Arthur Wolfe, 1st Viscount Kilwarden
|The Viscount Kilwarden|
|Arthur Wolfe, 1st Viscount Kilwarden and his wife Anne (Thomas Hickey,1769)|
|Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench in Ireland|
3 July 1798 – 23 July 1803
|Preceded by||Lord Earlsfort|
|Succeeded by||William Downes|
|Member of Parliament for Dublin City|
January 1798 – July 1798
Serving with John Claudius Beresford
|Preceded by||Lord Henry FitzGerald|
|Succeeded by||George Ogle|
|Born||19 January 1739
Forenaughts House, Naas, County Kildare, Kingdom of Ireland
|Died||23 July 1803 (aged 64)
Dublin, United Kingdom of Great Britain & Ireland
|Alma mater||Trinity College, Dublin|
In 1783, Wolfe was returned as Member of Parliament for Coleraine, which he represented until 1790. In 1787, he was appointed Solicitor-General for Ireland, and was returned to Parliament for Jamestown in 1790.
Appointed Attorney-General for Ireland in 1789, he was known for his strict adherence to the forms of law, and his opposition to the arbitrary measures taken by the authorities, despite his own portion in the Protestant Ascendancy. He unsuccessfully prosecuted William Drennan in 1792. In 1795, Lord Fitzwilliam, the new Lord Lieutenant, intended to remove him from his place as Attorney-General to make way for George Ponsonby. In compensation, Wolfe's wife was created Baroness Kilwarden on 30 September 1795; however, the recall of Fitzwilliam led Wolfe to retain his office.
In January 1798, he was simultaneously returned to Parliament for Dublin City and Ardfert. However, he left the House of Commons when he was appointed Chief Justice of the Kings Bench for Ireland and created Baron Kilwarden on 3 July 1798.
After the Irish Rebellion of 1798, Kilwarden notably twice issued writs of habeas corpus on behalf of Wolfe Tone, then held in military custody, but these were ignored by the army and forestalled by Tone's suicide in prison. In 1795 he had also warned Tone and some of his associates to leave Ireland to avoid prosecution. Tone's godfather, Theobald Wolfe of Blackhall (the father of Charles Wolfe) was Kilwarden's first cousin, and Tone may have been Theobald's natural son. These attempts to help a political opponent were unique at the time.
After the passage of the Act of Union, which he supported, Kilwarden was created Viscount Kilwarden on 29 December 1800. In 1802, he was appointed Chancellor of the University of Dublin. Despite his actions on behalf of Wolfe Tone, Kilwarden was hated by the United Irishmen for his prosecution of William Orr in 1797, and he had entertained considerable fear for his safety after their failed rebellion.
On the night of 23 July 1803, the approach of the Kildare rebels induced him to leave his residence, Newlands House, in the suburbs of Dublin, with his daughter and his nephew, Rev. Henry Wolfe. Thinking himself safest among crowds, he ordered his driver to proceed by way of Thomas Street; however, the street was occupied by Robert Emmet's rebels, and he was rapidly dragged from his carriage and stabbed repeatedly with pikes. His nephew was murdered in a similar fashion, while his daughter was allowed to escape to Dublin Castle. When the rebels were suppressed, Kilwarden was found to be still living, and was carried to a watch-house, where he died shortly thereafter. His last words, spoken in reply to a soldier who called for the death of his murderers, were "Murder must be punished; but let no man suffer for my death, but on a fair trial, and by the laws of his country."
He was succeeded by his son John Wolfe, 2nd Viscount Kilwarden.
- Former Pro-Chancellors – The Chancellor : Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin, Ireland
- Trial of Mr John Hevey, Plaintiff and Charles Henry Sirr, Defendant, John Stockdale, Dublin, 1802. Accessed 4 February 2013.
- http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=IDSHnsyqZ8IC&pg=PA61&lpg=PA61 Niles' weekly register, page 61, Volume 20 By Hezekiah Niles, William Ogden Niles. Accessed 4 February 2013.
- Dictionary of National Biography, Wolfe, Arthur, first Viscount Kilwarden (1739–1803), lord chief justice of Ireland, by C. L. Falkiner. Published 1900.
- Webb, Alfred (1878). " Wolfe, Arthur, Viscount Kilwarden". A Compendium of Irish Biography. Dublin: M. H. Gill & son. Wikisource