wardens. There was therefore an Edmund Burke buried in St James' churchyard on 7th March, 1728–9, O.S. In the Register of Baptisms of St Michan's New Parish1, which embraced Arran Quay, appears on the 18th December, 1733, the baptism of "Richard s. of Richd. Bourke Gent. & Mary." On "June 1st 1735, Mary D. of Richd Burk Attorney & Mary.”

"Oct. 19th 1737 Mary D. of Richd. Burk Attorney & Mary." Evidently the Mary born in 1735 had died before the second Mary was christened, 19th October, 1737.

On "July 25th 1739 Elizabeth dr. of Richard Burk Atty & Mary" was baptised, and on 14th October, 1741, "Francis Dr. of Richd. Burke Atty & Mary-Aaron Quay." and "1744 July 19th Ellen Dr. of Richard Burke Atty & Mary-Aron Quay."

No entry has been discovered of the baptism of the Edmund Burke who was buried in St James' churchyard on 7th March, 1728–9. The visitation returns of the burial entries in the parish register do not record anything more than the names of the persons buried. From the early deaths of so many of the children of Richard and Mary Burke it is clear that several of them must have been weaklings at the time of their birth, and it is probable that need compelled them to be baptised at home. Private baptism, however, was by no means unusual in Ireland down to the middle of the nineteenth century. The first baptismal entry as yet found of any of the children (except Juliana) is that of Richard, younger brother of Edmund, who was baptised in St Michan's, Dublin, on 8th December, 1733. If (as is probable) the Edmund Burke buried in St James' churchyard on 7th March, 1728-9, was one of the children of Richard and Mary Burke who died in infancy, then it is also probable that the next boy born was christened Edmund in fond consolation, just as we find a girl was baptised in the name of Mary on 9th October, 1737, in loving memory, doubtless, of the Mary who had been christened in St Michan's on the 1st June, 1735, and faded away in infancy.

The entry of Edmund Burke's matriculation as it appears in the books of Trinity College, Dublin, under the date 14th April, 1743, describes him as "annum agens 16." It is essential to understand, however, that the year 1743 in the register is not the Calendar year, but the Academic year, which, in the eighteenth century, began in Dublin University on 9th July, and ended on the same day in the succeeding year. The calendar date of his matriculation was 14th April, 1 Now destroyed.

1744 A.D. Burke was then "going on" (agens) sixteen, and his previous birthday was his fifteenth, i.e. 1st January, 1743, O.S. Therefore his first birthday was 1st January, 1729, O.S.

The memorial tablet in Beaconsfield Church states that he died 9th July, 1797, aged 68 years. This would also give the year 1729 as the year of his birth. The existing evidence therefore establishes that Edmund Burke was born 1st January, 1729, O.S.

Richard Burke, Edmund's father, was an attorney of His Majesty's Court of Exchequer in Ireland. Attorneys admitted by the judges of any one of the Superior Courts of Common Law could, by special retainer, act in any of the other courts, becoming "Solicitors" therein1. Edmund Burke was enrolled as a student of the Middle Temple. The entry is 23rd April, 1747, “Mr Edmundus Burke, filius secundus Ricardi Burke de civitate Dublin, unius Attornatorum Curiae Scaccariae Domini Regis in Regno Hiberniae2." Edmund Burke, writing to his friend Rd. Shackleton on 28th October, 1766, describes his father as always practising in the Superior Courts and never in the County Courts, and states that

"he was for many years not only in the first rank, but the very first man of his profession in point of practice and credit, until, by giving way to a retired and splenetic humour, he did in a manner voluntarily contract his practice."

Richard Burke was a member of the Established Church, Mary Nagle, his wife, was a Roman Catholic. The Nagles of Ballyduff were of the kin of Sir Richard Nagle, Attorney-General and Speaker of the Irish House of Commons under James II. A David Nagle appears in the parish register of Castletown-Roche as attending a vestry meeting in the parish church on 18th April, 1727, but it was an assessment meeting, and as a cesspayer and owner of property he may possibly have taken part in it, though a Roman Catholic. The family were unquestionably Roman Catholics, and Mary Nagle, after her marriage to Richard Burke, remained constant to that creed. It was not until 1733, eight years after the marriage of Burke's parents, 1 See Howard's Pleas of the Exchequer in Ireland.

2 It was necessary, from the time of Henry VIII down to the year 1885, for any student intending to be called to the Irish Bar to join not only the King's Inns but also one of the Inns of Court in London and eat dinners there. Burke's entry in the Temple therefore does not throw any light on the question whether he was intended for the English or Irish Bar. By the Statute 48 & 49 Vic. c. 20 (1885), persons seeking to be admitted to the Irish Bar shall not be required to keep any terms commons, or enter their names in any of the Inns of Court in London. They may, however, at their option keep four of the required terms of commons in one of the English Inns.

that the Statute 7 George II, ch. 5, portion of the Penal Code was passed, which enacted that:

If any person or persons now or hereafter to be admitted a Barrister, Six Clerk, Attorney, or Solicitor (such Solicitors as were comprehended within the Articles of Limerick excepted) shall marry within this kingdom, or out of the same, any woman of the popish religion, or do or shall educate or permit to be educated any of his children, who are now under the age of fourteen years, or shall be hereafter born, in the popish religion, such person so marrying or educating any of his children or permitting any of his children to be educated in the popish religion, shall be henceforth deemed a Papist and disabled from being a Barrister, Six Clerk, Attorney or Solicitor, unless such person so marrying shall within one year after such marriage procure such wife to be converted to the Protestant Religion.

