Richard Robert Madden

Madden was born at Wormwood Gate Dublin on 22 August 1798 to Edward Madden, a silk manufacturer and his wife Elizabeth (born Corey) .{{cite odnb|title=Madden, Richard Robert (1798–1886)|first=Lynn|last=Milne|id=17753}} His father had married twice and fathered twenty-one children.[http://www.egypt-sudan-graffiti.be/Richard-Robert-Madden.htm Richard Robert Madden], egypt-sudan-graffiti.be, Retrieved 16 October 2015

Madden attended private schools and was found a medical apprenticeship in Athboy, County Meath. He studied medicine in Paris, Italy, and St George's Hospital, London. While in Naples he became acquainted with Lady Blessington and her circle. From 1824 to 1827 he was in the Levant as a journalist, and later published accounts of his travels.

In 1828 Madden married Harriet Elmslie, daughter of John Elmslie (1739–1822) of Jamaica, a slave-owner. He then for five years practised medicine in Mayfair, London.{{citation|url = https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146641017|access-date = 17 February 2016|title = Legacies of British Slave-ownership}}

File:(1829) MADDEN, Richard Robert in Syrian Costume.jpg, exploring the Ottoman Empire]]

Madden became a recruit to the abolitionist cause. The transatlantic slave trade had been illegal in the British Empire since 1807, but slavery itself remained legal.{{cite journal|last1=Murray|first1=David.R.|title=Richard Robert Madden|journal=Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review|volume=61|issue=241|pages=41–53|date=1972|jstor=30088913}}

From 1833, Madden was employed in the British civil service, first as a justice of the peace in Jamaica, where he was one of six Special Magistrates sent to oversee the eventual liberation of Jamaica's slave population, according to the terms of the 1833 Slavery Abolition Act. From 1835 he was Superintendent of the freed Africans in Havana, Cuba. In 1839 he left Cuba for New York, where he provided important evidence for the defense of the former slaves who had taken over the slave ship Amistad.{{Cite journal|last=Boyd|first=Andrew|date=2005|title=The Life and Times of R. R. Madden|journal=Seanchas Ardmhacha: Journal of the Armagh Diocesan Historical Society|volume=20|issue=2|pages=133-154 (147-8, 150, 151-2)|doi=10.2307/29742754|issn=0488-0196|jstor=29742754}}

In 1840 Madden became Her Majesty's Special Commissioner of Inquiry into the British Settlements on the West Coast of Africa. His task was to investigate how the slave trade was continuing to operate on the west coast of Africa, despite the shipping of African slaves across the Atlantic ocean now being illegal. Madden found that London-based merchants (including Whig MP Matthew Forster) were actively helping the slave traders, and that crudely disguised forms of slavery existed in all the coast settlements (he particularly condemned the actions of George Maclean, the Governor of Cape Coast Castle).

In 1847 he became the colonial secretary for Western Australia, and arrived in the colony in 1848. After receiving news of their oldest son's death back in Ireland, he and Harriet returned to Dublin in 1849. In 1850 he was named secretary of the Office for Loan Funds in Dublin.{{cite book|last=Boylan|first= Henry |year=1998|title=A Dictionary of Irish Biography, 3rd Edition|pages=262|location=Dublin|publisher=Gill and MacMillan|isbn=0-7171-2945-4}}

Madden also campaigned against slavery in Cuba, speaking to the General Anti-Slavery Convention in London on the topic of slavery in Cuba.{{Cite web|url=https://www.historyireland.com/18th-19th-century-history/struggling-against-oppressions-detestable-forms-2/|title=Struggling against oppression's detestable forms|date=28 February 2013|website=www.historyireland.com}}

Madden died at his home in Booterstown, just south of Dublin city, in 1886 and is interred in Donnybrook Cemetery.{{citation needed|date=March 2019}}

File:RRMADDEN.jpg|thumb]]

Besides several travel diaries (Travels in Turkey, Egypt etc. in 1824–27, 1829,{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RVxjAAAAMAAJ|title=Travels in Turkey, Egypt, Nubia and Palestine in 1824, 1825, 1826 & 1827|first=Richard Robert|last=Madden|date=6 October 1833|publisher=Whittaker, Treacher|via=Google Books}} and others (1833)), his works include the historically significant book The United Irishmen, their lives and times (1842-1860, 11 Vols.),{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nfEBAAAAMAAJ|title=The United Irishmen, Their Lives and Times: v. 1. William Corbet. James Napper Tandy and James Bartholomew Blackwell. The leaders of the United Irishmen. Theobald Wolfe Tone and Matthew Tone. Bartholomew Teeling. James Hope. William Putnam M'Cabe. Rev. James Porter. Henry Munro. Benjamin Pemberton Binns. v. 2. Rev. James Coigly. John Tennent. Hugh Wilson. Felix Rourke and others. Bernard Duggan and his associates. Thomas Russell. v. 3. Robert Emmet|first=Richard Robert|last=Madden|date=6 October 1846|publisher=J. Madden & Company|via=Google Books}}

