Wolfe, Charles (1791–1823), clergyman and poet, was born 14 December 1791 in Dublin, one of eleven children and the youngest of eight sons of Theobald Wolfe, landowner, of Blackhall, Co. Kildare, and his wife Frances, daughter of the Rev. Peter Lombard. He was related to Arthur Wolfe (qv), 1st Viscount Kilwarden. Charles's father died in 1799 and the family moved to England, where he was educated at Bath for a few months in 1801; ill health interrupted his education for a year, after which he attended Dr Evans's school in Salisbury (1802–5) and then boarded at Winchester, where he excelled in the classics until 1808, when the family returned to Ireland.
In 1809 he entered Trinity College Dublin (TCD), becoming a scholar (1812), and tutored fellow students until he graduated Bachelor of Arts (1814). He was a leading figure in the College Historical Society and won the vice-chancellor's prize for his poem ‘Jugurtha’ (1814). The years 1814–17 were the most prolific of his literary career, but of his sixteen known poems it is the ‘Burial of Sir John Moore’ (qv) (c.1814) that is his claim to fame. It was written to celebrate the hero of the battle of Corunna (1809) whose wish to be buried where he fell was honored by his comrades, a scene vividly recaptured by Wolfe. It was first published in Carrick's Morning Post in Dublin in 1815 (Irish Book Lover, v (1913), 3–6), then the Newry Telegraph (19 April 1817), Blackwood's Magazine (June 1817), and several London papers. Lord Byron pronounced it ‘little inferior to the best ode that this prolific age had produced’ (Irish Quarterly Review, vi, 332).
After his graduation Wolfe was offered a fellowship, but turned it down, as it entailed an oath of celibacy and he wished to marry. However, the woman's family would not agree to the match because of his poor prospects. A close friend, Hercules Henry Graves, also died at this time and after this double blow Wolfe sank into depression. In November 1817 he was installed curate of Ballyclog, Co. Tyrone, in the diocese of Armagh, but in June 1818 transferred to the curate's post at Donoughmore, Co. Tyrone, again in the diocese of Armagh. The position paid £25 a year and had a scattered population and rugged terrain. The demands of his post were exacerbated by a typhoid epidemic among his parishioners and inadequate living conditions (a run-down glebe house which was taken over by a discharged soldier and his family, leaving Wolfe little more than a lodger in his own home). These combined to break down his health and he developed tuberculosis. He appears to have no literary work dating from this period.
In May 1821 he resigned his living and spent two years trying to recover his health. At first he stayed with his family, then travelled to Exeter (winter 1821–May 1822), Dublin (summer 1822), Bordeaux (August–September 1822) and finally Cove, Co. Cork, in November 1822, where he died 21 February 1823 and was buried in the local parish graveyard. Few of his poems were printed during his lifetime, and many believed the ‘Burial of Sir John Moore’ had been written by Byron. This prompted John Sydney Taylor (qv) to write to the Morning Chronicle (24/9 October 1824) reclaiming it for Wolfe. However, up to 1908 articles and letters appeared in literary journals with various spurious claims before Wolfe's right as author was finally settled. The main evidence is a letter written by Wolfe, containing a copy of the poem with the postmark 6 September 1816, in the possession of the Royal Irish Academy. His friend J. A. Russell, archdeacon of Clogher, published fifteen sermons, sixteen poems, and two extracts of Wolfe's speeches in The life of the late Rev. Charles Wolfe A. B. of Trinity College, Dublin; with several of his sermons and a collection of his published and unpublished poems (Dublin, 1825), which ran to eight editions. A lesser known poem by Wolfe (‘Song’) is quoted by Samuel Beckett (qv) in his play Happy days (1962). The ‘Burial of Sir John Moore’ can be considered to be among the best English-language poems of the nineteenth century. Wolfe's writings are listed in the British Library catalogue, cccliv, 272.