University of Texas at Austin

W. H. (William Henry) Ireland:

An Inventory of His Fabricated Shakespearian Manuscripts at the Harry Ransom Center

Creator: Ireland, W. H. (William Henry), 1775-1835
Title: W. H. (William Henry) Ireland Fabricated Shakespearian Manuscripts
Dates: 1805
Extent: 1 bound volume in custom case (1.42 linear feet)
Abstract: An album of Ireland’s Shakespeare forgeries and related documents, including drawings, family papers, and Ireland’s autograph annotations with references to his Confessions.
Call Number: Manuscript Collection MS-05036
Language: English
Access: Open for research. Researchers must create an online Research Account and agree to the Materials Use Policy before using archival materials.
Use Policies: Ransom Center collections may contain material with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations. Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in the collections without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the Ransom Center and The University of Texas at Austin assume no responsibility.
Restrictions on Use: Authorization for publication is given on behalf of the University of Texas as the owner of the collection and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder which must be obtained by the researcher. For more information please see the Ransom Center's Open Access and Use Policies.

Administrative Information


Preferred Citation: Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin. W. H. (William Henry) Ireland Fabricated Shakespearian Manuscripts, 1805 (Manuscript Collection MS-05036).
Acquisition: Purchase, 1982 (R 9836).
Processed by: Joan Sibley and Paul Sullivan, 2024
Repository:

Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin

Biographical Sketch


William Henry Ireland was born in 1775 in London, son of Samuel Ireland, a printer, engraver, and writer, and his housekeeper, Anna Maria de Burgh Coppinger, also a writer, alias Mrs. Freeman.
The family were avid admirers of Shakespeare, and at the age of nineteen, William Henry, whom his father regarded as stupid, "found" supposed Shakespeare autograph documents, including a letter to Anne Hathaway, a note from Queen Elizabeth, manuscript pages of King Lear and Hamlet, and a complete "lost" play, Vortigern and Rowena. Ireland’s father eagerly accepted these as genuine, exhibited them to the public, and published facsimiles in 1795.
Some prominent enthusiasts were fooled, but the forgeries were soon discovered. In 1796 Edmund Malone published a detailed exposé, days before Richard Brinsley Sheridan staged a production of Vortigern. The performance was a disaster. The young Ireland immediately published a confession for the forgeries, exonerating his father.
For the rest of his life, Ireland used the scandal and his notoriety to supplement his income as a writer of romances, ballads, histories, and biographies. These include a life of Napoleon, a "memoir" of Joan of Arc, and effusions by the court poet of Mary, Queen of Scots. In 1805 Ireland published his Confessions, with detailed descriptions of his motives, techniques, and mistakes as a forger. He soon began fabricating and selling bound albums containing pieces of his "original" forgeries and later fakes, printed facsimiles and editions of the documents, and autograph references to relevant passages in his Confessions. These albums have a self-promoting theme, collecting scraps of family correspondence, prints and drawings, family armorial bearings, and writings by his parents, some embellished by hand with ornamental borders. Ireland spent time in debtors’ prison (1811), and most of a decade (1814-23) in France, writing about French history. He died in London, April 17, 1835

Sources:


Baines, Paul. "Ireland, William Henry," Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. https://www.oxforddnb.com (2011; accessed 20 November 2024).
Ireland, Samuel. Miscellaneous Papers and Legal Instruments Under the Hand and Seal of William Shakespeare. London: Egerton and others, 1795/1796.
Ireland, William Henry. An Authentic Account of the Shaksperian Manuscripts. London: J. Debrett, 1796.
Ireland, William Henry. The Confessions of William Henry Ireland. London: Thomas Goddard, 1805.
Lynch, Jack. "William Henry Ireland’s Authentic Forgeries," Princeton University Library Chronicle LXVI.1, Autumn 2004.
Malone, Edmund. An Inquiry into the Authenticity of Certain Miscellaneous Papers and Instruments. London: printed by H. Baldwin, for T. Cadell, Jun. and W. Davies, 1796.

Scope and Contents


A single folio volume contains mounted and bound-in documents, starting with several of William Henry Ireland’s "original" forgeries of Shakespeare’s signature, letters and verses to Anne Hathaway and others, and signatures and business papers of his associates. Some are accompanied with printed versions of the manuscript materials, and with Ireland’s autograph notes making references to relevant pages in his Confessions. Ireland includes printed pages from his "discovered" versions of King Lear, Hamlet (Hamblette) and Vortigern, and miscellaneous writings, prints, and drawings of his family. A complete copy of his mother’s printed ballad, "The Doctor Dissected," concludes the volume.

Related Material


Folger Shakespeare Library (Washington, D.C.). More than one hundred Ireland manuscript items, including the following which resemble the Ransom Center’s volume:
Indiana University. Lilly Library (Bloomington, IN): Manuscript LMC 1542. Ireland mss., 1777-1835.
Princeton University Library (Princeton, N. J.): Manuscript RTC01 (no. 215). Shakespeare papers, 1813
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography’s biography of Ireland refers the reader to other manuscript materials in The British Library, The Bodleian Library, and the University of Edinburgh Library, among others.
See also The Online Books Page for links to complete texts of books by William Henry Ireland.

Selected Search Terms


Subjects
Coppinger, Anna Maria de Burgh, d.1802.
Forgers--Great Britain.
Ireland, Samuel, d.1800.
Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Forgeries.

Container List

W. H. Ireland's Fabricated Shakesperian [sic] Manuscripts, 141 leaves bound, 1805. Includes 10 forged Shakespearian documents, examples of 7 other Shakespearian forgeries, 12 forged Elizabethan signatures and 5 tracings of authentic ones, 3 drawings, several manuscripts (including drawings) by other members of the Ireland family, and 172 pages from contemporary published transcripts and accounts of the forgeries; all extensively annotated in Ireland's normal hand. Mounted on pages, often with cut-out printed decorative borders; title and preface decorated with cut-out illuminations. Compiled by Ireland for presentation to the Prince of Wales. Title from title page. Bookplate of John Michael Williams. Note on front flyleaf: "Mrss Irelands selected Papers which was mortgaged with M. John Overbury in 1820 for ₤100." Container 1.1