not a single person’ turned up.

Secondly, it is claimed that in negotiations between France and the United States in 1812, Lord Castlereagh would have been taken aback to find himself negotiating with the son of one of his tenants who had lived just over the wall from his estate and a leading rebel to boot.

While the first story is perfectly credible and probably true, the second strikes me as neither. Why would Castlereagh be present at negotiations between France and the United States in 1812 when Britain and France were at war?

Born in 1772 David Bailie Warden was the son of Robert Warden, one of Lord Londonderry’s tenant farmers.

Despite being told he was ‘a blockhead’ he became a distinguished graduate of Glasgow University.

Returning home on graduation, he immersed himself in the activities of the United Irishmen and had a leadership role in the organisation according to his autobiographical ‘Narrative’, a point amply confirmed by the reports of Nicholas Mageean, a government informer.

After surrendering to the authorities, Warden was fortunate to escape the fate of his teacher and mentor, the Rev James Porter of Greyabbey, who was hanged in front of his manse.

Warden was offered the choice of standing trial or going into exile and wisely chose to emigrate to the United States.

Before sailing to America, he applied to the Presbytery of Bangor for a certificate of his licence to preach.

Prompted by ‘motives of prudence’, the Presbytery refused and Warden responded with ‘A farewell address to the junto of the presbytery of Bangor’, in which he denounced them for their ‘meanness, injustice and cruelty’.

Arriving in New York in 1799, Warden turned his back on a career as a clergyman and became a teacher. He became principal of the Columbia Academy, at Kinderhook, before moving on to become head tutor at Kingston Academy, Ulster county, also in New York, in 1801.

Subsequently he was employed by General John Armstrong, a fellow Ulster-Scot, as tutor to his children. Having become an American citizen in 1804, he now embarked on a third career by becoming a diplomat, accompanying Armstrong to Paris, when he was appointed US minister to France.

In 1808 Armstrong appointed him temporary consul. Despite their friendship, Armstrong did not recommend Warden to succeed him permanently, and advised President Jefferson that although ‘honest and amiable’ he was ‘not well qualified for business’. A tentative explanation for this might be that Armstrong had a reputation for indolence (and intrigue) and that he did not wish Warden to be his successor because he would show him up. Predictably, this soured the relationship and Warden was recalled from Paris.

In America, Warden lobbied to be appointed French consul. Although Jefferson was no longer president, with his support, he returned to Paris in 1811. Warden overreached himself by styling himself ‘consul general’ after the death of the US ambassador to Paris in December 1812. This eventually resulted in his dismissal in June 1814. He never again held another diplomatic appointment.

Warden was a man of scholarly tastes. Even before 1814, he had already acquired a reputation as an intellectual and cultural figure and as a bridge between America and Europe. Arguably and unofficially, he could be viewed as the equivalent of a cultural attaché, assisting American scholars visiting France scholars from America.

His major contributions to scholarship are ‘A chorographical and statistical description of the district of Columbia’ (1816) and ‘A statistical, political and historical account of the United States of North America’ (3 vols, 1819). The French publishers of a series, L'art de vérifier les dates commissioned him to research the volumes on North and South America in 1821. These ran to 10 volumes and were written over 13 years.

A member of the American Philosophical Society, the Lyceum of Natural History in New York and many European societies, he claimed (on the title pages of his publications) to be a corresponding member of the Belfast Monthly Magazine, founded by Dr William Drennan, but exhibited no serious interest in Irish politics while he was in France. For example, he never got round to writing his history of the United Irishmen.

He lived in France for almost 40 years and died unmarried in October 1845.

Warden’s correspondents included Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams, the Marquis de Lafayette, Talleyrand and a great many others but two of his most frequent correspondents merit special mention: Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte and Alexander von Humboldt.

Elizabeth Patterson Bonaparte had been married to Jerome Bonaparte and therefore was Napoleon’s one-time sister-in-law. (Napoleon was furious at the marriage because he intended a dynastic marriage for his brother rather than one with a commoner.)

She called herself Madame Bonaparte and was the daughter of William Patterson, a Donegal-born Ulster-Scots merchant who had settled in Baltimore before the American Revolution and become one of the wealthiest men in Maryland.

A great beauty that ‘nature never intended … for obscurity’, she was a close friend of Warden’s but there is nothing to suggest that they were lovers.

Alexander von Humboldt was one of the pre-eminent intellectuals of the first half of the nineteenth century. A naturalist and geographer, he was pioneer of what would be now called Earth sciences and ecology. The Humboldt Current on the Pacific coast of South America is named after him. Warden would have especially consulted him for his expertise on that continent. The prestigious university in Berlin is named after his brother who was the Prussian minister of education.

Alexander Humboldt is even commemorated in Belfast. His head is one of those depicted on Yorkshire House (better known today as Ten Square Hotel) on the corner of Linen Hall Street and Donegall Square South.