Oliver Bond
Oliver Bond (1760?–1798) was an Irish merchant and revolutionary, one of the leaders of the Society of United Irishmen.
Life
Born in St. Johnston, County Donegal around 1760, he was the son of a dissenting minister, and connected with several respectable families. He settled in Dublin, where he was in business as a merchant in the woollen trade, and became wealthy.
Bond was an early member in the movement planning for a union in Ireland across religious lines, promoting parliamentary reform in Ireland. When the Society of United Irishmen was set up in 1791, Bond became a member. He acted as secretary to a meeting of this body at Dublin in February 1793, under the presidency of the barrister Simon Butler. On this occasion the Society condemned the government for measures seen as adverse to the liberties of the people. In further resolutions the meeting deplored the intended war against France, and asserted the necessity for Catholic Emancipation in Ireland and reform of Parliament. In consequence of these resolutions Butler and Bond were summoned before the House of Lords at Dublin. At the bar there, in March 1793, they avowed the publication of the resolutions. The lords resolved that the paper was a libel. They decreed that Bond and Butler should be imprisoned for six months in Newgate Prison, and that each of them should pay a fine, and remain in confinement until these sums had been discharged.