which contains numerous details on the Irish Rebellion of 1798, including testimonies collected from veteran rebels and from family members of deceased United Irishmen.{{cite book|author=Guy Beiner|title=Remembering the Year of the French: Irish Folk History and Social Memory |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JBZVU9TPWc4C|year=2007|publisher=University of Wisconsin Press|isbn=9780299218249}}{{cite book|author=Guy Beiner|title=Forgetful Remembrance: Social Forgetting and Vernacular Historiography of a Rebellion in Ulster |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8KqqtgEACAAJ|year=2018|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780198749356 }}

His other books include:

• The Mussulman., London, H. Colburn and R. Bentley, 1830. 3 vol. {{LCCN|42044802}}. Available on Google Books: [https://books.google.com/books?id=WQYlAAAAMAAJ vol. 1], [https://books.google.com/books?id=igYlAAAAMAAJ vol. 2] and [https://books.google.com/books?id=zQYlAAAAMAAJ vol. 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, Saunders and Otley, 1833. 2 vol. {{LCCN|15013521}}. Available on Google Books: [https://books.google.com/books?id=FL0ZAAAAIAAJ vol. 1] and [https://books.google.com/books?id=Pr0ZAAAAIAAJ vol. 2].
• A Twelvemonth’s Residence in the West Indies, during the transition from slavery to apprenticeship; with incidental notice of the state of society, prospects, and natural resources of Jamaica and other islands., Philadelphia, Carey, Lea and Blanchard, 1835. 2 vol. {{LCCN|02013566}}. Available on Google Books: [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_Os5zpXSrsY4C vol. 1] and [https://archive.org/details/atwelvemonthsre01maddgoog vol. 2].
• New edition, under the same title: Westport, Connecticut, Negro Universities Press, 1970. {{ISBN|0-8371-3232-0}}. {{LCCN|70100309}}
• Juan Francisco Manzano, Poems by a slave in the island of Cuba, recently liberated; translated from the Spanish, by R. R. Madden, M.D., 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, T. Ward & Co., 1840. [9]-188 p. {{LCCN|01013046}}
• Note that there is a new edition, under a shorter title: The Life and Poems of a Cuban Slave : Juan Francisco Manzano, 1797–1854 / edited by Edward J. Mullen, Hamden, Connecticut : Archon Books, 1981. vii, 237 p. {{ISBN|0-208-01900-6}}. {{LCCN|81003652}} – Madden's name as editor and translator seems to be given inside the book.
• The Connexion between the Kingdom of Ireland and the Crown of England ... With an appendix of the Privy Council correspondence during ... 1811, 1812, 1816, 1817., Dublin : James Duffy, 1845. iii-340 p.
• The History of the Penal Laws Enacted Against Roman Catholics, London : Thomas Richardson and Son, 1847. 1 vol. (80 p.). Available on [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_E-wDAAAAQAAJ Internet Archive].
• The Life and Times of Robert Emmet, Esq., Dublin : James Duffy Publisher, 1847 (first edition), XV-VII-343 p. ([https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_N6YDAAAAYAAJ available on Internet Archive]. Second edition : Glasgow :Cameron, Ferguson & Co., 1902, 272 p. {{LCCN|04004402}}.
• The island of Cuba: its resources, progress, and prospects, considered in relation especially to the influence of its prosperity on the interests of the British West India Colonies., London, C. Gilpin; [etc., etc.] 1849. xxiv-252 p. {{LCCN|29023832}}
• The shrines and sepulchres of the Old and New World; records of pilgrimages in many lands and researches connected with the history of places remarkable for memorials of the dead, or monuments of a sacred character; including notices of the funeral customs of the principal nations, ancient and modern., London, T. C. Newby, 1851. 2 vol. {{LCCN|16020251}}
• The Life and Martyrdom of Savonarola, illustrative of the history of church and state connexion., London, T. C. Newby, 1853. 2 vol. {{LCCN|06023658}}. Available on Google Books: [https://archive.org/details/lifeandmartyrdo03maddgoog vol. 1] and [https://archive.org/details/lifeandmartyrdo04maddgoog vol. 2].
• The Literary Life and Correspondence of the Countess of Blessington, London, T. C. Newby, 1855. 3 vol. {{LCCN|13007744}}. Available on Google Books: [https://books.google.com/books?id=nMVkAAAAMAAJ vol. 1], [https://books.google.com/books?id=0WAJAAAAQAAJ vol. 2] and [https://books.google.com/books?id=ev8ZAAAAYAAJ vol. 3].
• New edition, under the same title: New York, AMS Press, 1973. 3 vol. {{ISBN|0-404-07720-X}}.
• Phantasmata; or, Illusions and fanaticisms of Protean forms, productive of great evils., London, T. C. Newby, 1857. 2 vol. {{LCCN|11006864}}
• The Turkish Empire. In its Relations with Christianity and Civilization., London, T. C. Newby, 1862. 2 vol. {{LCCN|05009240}}. Available on Google Books: [https://archive.org/details/turkishempirein00maddgoog vol. 2].
• Galileo and the Inquisition, London: Burns & Lambert; Dublin: J. Mullany, 1863. vi-210 p.
• Historical Notice of Penal Laws Against Roman Catholics: Their Operation and Relaxation During the Past Century, of Partial Measures of Relief in 1779, 1782, 1793, 1829, and of Penal Laws which Remain Unrepealed, Or Have Been Rendered More Stringent by the Latest So-called Emancipation Act., London : Thomas Richarson and Son, 1865. 241 p. Available on [https://archive.org/details/historicalnotic00maddgoog Internet Archive].
• 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 : T. C. Newby, 1867. 2 vol. (vii-338 p. + 531 p.). Available on Google Books: [https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_G2QLAAAAYAAJ vol. 1] and [https://archive.org/details/historyirishper03maddgoog vol. 2].
• The memoirs (chiefly autobiographical) from 1798 to 1886 of Richard Robert Madden. Edited by his son Thomas More Madden., London, Ward & Downey, 1891. 4-328 p., {{LCCN|40018630}}

