Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Boyle, Richard (d.1644)

265983Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 06 — Boyle, Richard (d.1644)1886Thomas Finlayson Henderson

BOYLE, RICHARD (d. 1644), archbishop of Tuam, was the elder brother of Michael Boyle [q. v.], bishop of Waterford, and the second son of Michael Boyle, merchant, of London, and Jane, daughter and co-heir to William Peacock. He became warden of Youghal on 24 Feb. 1602-3, dean of Waterford on 10 May 1603, [dean of Tuam in May 1604,] archdeacon of Limerick on 8 May 1605, and bishop of Cork, Cloyne, and Ross on 22 Aug. 1620, these three preferments being obtained through the interest of his cousin, the first Earl of Cork. He was advanced to the see of Tuam on 30 May 1638. On the outbreak of the rebellion in 1641, he retired with Dr. John Maxwell, bishop of Killala, and others, to Galway for protection, where, when the town rose in arms against the garrison, his life was preserved through the influence of the Earl of Clanricarde. He died at Cork on 19 March 1644[-5], and was buried in the cathedral of St. Finbar. He is said to have repaired more churches and consecrated more new ones than any other bishop of his time. By his marriage to Martha, daughter of Richard (or John) Wright, of Catherine Hill, Surrey, he left two sons and nine daughters.

[Ware's Works (ed. Harris), i. 566, 616-7; Lodge's Peerage of Ireland (Archdall), i. 145.]

T. F. H.

Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.34
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line

Page Col. Line  
116 i 2 f.e. Boyle, Richard (d. 1644) : for 1644 read 1645
ii 6 after 1603 insert dean of Tuam May 1604
18 for 1644 read 1644-5