Charles Tottenham

Alfred Webb

A Compendium of Irish Biography

1878

Tottenham, Charles, a member of the Irish House of Commons, was born about 1685. He resided at Tottenham Green, Wexford, and sat for the borough of New Ross. In 1731 a great opposition was set on foot to a proposal that a surplus of £60,000 in the revenue should be made over to the British Government. Tottenham, hearing that the division was coming on sooner than had been expected, rode on horseback from Wexford to Dublin. Getting down at the House of Commons, he was stopped by the serjeant-at-arms, who reported to the Speaker that a member was trying to enter the House without being in full dress, as was customary. After some hesitation, the Speaker decided that he had no power to exclude him, and the bold rider, splashed from head to foot, and wearing jack-boots, strode in, gave his vote, which proved to be a deciding one, and defeated the unpopular measure. Thenceforward he was known and toasted as "Tottenham in his boots." He died 20th September 1758, aged about 73. A portrait of him, in huge jack-boots reaching his thighs, was shown at the National Portrait Exhibition in Dublin in 1872.

Sources

22. Barrington, Sir Jonah, Personal Sketches of his own Time: Townsend Young, LL.D. 2 vols. London, 1869.

53. Burke, Sir Bernard: Landed Gentry. 2 vols. London, 1871.

Featured Books

An American widow’s account of her travels in Ireland in 1844–45 on the eve of the Great Famine:

Ireland’s Welcome to the Stranger

Sailing from New York, she set out to determine the condition of the Irish poor and discover why so many were emigrating to her home country.

Mrs Nicholson’s recollections of her tour among the peasantry are still revealing and gripping today.

The author returned to Ireland in 1847–49 to help with famine relief and recorded those experiences in the rather harrowing: Annals of the Famine in Ireland.

See more of our books »

The Ocean Plague: or, A Voyage to Quebec in an Irish Emigrant Vessel is based upon the diary of Robert Whyte who, in 1847, crossed the Atlantic from Dublin to Quebec in an Irish emigrant ship. His account of the journey provides invaluable eyewitness testimony to the trauma and tragedy that many emigrants had to face en route to their new lives in Canada and America. The book is also available in Kindle.

The Irish in America by John F. Maguire provides a substantial and invaluable account of the extreme difficulties faced by pioneer Irish immigrants in North America during the 19th Century. The book is also available in Kindle.

The Scotch-Irish in America tells the story of how the hardy breed of men and women, who in America came to be known as the ‘Scotch-Irish’, was forged in the north of Ireland during the seventeenth century. It relates the circumstances under which the great exodus to the New World began, the trials and tribulations faced by these tough American pioneers and the enduring influence they came to exert on the politics, education and religion of the country.

Show fewer titles