suc. fa. 9 Feb. 1704 (a minor) as 4th earl of Cork [I] and 3rd earl of BURLINGTON.
First sat 26 Apr. 1715; last sat 19 Mar. 1747
b. 25 Apr. 1694, o. s. of Charles Boyle, 2nd earl Burlington and Juliana (1672-1750), da. and h. of Hon. Henry Noel‡ of North Luffenham, Rutland. educ. privately, travelled abroad (Low Countries, France, Italy) May 1714-Apr. 1715.1 m. 21 Mar. 1721, Dorothy (1699-1758), da. and coh. of William Savile, 2nd mq. of Halifax, 3da. (2 d.v.p.). KG 18 May 1730; d. 3 Dec. 1753. will 6 Mar. 1751; pr. 15 Dec. 1753.2
PC [I] 30 Sept. 1714-d.; ld. treas. [I] 1715-d.;3 PC 15 May 1729-d.; capt., gent. pens. 1731-3.
Ld. steward, Knaresborough, Yorks. (W. Riding), 1704–d.; bailiff, Staincliffe and Knaresborough, Yorks. (W. Riding), 1704-d;4 gov., co. Cork [I],1715-d.; ld. lt. and custos rot., Yorks. (W. Riding) and city and ainsty of York 1715–33,5 Yorks. (E. Riding) 1715-21; custos rot. Yorks. (N. Riding) 1715-33; v.-adm., Yorks. 1715-33.
FRS 1722; FSA 1724.
Associated with: Burlington House, Westminster; Chiswick House, Chiswick, Mdx.; Londesborough Hall, Yorks. (E. Riding); Bolton Abbey, Yorks. (E. Riding); Lismore Castle, Lismore, co. Waterford [I].
Likenesses: oils on canvas by J. Richardson, c.1717-19, NPG 4818.
At his death on 9 Feb. 1704 the 2nd earl of Burlington, left behind him four daughters and just one son, Richard, aged ten. The new earl of Burlington did not come of age until 25 Apr. 1715 and his initial interest in politics is indicated by the fact that he first sat in the House the day after he reached his majority. Indeed he returned from his Grand Tour on the continent specifically to take his place among his peers. At that time he also took over many of the Boyles’ quasi-hereditary local roles – lord treasurer of Ireland, governor of county Cork, lord lieutenant and vice-admiral of Yorkshire – which until that time had been exercised in trust during his minority by his uncle the court Whig Henry Boyle, from October 1714 Baron Carleton.6
In October 1713 it was reported to Robert Harley, earl of Oxford, that both Richard Lowther, 2nd Viscount Lonsdale (an intended husband for Burlington’s sister before his death later that year), and Burlington, the latter described as ‘a good-natured, pretty gentleman’, were in the ‘ill hands’ of the Whigs.7 Burlington is consequently usually seen as a Whig nobleman, but some scholars have argued strongly that Burlington’s purportedly educational grand tour of 1714-15 was actually a covert mission to make contact with the Pretender and that Burlington thereafter remained a committed and active Jacobite, carefully obfuscated by his self-presentation as an aesthete and amateur architect.8 These views and interpretations of Burlington’s active engagement in politics in the period 1715-33, will be discussed in detail in the following volumes of this series.
C.G.D.L.- 1 Lord Burlington: Architecture, Art and Life, ed. T. Barnard and J. Clark, 253-7.
- 2 TNA, PROB 11/805.
- 3 CSP Dom. 1704-5, p. 7.
- 4 Duchy of Lancaster Office-holders, ed. Somerville, 155; CSP Dom. 1663-4, p. 519.
- 5 CSP Dom. 1704-5, p. 24.
- 6 CSP Dom. 1704-5, pp. 7, 24.
- 7 HMC Portland, v. 343.
- 8 Lord Burlington, ed. Barnard and Clark, 253-7 et seq.