Richard BOYLE, 1ST EARL OF CORK

                   One of the main sources for the Boyle line is "The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct or Dormant," New ed., 13 Volumes in 14 (1910-1959); reprinted in 6 volumes, Gloucester, U.K.,  Alan Sutton Publishing, 2000.

Will dated 24 November 1642; probated in 1668
He was called "the great Earl of Cork."  He was educated at King;s School, Canterbury, Kent, England.  He matriculated at Corpus Christi college, Cambridge University, Cambridge, England in 1583.  He emigrated to Ireland, arriving on 23 June 1588.  He was sub-Escheator to the Excheator General in 1590, and Clerk of the Council of Munster on 8 May 1600.  On 7 December 1602 he bought all the lands of Sir Walter Raleigh in Ireland, 12,000 acres, for 1,500 pounds.  He was invested as a Knight on 25 July 1603 at St. Mary's Abbey, Dublin.

Other offices and titles: Privy Counsellor for Munster, Member of Parliament for Lismore, Governor of Loughfoyle, 1st Lord Boye, Baron of Youghal, County Cork, 1st Earl of Cork, 1st Viscount of Dungarvan, County Waterford, Lord Justice of Ireland, Lord High Treasurer of Ireland.

In 1602, when Raleigh was imprisoned in the Tower of London for high treason, he sold Lismore along with 42,000 acres for £1,500 to Richard Boyle, who later became the first Earl of Cork. Richard Boyle's youngest son, Robert Boyle, the philosopher and father of modern chemistry, was born at Lismore in 1626.