Family and Education

b. 3 Feb. 1730, 2nd but 1st surv. s. of John, 5th Earl of Cork and Orrery [I], by his 1st w. Lady Henrietta Hamilton, da. of George, 1st Earl of Orkney [S]. educ. Westminster 1741; Ch. Ch. Oxf. 1748; I. Temple 1749. unm. suc. fa. as 6th Earl of Cork and Orrery [I] and 3rd Baron Boyle [GB] 23 Nov. 1762.

Offices Held

M.P. [I] 1759-60.

High steward, Oxford University 1762- d.

Biography

Lord Shelburne wrote in his autobiographical fragment:1 ‘I was ... much connected during all the time I was at college with Mr. Hamilton Boyle.’ Dungarvan, as Boyle had become in 1761, sat in Parliament on the interest of Lord Warwick, who was related to the Boyle family through the Hamiltons; and passed his brief career in the Commons under Shelburne’s wing as a supporter of Bute. In Bute’s list of 1761 he is described as ‘well inclined to Lord Bute’, and there was a suggestion that he should succeed James Stuart Mackenzie as envoy to Turin. Shelburne wrote to Bute in June 1761:2 ‘I saw Lord Dungarvan this day for two hours and have weighed the matter as much as I could without mentioning Turin to him. Upon the whole I think he is more fitted to try at the House of Commons. I therefore did not suggest it to him.’ But there is no record of his having spoken in the Commons.

He died 17 Jan. 1764.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: John Brooke

Notes

• 1. Fitzmaurice, Shelburne, i. 15.
• 2. Bute mss.