Sir Thomas Wyse (1791-1862)

The Wyse family is one of the great families of Waterford, influential in the civic life of the city for hundreds of years.  Click here to see the Wyse family pedigree from 1171A.D. The family connection with Waterford began when Sir Andrew Wyse landed with Strongbow in 1171.  A Wyse has been mayor of the city on no less than fifteen occasions and all were ancestors of Thomas Wyse.  They were - Maurice 1478-79; Nicholas 1523-24, 1527-28, 1532-33; William 1533-34, 1540-41; Maurice 1554-55, 1558-59; John 1561-62; Henry 1563-64; George 1571-72; Nicholas 1606-07; Robert 1630-31; Nicholas 1638-39 and finally Thomas 1688-89.  The last named surrendered the city to William of Orange but, though staunchly Catholic, the Wyse's managed to hold on to their lands, and money.

    The ancestral home was at Manor of St. John, Waterford where the future Sir Thomas was born on December 9th, 1791.  His great-grandfather, also Thomas (nicknamed "Bullocks", founded, in February 1760, with Charles O'Connor and Dr. John Curry, the Catholic Committee, a pressure group seeking legislation to ease Catholic grievances.  This Committee struggled for Catholic rights for decades until, eventually, Catholic Emancipation was granted by the English parliament in 1829.               

    The future Sir Thomas was educated, as befitted a boy of his class and money, at that great Catholic Public school, Stonyhurst College in England -  and from there he went to Trinity College, Dublin, where he won a gold medal for oratory and, then to Lincoln's Inns, London.  In 1814 he embarked on the Grand Tour of Europe, spending two years in Italy, mainly in Rome and Florence, and a further two years visiting Greece, Turkey, Egypt and the rest of the Middle East.   On his travels he had stayed as a guest with Lucien Bonaparte, Prince of Canino and brother of the great emperor of France and there he met Laetitia Christine Bonaparte, Lucien's third daughter.  She was born on 1st December 1804 in Milan to Prince Lucien (Luciano) Bonaparte and Alexandrine de Bleschamps. 

Laetitia was extroverted, artistic and full of life.  Wyse married her, rather reluctantly, in Canino on March 4, 1820, and they up home initially in Viterbo.  The "Leinster Journal" of February 2nd, 1822 reported "the birth of a son at Rome on January 6th 1822, to Laetitia Buonaparte, lady of Thomas Wyse." The child was baptised on January 8th by Cardinal Fesch and named Napoleon Alfred Bonaparte. The handsome dowry and other promises made to him by his father-in-law never materialised and Letitia was more than a handful - she was not the docile wife he had expected.

    They came to Waterford in August 1825 where they lived with Thomas's brother George, at the Mall, while the new Manor of St. John was being built.  Another son,William Charles Bonaparte, was born to them in Waterford  but the marriage was not a success and Letitia separated from Thomas in 1828. Thereafter she led a scandalous and tempestuous life, bearing at least two other children (Two daughters, Marie Letitia Studhelmina and Adeline) and maybe even three, (a son, Lucien was also born) by a succession of noted lovers.  Thomas and Laetitia never saw each other again and she returned to Viterbo where she died on March 15, 1871, ten years after her husband.  

    There is a good, contemporary, description of Wyse by his friend Richard Lalor Shiel:    

    Thomas had entered politics on his return to Ireland in 1825 and he played a leading part in the struggle for Catholic Emancipation which was finally granted in 1829.  Wyse was elected as Member of Parliament for Tipperary in 1830 and he was one of a small number of Catholics that entered the parliament in London.  He was the member for Waterford 1835-47.   He was a liberal unionist in politics and he was interested, particularly, in education.  One of Wyse's most staunchly held beliefs was that democracy and education went hand in hand.  He had a major influence in the founding of the National School system in Ireland and through his advocacy many reforms were introduced in educational matters which is ironic when you consider his treatment of his two sons with regard to their education.   He attempted  to unite Trinity College and St Patrick's College, Maynooth but failed, due to sectarian opposition.  He devoted himself to literary pursuits and published, among other works, Oriental Sketches and Walks in Rome.  He was appointed British Ambassador to Greece in April 1849.   

     In Greece, as Ambassador, Wyse found himself embroiled in the Don Pacifico incident.  David Pacifico (known as Don Pacifico) was a Portuguese Jew who was born in Gibraltar and was, therefore, a British subject.  After serving as Portuguese consul in Morocco (1835-37) and then as consul-general in Greece, he settled in Athens as a merchant.  In 1847 his house was burned down in an anti-Semitic riot.   The police stood by and did nothing to stop the attack. . Pacifico demanded compensation from the Greek government and was supported by Britain's foreign secretary, Lord Palmerston.  Palmerston sent a naval squadron to blockade the Greek coast (January 1850) and force the Greeks to meet Pacifico's demands. This caused a major incident with the French and the Russians, with whom Britain shared a protectorate of Greece.  Nevertheless, the Greeks acceded to the payment of £ 4,000, although a commission awarded Pacifico only £150. 

    There is an interesting coda to the life of Sir Thomas in Greece.  Thomas had paid no attention to the upbringing or education of his two sons, Napoleon Alfred Bonaparte, b.Jan 6th, 1822 and William Charles b.February 20th, 1826, and he considered them to be unintelligent.  The second son, William (1826-92), devoted many years of his life documenting the family history and his research is contained in ten, bound, handwritten volumes.  Parts of the material are in Latin, copied from Irish and English legal records but the bulk of the material comprises official correspondence between the many Wyses who were Mayors, sheriffs etc., and English rulers such as Edward VIII, Elizabeth I, Cromwell etc.  He also compiled the complete pedigree chart of the Wyse family from the time of the Norman invasion.  Shortly after Thomas Wyse's death, when King Otto of Greece was deposed in a coup and there was great discussion as to who should be the next king, some fifty members of the "Felibrige" movement ( an association founded in 1854 for the maintenance of the Provençal customs and language) published a letter saying 

     "As descendants of a provençal-born Queen of Greece we claim the right to nominate a successor...He is a generous, warm-hearted, intelligent young man; he is a poet, as handsome as Adonis and capable of restoring to Greece the century of Pericles.  His knowledge of Greek is greater than that of most Greeks and he also speaks English, French, Latin, Italian, Spanish and Provencal." 

    This paragon was none other than William Charles Bonaparte Wyse, the erstwhile "unintelligent" son of Sir ThomasWyse.