Thomas Whaley

Thomas Whaley (15 December 1765 – 2 November 1800), commonly known as Buck Whaley or Jerusalem Whaley, was an Irish gambler and member of the Irish House of Commons.

Early life Whaley was born in Dublin in December 1765, the eldest surviving son of the landowner, magistrate and former Member of Parliament Richard Chapell Whaley, referred to as Burn-Chapel Whaley due to his strong anti-Catholic sentiments and actions. Richard Whaley died in 1769, leaving an estate that included a town-house on St Stephen's Green, land in County Wicklow and £60,000. The estate generated an income of £7,000 per annum which became available to the young Whaley when he reached the age of eighteen.

At the age of sixteen, Whaley was sent to Europe on the Grand Tour, accompanied by a tutor and with an allowance of £900, a sum that proved to be inadequate. He settled in Auch for some time and later moved on to Lyon, but was forced to leave Lyon when his cheque for the amount of £14,800, to settle debts accrued in one night of gambling, was refused by his bankers, the La Touche bank.

The Jerusalem wager

being offered that Whaley could not travel to Jerusalem and back within two years and provide proof of his success. The reasoning of those offering the bets was based on the belief that, as the region was part of the Ottoman Empire and had a reputation for widespread banditry, it would be too dangerous for travellers and it would be unlikely that Whaley could complete the journey. Whaley sailed first to Deal, where he was joined by a companion, a Captain Wilson, for the journey, and then on to Gibraltar where a ball was held for his arrival. In Gibraltar, his party was joined by another military officer, Captain Hugh Moore. The party set sail for the port of Smyrna, although Wilson was prevented from travelling any further by rheumatic fever. Whaley is said to have accepted bribes for his vote from both sides to support and later oppose the Act of Union.

Miss Courtney died in the late 1790s. A year before his death, Whaley married Mary Lawless, the sister of his friend Valentine Lawless, 2nd Baron Cloncurry.

Whaley died on 2 November 1800 in the Cheshire town of Knutsford, while travelling from Liverpool to London. The cause of death was attributed to rheumatic fever, although a popular story circulated in Ireland that he was stabbed in a jealous rage by one of two sisters, both of whom were objects of his attention. He is buried in Knutsford graveyard, Cheshire. On a plain grave-stone in the centre of the south-western portion of the church-yard, it is recorded, "Underneath is interred the Body of THOMAS WHALEY, Esquire of the City of Dublin, who died November 2nd., 1800. Aged 34 years."

Whaley wrote his memoirs in 1797, but these were suppressed by the executors of his estate and remained unpublished until 1906.

A full-length biography of Whaley, Buck Whaley: Ireland's Greatest Adventurer by David Ryan, was published by Merrion Press in February 2019. This book draws on Whaley's memoirs, an unpublished journal that Hugh Moore kept while on the Jerusalem expedition, and many other manuscripts sources including the extensive correspondence of Whaley's land agent Samuel Faulkner.

Portrayal in popular culture

Literature Tom Knox (Pseudonym) in the 2009 novel The Genesis Secret.

Television (2016), a four-part TG4 documentary in which Rossa Ó Snodaigh of Kíla re-enacted the journey of Buck Whaley to Jerusalem and back.