William Burke, 7th Earl of Clanricarde

William was a younger son of Sir William Burke and his wife Joan. His father was the third son of Ulick Burke, the 3rd Earl of Clanricarde.[1] William's mother was a daughter of Dermot O'Shaugnessy of Gort.[2]

His first wife was Lettice Shirley, daughter of Sir Henry Shirley, 2nd Baronet, by Lady Dorothy Devereux and granddaughter of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex. She was born about 1617 and died on 25 Sep 1655.[3] By her he had three sons including his heir, Richard.

Children with Lettice Shirley:

1. Richard (died after 1708), became the 8th Earl of Clanricarde;[4]
2. John (1642–1722), became the 9th Earl of Clanricarde.[5]
3. Thomas (died 1688), killed at the Siege of Buda, Hungary;[6][lower-alpha 1][lower-alpha 2][7]

During William's childhood his uncle Richard had been Earl of Clanricarde, the 4th of his name. That uncle died on 12 November 1635[8] and was succeeded by his cousin Ulick as the 5th Earl and 1st Marquess. Ulick was a royalist during the Irish Confederate Wars and the Cromwellian Conquest of Ireland. He died in July 1657 and was succeeded by William's brother as the 6th Earl of Clanricarde.[9] In July 1657 his brother Richard succeeded his cousin Ulick as the 6th Earl of Clanricarde. In 1666 his elder brother died[10] and William eventually succeeded as the 7th Earl of Clanricarde.

His second marriage was to Helen MacCarty, daughter of Donough MacCarty, 1st Earl of Clancarty.[11][12]

Among his children with Helen were:[lower-alpha 1]

1. Ulick (1670–1691), was created Viscount of Galway and fell at the Battle of Aughrim fighting for the Jacobites;[13][lower-alpha 1]
2. Margaret (1673–1744), first married Bryan Magennis, 5th Viscount of Iveagh, and then Thomas Butler of Garryricken;[14][lower-alpha 1]
3. William, died childless in France;[15][lower-alpha 1]
4. Honora (1674–1698), married 1st Patrick Sarsfield and 2nd the Duke of Berwick.[16]

Lord Clanricarde died in October 1687[17] and was succeeded by his eldest son Richard as the 8th Earl of Clanricarde.

• Burke, Jim (2005), A History Of Burke in Ireland - Jim Burke!
• Burke, John (1832), A General and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire, 1 (4th ed.), London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley – Abdy to Hutchinson (for Clanricarde)
• Burke, Bernard (1869), A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire (31st ed.), London: Harrison
• Burke, Bernard (1949), A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire (99th ed.), London: Burke's Peerage Ltd. (for Charles I)
• Cokayne, George Edward (1913), Gibbs, Vicary (ed.), The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant, 3 (2nd ed.), London: St Catherine Press – Canonteign to Cutts (for Clancarty and Clanricarde)
• Lodge, John (1789), The Peerage of Ireland, 1, Dublin: James Moore - Blood royal, dukes, earls (for Clanricarde)
• Seaward, Paul (2004), "Charles II", in Matthew, Henry Colin Gray.; Harrison, Brian (eds.), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 11, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 122–145, ISBN 0-19-861361-X (for Charles II)
• Smyth, Constantine (1839), Chronicle of the Law Officers of Ireland, London: Henry Butterworth (for Table of reigns)

• Portumna Castle and its Lords, Michael Mac Mahon, 1983.
• Burke, Bourke & De Burgh: People and Places, Eamon Bourke, Dublin, 1995. (Google Books, no preview)
• From Warlords to Landlords: Political and Social Change in Galway 1540-1640, Bernadette Cunningham, in "Galway:History and Society", 1996.

• Genealogy of William Bourke, 7th Earl of Clanricarde on The Peerage website