A Compendium of Irish Biography/Bourke, Miles, Viscount Mayo

by Alfred Webb

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Bourke, Miles, sat as Viscount Mayo in the Parliament of 1634, and when the War of 1641-'52 commenced, was appointed governor of Mayo; however he soon went over to the side of the Confederates, and joined the Catholic Church. He did his best to lessen the acerbities of the war, and is said to have retired from the Council in 1644. He died in 1649; and three years later his son and successor in the title was tried by the Commonwealth Commissioners at Galway, for complicity in the rebellion, condemned and shot by their order, and his estates (50,000 acres) were forfeited; these latter were afterwards restored to the family. ^{[1] [2]}

Bourke, Miles, Viscount Mayo, (page 27), son of preceding, sat in the Parliament of 1634, and when the War of 1641-'52 commenced, was appointed Governor of Mayo; but he soon went over to the side of the Confederates, and joined the Catholic Church. He did his best to lessen the acerbities of the war, and is said to have retired from the Council in 1644. He died in 1649. Three years later his son and successor in the title was tried by the Commonwealth Commissioners at Galway, for complicity in the rebellion, condemned, and shot by their order, and his estates (50,000 acres) were forfeited, but afterwards restored to the family. [For his descendant, Richard Southwell Bourke, Earl of Mayo, see page 27.] ^{[1] [2]}

Authorities

1. Irishmen, Lives of Illustrious and Distinguished, Rev. James Wills, D.D. 6 vols. or 12 parts. Dublin, 1840–'7.
2. Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, Revised and Enlarged by Mervyn Archdall. 7 vols. Dublin, 1789.