Ulick Burke, 1st Viscount Galway


Ulick Burke, 1st Viscount Galway was an Irish soldier who died at the Battle of Aughrim while fighting for the Jacobite cause during the Williamite War in Ireland.

Birth and origins

Ulick was born about 1670 as the first son of William Burke by his second wife, Helen MacCarty. His father was the 7th Earl of Clanricarde. He already had sons from his first marriage. Ulick's mother was a daughter of Donough MacCarty, 1st Earl of Clancarty.


His father was succeeded by of his half-brothers Richard and John as the 8th and the 9th Earl.
Ulick was the brother-in-law of Jacobite leader Patrick Sarsfield, who married his sister, Honora Burke.
He was created by letters patent dated 2 June 1687 Baron of Tyaquin and Viscount Galway.
He married Frances Lane, daughter of George Lane, 1st Viscount Lanesborough, by whom he had a daughter who some sources say died in infancy. Others reference her as Elizabeth Burke, referred to by Turtle Bunbury as a "celebrated poetess", who later married Sir Thomas Blake, 7th Baronet of Menlo, son of Sir Walter Blake, 6th Baronet of Menlo and Anne Kirwan. They had at least a daughter, Anne, and a son, Sir Ulick Blake, 8th Baronet of Menlo.

Williamite war

Following the outbreak of Protestant resistance to the Catholic James II, Galway raised a regiment of foot in Connaught to serve in the Irish Army. He served actively during the war, and was killed along with many senior Jacobite officers at the 1691 Battle of Aughrim. He was married to Frances Lane, daughter of George Lane, 1st Viscount Lanesborough.
The Galway title was subsequently made into an earldom and awarded to Henri de Massue a French Huguenot commander in the Williamite forces.