Michael Boyle (archbishop of Armagh)

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Trinity College, Dublin

Michael Boyle, the younger (c. 1609 – 10 December 1702) was a Church of Ireland bishop who served as Archbishop of Dublin from 1663 to 1679 and Archbishop of Armagh from 1679 to his death. He also served as Lord Chancellor of Ireland, the last time a bishop was appointed to that office.

Early career

Boyle was born circa 1609,

Michael Boyle the elder. It was through the descendants of his cousin Lieutenant Colonel Richard Boyle that the Boyle name became ennobled over the centuries with multiple peerages, including Earl of Cork, Earl of Orrery and Earl of Shannon.[2]

Boyle was educated at

Trinity College, Dublin, where he proceeded M.A.,[3] and on 4 November 1637 was incorporated M.A. of Oxford.[4] In 1637 he obtained a rectory in the diocese of Cloyne, received the degree of D.D., and became Dean of Cloyne in 1640. During the war in Ireland acted as chaplain-general to the English army in Munster.[1]

In 1650, the Protestant royalists in Ireland employed Boyle, in conjunction with Sir Robert Sterling and Colonel John Daniel, to negotiate on their behalf with

Marquess of Ormonde resented the conduct of Boyle in conveying Cromwell's passport to him, which he rejected.[5]

Restoration

At the

Sir William Davys, who was appointed Lord Chief Justice of Ireland
in 1680, such use of patronage was an accepted part of seventeenth-century politics.

In the county of

Murrough Boyle. In 1675 Boyle was promoted from the see of Dublin to that of Armagh.[1][7]

On the accession of

Lord Justice, in conjunction with the Earl of Granard, and held that post until Henry, Earl of Clarendon, arrived as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in December 1685. Clarendon had formed a very high opinion of Boyle, and is said to have objected to his dismissal from the Chancellorship, despite his lack of legal training, and his increasing infirmities, of both body and mind.[1]

Last years

In Boyle's last years his faculties are stated to have been much impaired: "his memory gone, deaf and almost blind, a mere wreck of the past". After about 1683 he was unable to personally perform the functions of his office,

St. Patrick's Cathedral there. Little of the wealth accumulated by Boyle was devoted to religious or charitable uses. Letters and papers of Boyle are extant in the Ormonde archives at Kilkenny Castle and in the Bodleian Library. Portraits of Archbishop Boyle were engraved by Loggan and others.[1]

Family

He married firstly Margaret Synge, daughter of Rt. Rev.

Sir William Davys, Lord Chief Justice of Ireland. Honora married three times: firstly to Thomas Cromwell, 3rd Earl of Ardglass; secondly Francis Cuffe MP; and thirdly Sir Thomas Burdett, 1st Baronet, of Dunmore.[2]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f Gilbert 1886, p. 113
  2. ^
    ISBN 0-9711966-2-1
    .
  3. Thomas Ulick Sadleir
    p88: Dublin, Alex Thom and Co, 1935
  4. ^ ludworth-Brakell pp 142-170 Alumni Oxonienses 1500-1714
  5. ^ Letters of Boyle on these matters were printed in the second volume of the Contemporary History of Affairs in Ireland, 1641–1652 (Gilbert 1886, p. 113).
  6. ^ Ball 1926, pp.276–277
  7. ^ An autograph of Boyle at the time he was promoted to the see of Armagh, has been reproduced on plate lxxix of 'Facsimiles of National MSS. of Ireland,' part iv. p. 2 (Gilbert 1886, p. 113)
  8. ^ According to the Archbishop of Canterbury in Read v Bishop of Lincoln (1889) 14 PD 88

References

  • Ball, F. Elrington (1926). The Judges in Ireland 1221–1921. London: John Murray.

Attribution:

  •  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Gilbert, John Thomas (1886). "Boyle, Michael (1609?–1702)". In Stephen, Leslie (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 6. London: Smith, Elder & Co. p. 113. endnotes:
    • Carte's Life of Ormonde, 1736;
    • Anthony Wood's Fasti (Bliss), i. 498;
    • Ware's Works (Harris), i. 130;
    • Journals of Lords and Commons of Ireland;
    • Peerage of Ireland;
    • Biographia Dramatica
      , 1812;
    • Richard Mant, History of Church of Ireland, 1840;
    • Granard Archives, Castle Forbes;
    • Elrington's Life of Ussher, 1848;
    • Cotton's Fasti Ecclesiæ Hibernicæ, 1851;
    • Reports of Royal Commission on Hist. MSS.
Political offices
Preceded by Lord Chancellor of Ireland
1665–1686 		Succeeded by
Church of Ireland titles
Preceded by Archbishop of Dublin
1663–1679 		Succeeded by
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