His time in Jamaica is also noticeable for his collection of letters and autobiographical accounts of several Muslim African slaves there at the time. These accounts are dealt with in his two-volume memoir, A Twelve Month's Residence in the West Indies. Some of his archives are held at McGill University in the Osler Library of the History of Medicine.{{Cite web|url=https://archivalcollections.library.mcgill.ca/index.php/richard-robert-madden-collection|title=Richard Robert Madden Collection|website=McGill Archival Collection Catalogue|access-date=11 March 2019}}

He also wrote poetry for The Nation.{{cite book|last=Lalor|first= Brian |year=2003|title=The Encyclopedia of Ireland|location=Yale|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-09442-8}}

Madden's wife was Harriet Elmslie (died 1888); they had three sons, among them Thomas More Madden. She was also the youngest of 21 children. Born in Marylebone in 1801 and baptised there into the Church of England,{{cite web|title = "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975" | website=FamilySearch |url = https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NYR6-7XS|access-date= 17 February 2016}} she was the child of John Elmslie (1739–1822), a Scot who owned hundreds of slaves on his plantations in Jamaica, and his wife Jane Wallace (1760 – 1801). Both Harriet's parents were of Quaker stock, but while living in Cuba she converted to Roman Catholicism.{{cite web|url =http://www.egypt-sudan-graffiti.be/Richard-Robert-Madden.htm|access-date = 17 February 2016|title = Memorial in Donnybrook Cemetery}}

• {{cite book|last=Beiner|first=Guy|date=2007|title=Remembering the Year of the French: Irish Folk History and Social Memory |url= https://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/3846.htm|location=Madison|publisher= University of Wisconsin Press |isbn=978-0-299-21824-9}}
• {{cite book|last=Beiner|first=Guy|date=2018|title=Forgetful Remembrance: Social Forgetting and Vernacular Historiography |url= https://global.oup.com/academic/product/forgetful-remembrance-9780198749356?|location=Oxford |publisher= Oxford University Press |isbn=9780198749356}}
• Gera Burton, Ambivalence and the postcolonial subject : the strategic alliance of Juan Francisco Manzano and Richard Robert Madden, New York : Peter Lang, 2004, xii-144 p., {{ISBN|0-8204-7058-9}}, {{LCCN|2003019581}}
• Christopher Keniry, An Irish Doctor in the Caribbean, Richard Robert Madden's relationship with the island of Jamaica, Limerick : 2014, available from Mary Immaculate College Library.

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Category:British abolitionists

Category:Civil servants from Dublin (city)

Category:Writers from Dublin (city)

Category:19th-century Irish historians

Category:Medical doctors from Dublin (city)

Category:1798 births

Category:1886 deaths

Category:Civil servants in Ireland (1801–1922)

Category:Burials at Donnybrook Cemetery