The act was not retrospective in its effects so far as marriage was concerned; accordingly Burke's father was not disabled from carrying on his practice and the penalties for having married a papist did not affect him. There were, as already stated, several children of the marriage, but all died in infancy except three sons, Garret, Edmund, and Richard, and one daughter, Juliana. The sons were all brought up as members of the Established Church of Ireland; the daughter, Juliana, as we have seen, was baptised in the parish church of Castletown-Roche in the Diocese of Cloyne, and probably this ceremony in the Established Church would have been held sufficient to qualify her as a "legal Protestant" and to arrest any inquisition into the matter of her upbringing, and enable her father to escape the tentacles of the code1. Richard, however, ran but little risk. Except in the case of families of property trouble was rarely taken to enforce rigorously the Penal Statutes. Juliana received her education at her mother's knee, and, though her baptism and marriage were according to the rites of the Established Church, there is no doubt that she was of her mother's creed.

Garret Burke, Edmund's eldest brother, followed his father's profession in Dublin, he too was an Attorney of the Exchequer in Ireland. He died unmarried in 1765.

Richard Burke, the younger brother, went to the English Bar, became Recorder of Bristol, and died in London, 1794, also unmarried.

1 Richard Burke appears in the "List of Attorneys of the Court of Exchequer in Ireland who took the oath directed by the Act of Parliament made for the Amendment of the Law relating to Popish Solicitors and Remedying other mischiefs relating to Practitioners in the Several Courts of Law and Equity" (7 G. II, ch. 5, Ir.), Dublin. Printed by George Grierson, 1735. King's Inns Library. Pamphlets, 614.

Juliana Burke married Patrick French of Loughrea, county Galway, in 1766. He was a member of an old Roman Catholic family, but the licence for the marriage was for a marriage by the Church of Ireland Rector or Curate of St Catherine's parish church, Dublin. They had one child, Mary, who was married to Lieut.-Colonel Haviland. From this marriage descend the Haviland-Burkes.

The following is a copy from the Dublin Diocesan Records in the Public Record Office, Dublin1:

A Licence was granted the eighth day of January in the year of our Lord 1766 by the Rt Worshipful Alex. McAulay, Esqre, Doctor of Laws, Vicar General of the Diocese of Dublin and Official Principal and Chancellor of the Consistorial and Metropolitan Court of Dublin lawfully constituted, to solemnize marriage between Patk. French of Loughrea in the Co. of Galway Gentleman and Juliana Burke of the Parish of St Catherine, Dublin, Spinster. Directed to the Rev. Samuel Pullein Clerk, Master of Arts, Vicar of the sd. Parish, or to his licensed Curate assst. Sealed with the Seal of the afsd Court.

There is no entry in the parish register of the marriage being celebrated in St Catherine's Church. The ceremony probably took place privately. The Act 19 Geo. II, c. 13 (Ir.), s. I provided that any marriage celebrated after 1st May, 1746, between a Papist and any person who hath been...a Protestant or between two Protestants if celebrated by a Popish priest should be absolutely null and void.

As Juliana had been baptised in the Established Church it was necessary, to prevent any question of the validity of the marriage, that the ceremony should be performed by a clergyman of that church.

1 Now destroyed.

E

CHAPTER II

SCHOOLDAYS

DMUND BURKE, when a child, was delicate, and showed symptoms of lung trouble. To escape from the unfavourable atmosphere of his home on Arran Quay, which was liable to flooding by the Liffey, he was sent, at an early age, to the residence of his mother's family at Ballyduff, near Castletown-Roche, in the north of Co. Cork, where he spent most of his boyhood.

He had learnt his letters at his mother's knee. What was his first schooling, we ascertain from Mrs Leadbeater. She tells us that the three brothers, Garret, Richard and Edmund,

had been when very young, at school with an old woman, who was very cross, and they resented her crossness so much, that one holyday the three little fellows set out for her cabin, with intent to kill her. As her good genius would have it, she happened to be from home, and their fit of fury evaporated before the next opportunity1.

His next school was in the ruined castle of Monanimy, an old stronghold of the Nagles, in which a kind of hedge school was held2. The school-master's name was O'Halloran, who (as Prior states), lived to a great age, and was known to one or two of the oldest inhabitants living there many years ago, who remembered him, in his youth, as boasting upon all occasions that he was the first to put a Latin Grammar into the hands of Edmund Burke.

Prior, in his second edition, tells an interesting story how Burke, when on a visit to the Nagles in 1766, was shaving one morning and saw O'Halloran coming up the avenue to see him. He rushed down half shaved, grasped him by both hands, and gossiped with him about the old times, and then-“ didn't he put five golden guineas into my hand as I was coming away," said the old man.

O'Halloran was evidently one of the old race of Philomaths, who kept alive in rural Ireland under circumstances of difficulty, and often of danger, in the troublous times of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the traditions of classical learning. Poor hedge school-masters were, down to time of living memories, to be found in Ireland, well versed in the masterpieces of Greek and Roman literature, and they 1 Leadbeater Papers, 1, p. 46.

2 Historical and Topographical Notes, North Co. Cork, p. 161.