Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Madden, Richard Robert

by James McMullen Rigg

MADDEN, RICHARD ROBERT (1798–1886), miscellaneous writer, youngest son of Edward Madden, silk manufacturer, of Dublin, by his second wife, Elizabeth, youngest daughter of Thaddeus Forde of Corry, co. Leitrim, was born on 22 Aug. 1798. He was educated at a private school in Dublin, and studied medicine in Paris, Naples (where in 1823 he made the acquaintance of Lady Blessington and her circle), and at St. George's Hospital, London. While in Italy he acted as the correspondent of the ‘Morning Herald.’ Between 1824 and 1827 he travelled in the Levant, visiting Smyrna, Constantinople, Candia, Egypt, and Syria. He returned to England in 1828, and in the following year was elected a member of the College of Surgeons, of which he was made a fellow in 1855. For a time he practised as a surgeon in Curzon Street, Mayfair, but in 1833 went out to Jamaica as one of the special magistrates appointed to administer the statute abolishing slavery in the plantations. His zeal on behalf of the negroes in his district (that of Kingston) embroiled him with the planters, and he resigned his office in November 1834. After a tour on the American continent he returned to England, and in 1836 was appointed superintendent of liberated Africans and judge arbitrator in the mixed court of commission, Havana. There he remained until 1840, when he accompanied Sir Moses Montefiore [q.v.] on his philanthropic mission to Egypt. In 1841 he was employed on the west coast of Africa as special commissioner of inquiry into the administration of the British settlements, and exposed the iniquitous ‘pawn system,’ which was slavery under a specious disguise. From November 1843 to August 1846 he resided at Lisbon as special correspondent of the ‘Morning Chronicle.’ In 1847 he was appointed colonial secretary of Western Australia, where he exerted himself to protect such rights as still remained to the aborigines. Returning to Ireland on furlough in 1848 he interested himself in the cause of the starving peasantry, and in 1850 resigned his Australian office for that of secretary to the Loan Fund Board, Dublin Castle, which he held until 1880.

Madden is best known as the author of ‘The United Irishmen, their Lives and Times,’ London, 1843–6, 7 vols. 8vo, 2nd edit. 1858, 2 vols. 8vo, an historical work of some importance, though written in an extremely partisan spirit; ‘The Life and Martyrdom of Savonarola,’ London, 1853, 2 vols. 8vo, an extremely inartistic performance; and ‘The Literary Life and Correspondence of the Countess of Blessington,’ London, 1855, 8vo. Madden was a member of the Royal Irish Academy, and a corresponding member of the Society of Medical Science. He was a devout Roman catholic, a patriotic Irishman, and an excellent host and raconteur. He died at his residence in Vernon Terrace, Booterstown, on 5 Feb. 1886, and was buried in Donnybrook graveyard.

Madden married in 1828 Harriet, youngest daughter of John Elmslie of Jamaica, who survived him and died on 7 Feb. 1888. By her he had issue three sons, of whom two survived him. Besides the three works above mentioned Madden published the following:

1. ‘Travels in Turkey, Egypt, Nubia, and Palestine in 1824–7,’ London, 1829, 2 vols. 8vo.
2. ‘The Mussulman,’ a novel, London, 1830, 3 vols. 8vo.
3. ‘The Infirmities of Genius, illustrated by referring the Anomalies in the Literary Character to the Habits and Constitutional Peculiarities of Men of Genius,’ London, 1833, 2 vols. 8vo.
4. ‘A Twelve-month's Residence in the West Indies during the Transition from Slavery to Apprenticeship,’ London, 1835, 2 vols. 8vo.
5. ‘Letter to W. E. Channing, D.D., on the Subject of the Abuse of the Flag of the United States in the Island of Cuba, and the Advantage taken of its Protection in Promoting the Slave Trade,’ Boston, 1839, 12mo.
6. ‘Poems by a Slave in the Island of Cuba recently liberated, translated from the Spanish; with the History of the Early Life of the Negro Poet, written by Himself; to which are prefixed Two Pieces Descriptive of Cuban Slavery and the Slave-Traffic by R. R. M.,’ London, 1840, 8vo.
7. ‘Address on Slavery in Cuba, presented to the General Anti-Slavery Convention,’ London, 1840, 8vo.
8. ‘Egypt and Mohammed Ali, illustrative of the Condition of his Slaves and Subjects,’ London, 1841, 12mo.
9. ‘The History of the Penal Laws enacted against Roman Catholics,’ London, 1847, 8vo.
10. ‘The Island of Cuba: its Resources, Progress, and Prospects,’ London, 1849, 12mo.
11. ‘Shrines and Sepulchres of the Old and New Worlds: Records of Pilgrimages in many Lands,’ &c., London, 1851, 2 vols. 8vo.
12. ‘Phantasmata, or Illusions and Fanaticisms of Protean Forms, productive of Great Evils,’ London, 1857, 2 vols. 8vo.
13. ‘The Turkish Empire in its Relations with Christianity and Civilisation,’ London, 1862, 2 vols. 8vo.
14. ‘Galileo and the Inquisition,’ London, 1863, 8vo.
15. ‘The History of Irish Periodical Literature from the End of the 17th to the Middle of the 19th Century: its Origin, Progress, and Results, with Notices of Remarkable Persons connected with the Press in Ireland during the past Two Centuries,’ London, 1867, 2 vols. 8vo.

From materials collected by him also was compiled ‘Ireland in '98: Sketches of the Principal Men of the Time, based upon the Published Volumes and some Unpublished Manuscripts of the late Dr. Madden,’ ed. J. Bowles Daly, LL.D., London, 1888, 8vo.

[Memoirs, chiefly autobiographical, of Richard Robert Madden, edited by his son Thomas More Madden, M.D., 1891; Times, 8 Feb. 1886; Men of the Time, 11th edit.; Royal Kal. 1848; Medical Directory, 1886; Madden's Literary Life of the Countess of Blessington, i. 100 et seq.; Allibone's Dict. of Engl. Lit.]

J. M. R.