TOWNSHEND, Dorothea. The Life and Letters of the Great Earl of Cork.

Illustrated.  London: Duckworth and Company, 1904. pp. xvi, 532. Brown cloth, title in gilt on spine. Top edge gilt. A very good copy.

Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork (1566 - 1643), also known as the Great Earl of Cork, was an important figure in the continuing English colonisation of Ireland in the sixteenth century. While Raleigh had acquired his estates during the English ‘plantations’ following the Desmond rebellion, Boyle was an entrepreneur and an opportunist. He invested in many ventures - mining, fishing, iron smelting and linen weaving as well as studying law and pursuing his political career. He was appointed Clerk of the Council of Munster in 1600, became a privy councillor for the whole of Ireland in 1612, and, having found favour with Queen Elizabeth, was knighted and made Earl of Cork and Viscount Dungarvan in 1620. Eventually he was created Lord Treasurer of Ireland. He owned Bandon and designed and built Clonakilty, while also relieving Raleigh of all his estates, 42,000 acres, for the rather small sum of £1500. Boyle died in 1643, having been chased off his lands during the Irish Rebellion of 1641. His sons, however, recovered the family estates after the suppression of the rebellion. He is interred in a tomb he built for himself and his family in St Mary’s Church, Youghal. He is said to have been the richest man in the known world at the time of his death.

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