Richard Boyle (soldier)

Boyle was the son of Richard Boyle, Archbishop of Tuam, and his wife Martha, daughter of Rice Wight of Brabouef Manor at Artington in Surrey and his wife Elizabeth Needler.^[1][2]

On 11 September 1649 Boyle was captured during the storming of Drogheda at the end of the siege. Five days later he was having dinner with Lady More (sister of John Gordon, Earl of Sutherland) when an English Parliamentary soldier entered the room and whispered something to him. Boyle stood up to follow the soldier, his hostess inquired where he was going, and he replied "Madam, to die".^[3] He was shot on leaving the room.^[3] In the opinion of Lady Antonia Fraser, this "was an answer in the great tradition of those Cavaliers who had died with honour and a jest on their lips in the Civil War".^[4]

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

James Buck's letter to Sir Ralph Verney, 8 November 1649 (containing the details of the death of Richard Boyle)

• Collins, Sean (1998), Drogheda: Gateway to the Boyne (illustrated ed.), Dundurn, p. 79, ISBN 9781900935081
• Fraser, Antonia (2011), Cromwell, Our Chief Of Men, Hachette UK, p. 179, ISBN 9781780220697
• Henderson, Thomas Finlayson (1886), "Boyle, Richard (d.1645)" , in Stephen, Leslie (ed.), Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 6, London: Smith, Elder & Co, p. 116
• Kimber, Isaac, ed. (1784) [February 1784], "Boyle, Earl of Cork and Orrery (part 2)", The Gentleman's and London Magazine: Or Monthly Chronologer, 1741–1794, J. Exshaw.: 346

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