Boyle, Richard (1566–1643)

Anglo-Irish administrator. After gaining great wealth and property, he promoted English Protestant immigration to Ireland, and won the favour of Queen Elizabeth I. He was made a privy counsellor in 1612, an Earl in 1620, and Lord High Treasurer of Ireland in 1631. During the Irish rebellion of 1641, he successfully defended the region of Munster against attack. He was the father of the distinguished scientist Robert Boyle.

Born in Canterbury, England, Boyle studied at Cambridge and the Middle Temple before moving to Ireland in 1588. There he set about acquiring property, especially in Munster, through a mixture of deception and coercion, and soon became the richest landowner on the island. The ironworks that he owned were a particularly lucrative source of income. His marriage to an heiress in 1603 brought him further respectability and wealth. Although corrupt, he equipped areas under his jurisdiction with an infrastructure of roads, bridges, harbours, towns, and castles. From 1633, he was engaged in a struggle with the Lord Deputy of Ireland Thomas Wentworth (1593–1641), who was determined to arraign him on charges of fraud.