William Randall Roberts (February 6, 1830 – August 9, 1897) was a Fenian Brotherhood member, United States Representative from New York (1871–1875), and a United States Ambassador to Chile. Roberts, an Irish immigrant who became a wealthy businessman, rose quickly to a position of major influence amongst the Fenian Brotherhood before eventually taking leadership. Under his direction, the Fenians in America moved to use Irish-American veterans of the American Civil War to invade Canada in the hopes that they could leverage this against the British Empire to negotiate for an Independent Irish Republic. After the first attempt to invade Canada was not successful, Roberts resigned from the leadership of the Fenians and began to transition into American politics. He served as a United States Representative from New York and Ambassador to Chile until a stroke ended his career. Biography Early life Roberts was born in Mitchelstown, County Cork, Ireland, the son of baker Randall Roberts and Mary Roberts (née Bishop). Roberts was educated in Cork before he immigrated to the United States in July 1849, aged 19, with the rest of his family. Roberts worked as a clerk for a dry goods company in New York for many years before he set up his own own successful dry goods business, the ‘Crystal Palace’, which he would run until his retirement in 1869. Fenian Roberts joined the newly-emerging Fenian Brotherhood in 1863, an organisation made up of the Irish diaspora in America that was dedicated to establishing an independent Irish Republic. The Fenian Brotherhood operated as the American support wing of the Irish Republican Brotherhood, a secret society controlling the movement. Roberts, whose wealth allowed him to regularly donate to the organisation, quickly found himself amassing influence amongst the American Fenians. During the American Civil War, which raged from 1861 to 1864, thousands of Irishmen had joined the ranks of the Union Army, gaining military experience and were often now influenced by the idea of Radical Republicanism. The leader of the Fenian Brotherhood, the scholarly John O'Mahony (who himself served as an officer in the Union Army), thought the Irish veterans should be deployed to Ireland post-haste for a rebellion there, funded by the Irish in America. However, Roberts quickly became the leader of a faction of Fenians with an alternative plan. Roberts and his supporters argued instead that the Fenians should gather the Irish veterans and their resources, and instead