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Family
Marriage: Children:
  1. Catherine BURKE: Birth: 28 DEC 1835 in Ireland. Death: 19 NOV 1918 in Milford, MA


Notes
a. Note:   A corruption of 'De Burgo,' - from fort, castle, hill, etc. This family went to Eng. with the Conqueror, afterwards to Ireland with Strongbar.
 Burke is much the most numerous of the Hiberno-Norman surnames. It is estimated that there are some 19,000people of the name in Ireland to-day: with its variant Bourke it comes fourteenth in the list of commonest names. Sir John Davis said in 1606: "There are more able men of the surname of Bourke than of any name whatsoever in Europe". It came to Ireland at the Anglo-Norman invasion in the person of William de Burgo (called William the Conqueror by Irish annalists and wrongly described as William Fitzadelm de Burgo), who succeeded Strongbow as Chief Governor. In 1179 vast estates in Connacht were granted to the de Burgos, or Burkes, but beyond sporadic ravaging, they did not, properly speaking possess the territory until the next generation when it was regranted to Sir Richard de Burgo, or Burke, by Henry III. Having regard to the large number of Burkes, or Bourkes, now living - the figure 19,000, given above, must be multiplied several times to include emigrants of Irish stock to America and elsewhere - it is hardly possible that they all stem from the one ancestor (the name, it may be remarked, is not found in England except in families of Irish background); nevertheless, even if several different Burkes came to Ireland in the wake of Strongbow, it is the one great family, mentioned above, which has been so prominent in Irish history. The Burkes became more completely hibernicized than any other Norman family. They adopted Brehon Law and proclaimed themselves chiefs after the Irish fashion, forming, indeed, several septs of which the two most important were known as MacWilliam Uachtar (Galway) and MacWilliam Iochtar (Mayo). Minor branches became MacDavie, MacGibbon, MacHugo, MacRedmond and MacSeoinin. Of these the name MacSeoinin is extant in Counties Mayo and Galway as Jennings, and MacGibbon as Gibbons. As late as 1518, when the City of the Tribes was still hostile to its Gaelic neighbours and the order was made that "Neither O nor Mac should strut or swagger through the streets of Galway", a more specific instruction was issued forbidding the citizens to admit into their houses "Burkes, MacWilliams, Kelly or any other sept". The original form of the name was often used even as late as the sixteenth century: two de Burgos were bishops of Clonfert between 1508 and 1580. After the Battle of Kinsale at which Lord Burke of Castleconnell distinguished himself (on the English side), the leading Burkes displayed more loyalty to their king than to their country, though when the two loyalties coincided during the reign of James II, they were to be found among the leading men of the Confederate Catholics and many of the name were attained and deprived of their estates, much of which, however, was recovered by them after the Restoration. The Earl of Clanrickarde, whose peerage dated from 1543, commanded one of the infantry regiments in JamesII's army. Of the many Burkes who took service with continental powers after the defeat of that King, none was more distinguished than Toby Bourke (c. 1674-c. 1734) whose expedition and later became a famous Napoleonic commander. Several other Bourkes or Burkes distinguished themselves in the army of France. Later in the eighteenth century the outstanding Burkes were the famous statesman Edmund Burke (1729-1797), whose only son, Richard Burke (1758-1794) was agent of the Catholic Committee, and Dr. Thomas Burke (1705-1776), Dominican Bishop of Ossory, author of Hibernica Dominicana. Another Dominican of note was Rev. Thomas Nicholas Burke (1830-1883), whose fame as a preacher, especially during his visit to America, was phenomenal - Pope Pius IX called him "the prince of preachers". His contemporary, also Galway born, Canon Ulick Bourke, P.P. (1829-1887), was a pioneer of the Irish language revival. The death of Richard Southwell Burke, sixth Earl of Mayo (1822-1872), caused a sensation as he was assassinated during his term of office as Governor General of India. Another sensation relating to a Burke of humbler origin was the trial and execution of the notorious William Burke (1792-1829): his activities in smothering the victims whose bodies he sold for dissection have added a verb - to burke - to the English language. Galway born Robert O'Hara Burke (1820-1861), also made headlines in his day when under conditions of almost incredible hardship he succeeded in crossing the Australian desert on foot: he died of starvation on the return journey. Many other Burkes, Bourkes, and de Burghs might also be mentioned. No account of the name, however brief, would be adequate which omitted Sir Bernard Burke (1814-1892), Ulster King of Arms, and his father, John Burke (1787-1848), a Co. Tipperary man, celebrated for their work on genealogy, peerages and family history.


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