Boyle, one of the most important political dynasties of the 17th and 18th centuries. The founder of the family's fortune was Richard
Boyle, 1st earl of Cork, whose material success and meteoric social ascent was the platform for the achievements of his equally remarkable off‐spring. He sent his five sons to university and on the Grand Tour but provided no formal education for his seven daughters (see
women). Most importantly he invested heavily in negotiating advantageous marriages for his offspring. The sons married into the English peerage and the daughters into the Irish, the exceptions being the unmarried Robert
Boyle and Mary, countess of Warwick, who ignored her father's wishes after falling in love with Charles Rich, then an impoverished younger son. In these transactions the large fortune at Boyle's disposal made up for his own lowly social origins. Boyle also promoted the ecclesiastical careers of his cousins: Michael Boyle (bishop of Waterford and Lismore 1619–35) and Richard Boyle (bishop of Cork, Cloyne, and Ross 1620–38 and archbishop of Tuam 1638–41). Thus Boyle spun webs of connections across Ireland and further afield.
The 1st earl was succeeded by his eldest surviving son Richard (d. 1699), who had cultivated
Wentworth and was an active royalist, unlike his collaborationist brother Roger, earl of
Orrery. He had the benefit of Roger's assistance during the Protectorate and was created earl of Burlington after lending Charles II large sums of money at the
Restoration. He opposed the
cattle bill in the English Lords saying that it was the unhappiest day for Ireland since the rising of 1641. Yet this senior line was now effectively an English aristocratic family backed by Irish rents. Burlington, gaining the largest part of the founder's estate and buying more confiscated lands, enjoyed a rental of £20,000 at his death.
Orrery's inheritance from the 1st earl consisted of lands at Charleville, to which he added further property in Imokilly and Limerick, giving him a rental of £4,000. To rival the duke of
Ormond at Kilkenny and add prestige to his lord presidency, he spent £23,000 (mostly borrowed) on building a mansion at Charleville and on remodelling Castlemartyr. His grandson Charles, 4th earl of Orrery (1674–1731), was imprisoned for suspected
Jacobite activities 1722–3. His son John, the 5th earl (1707–62), also allegedly a leading Jacobite, was prominent in literary circles and wrote a controversial early biography of
Swift. He gained the additional title of earl of Cork on the death of the 3rd earl of Burlington in 1753.
The most politically eminent member of the Boyle family in the 18th century was Henry
Boyle, the great
undertaker. His father was a younger son of the 1st earl of Orrery, killed in action in Flanders in 1693. Boyle inherited the house and lands at Castlemartyr, but the initial basis of his political power was his role as land agent for Richard, 4th earl of Cork and 3rd earl of Burlington (d. 1753) and controller of his Munster parliamentary seats. Later Boyle acquired Clonakilty from Burlington, who was forced to sell most of his Irish estate after engaging his architectural passions in two hugely expensive Palladian houses at Piccadilly and Chiswick. In 1748 William Cavendish, the 4th duke of Devonshire, married Burlington's heiress, thereby obtaining his remaining Irish estates and interests. The problem was that the
Ponsonbys, the Boyles' rivals, who had bought up some of Burlington's Munster lands, were already connected with the Cavendishes in a double marriage alliance dating from the 3rd duke's lord lieutenancy (1737–44). This provides part of the background to the
money bill dispute of 1753–5.
Boyle's son Richard, 2nd earl of Shannon (1728–1807), though a less formidable political figure than his father, was a major borough proprietor, controlling the return of up to nine MPs in the Irish parliament. He was briefly in opposition (1789–93) following the
regency crisis, but otherwise generally supported government and held a variety of offices.
Bibliography
Canny, N. P. , The Upstart Earl (1982)
Hewitt, Esther (ed.), Lord Shannon's Letters to his Son (1982)
Hiram Morgan
