William Burke, 7th Earl of Clanricarde, PC (Ire) (died October 1687), was an Irish peer who fought in his youth together with his brother Richard, 6th Earl of Clanricarde under their cousin, Ulick Burke, 1st Marquess of Clanricarde against the Parliamentarians in the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland. He succeeded his brother as the 7th Earl in 1666.

Birth and origins

William was a younger son of Sir William Burke and his wife Joan. His father was the third son of Ulick Burke, 3rd Earl of Clanricarde. William's mother was a daughter of Dermot O'Shaugnessy of Gort. William was the younger of two brothers: It is likely that he also had sisters, but nothing seems to be known about them.

First marriage

His first wife was Lettice Shirley, daughter of Sir Henry Shirley, 2nd Baronet, by Lady Dorothy Devereux and granddaughter of Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex. She was born about 1617 and died on 25 September 1655. They had three sons:

Early life and Irish wars

During William's childhood his uncle Richard was Earl of Clanricarde, the 4th of his name. That uncle died on 12 November 1635 and was succeeded by his cousin Ulick as the 5th Earl and 1st Marquess. Ulick was neutral during the Irish Confederate Wars and fought the Parliamentarians during the Cromwellian Conquest of Ireland. He lost the Battle of Meelick Island in 1650 and surrendered to the Parliamentarians on 28 June 1652. He died in July 1657 and was succeeded by William's brother Richard as the 6th Earl of Clanricarde.

Second marriage

Burke married secondly to Helen, widow of Sir John FitzGerald of Dromana and daughter of Donough MacCarty, 1st Earl of Clancarty. The date of this marriage is constrained by the death of her first husband in 1662 or 1664 and the birth of their eldest son in about 1670. William and Helen had four children:

7th Earl

In 1666 his elder brother Richard, the 6th Earl of Clanricarde, died and William eventually succeeded as the 7th Earl of Clanricarde. The date falls into the bracket of the not precisely known date of his second marriage.

Late life, death, succession, and timeline

Clanricarde, as he now was, became Lord Lieutenant of Galway in 1680 and its Chief Governor in 1687. In 1681 he become a member of the Irish Privy Council. Clanricarde died in October 1687 and was succeeded by his eldest son Richard as the 8th Earl of Clanricarde. His daughter Honora inherited a fortune of £3,500 from her father.

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