Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Burlington

Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Burlington, 2nd Earl of Cork, and 1st Baron Clifford of Lanesborough, (October 20,1612 - January 15, 1698), was Lord High Treasurer of Ireland and a cavalier.

Early years

He was born in The College in Youghal, the second son and sixth child of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork and his second wife, formerly Catherine Fenton. Richard Boyle jnr., was knighted on August 13, 1624, at the his father's house in Youghal, by Lord Falkland, the Lord Deputy of Ireland. He then went on travels abroad with an annual allowance of £1500.

Civil War

In 1639 he undertook to raise, arm, and provide 100 horse to attend upon King Charles I in his expedition into the north of England against the Scots. For this and other occcasions his father supplied him with £5553 sterling. Richard Boyle was returned as Member of Parliament for Appleby in the Long Parliament of 1640, and appointed a member of the Privy Council of England, but was subsequently excluded for his Royalist sympathies after the outbreak of the English Civil War.

He and Lord Inchiquin commanded the forces which defeated the Irish irregular army at the Battle of Liscarroll on 3 September 1642, after which, with other successes, a cessation of hostilities was concluded with the Irish on September 15, 1643. He then applied to the King, in December, for consent to bring his regiment to serve him in England, and landed his men near Chester the following February. He then marched to the King's aid in Dorset, supplying this monarch with large sums of money for his cause.

He fought throughout the Civil War until the final defeat of the Royalist forces. The Commonwealth fined him £1631 sterling and he then went abroad, returning to Ireland at the request of the government, dated January 2, 1651.

Peerages and appointments

Upon the death of his brother Lord Boyle of Kinalmeaky on 2 September 1642, Richard Boyle succeeded as 2nd Viscount Boyle of Kinalmeaky. King Charles I thereafter created him Baron Clifford of Lanesborough, in the County of York, on November 4 1644. He succeeded as 2nd Earl of Cork upon the death of his father on September 15, 1643.

Following the Restoration Lord Cork was appointed a Privy Councillor; and Lord Treasurer of Ireland on 16 November 1660. On February 22, 1660 he was made "Custos Rotulorum" of the counties of Cork and Waterford, and, on March 19, 1660, was appointed one of the Commissioners for the settlement of Ireland following the King's declaration to that effect of November 30, 1659. On June 25, 1661, he took his seat above all the peers, as Lord Treasurer, in the Irish Parliament.

He had a reversionary grant date July 5, 1661, of the command of a troop of horse, and on March 24, 1662, he was made governor of the fort of Harbouling on the river Cork, @ six shillings a day.

King Charles II created him Earl of Burlington on 20 March 1664, and on March 13, 1666, he was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Yorkshire.

The Earl of Cork with several other noblemen and Bishops of the Church of Ireland were opposed to the attempts of King James II regarding the restoration of Roman Catholicism and petitioned the King on November 17, 1688 to call a parliament "regular and free in all its circumstances". This petition had a hostile reception from James. Following the arrival of William of Orange in England King James removed to Ireland where he called a parliament in 1689, which passed a general act of attainder against the Protestants, and confiscated their estates, among whom was the earl of Cork. This was overturned by King William the following year.

On March 3, 1691, he was appointed one of the newly incorporated Society of the Royal Fishery in Ireland.

Family and Death

At the age of 22 he married the 21-year-old Lady Elizabeth, daughter of Henry Clifford, 5th Earl of Cumberland, on 5 July 1635 in Skipton Castle.

The first of their six children was Charles, Viscount Dungarvan (1639-1694) who was born in Youghal on 12 September 1639.

His second son was Richard Boyle, who died on 3 June 1665 at the battle of Solebay.

Lord and Lady Burlington had four daughters: Frances, Elizabeth, Mary Anne and Henrietta.

When Lord Burlington died, on 6 January 1698, he was succeeded by his grandson (the son of his eldest son), Charles Boyle, Viscount Dungarvan.

He was buried on 3 February 1698 at Londesborough in Yorkshire.

ee also

* Burlington Estate

References

* Lodge, John, Keeper of the Rolls, & Archdall, Mervyn, A.M., Rector of Slane, County Meath, and Member of the Royal Irish Academy, "The Peerage of Ireland", Dublin, 1789, vol. 1, pp. 169–174.