William Burke, 7th Earl of Clanricarde

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.^[2] William's mother was a daughter of Dermot O'Shaugnessy of Gort.^[3]

William was the younger of two brothers:^[4]

1. Richard (died 1666), became the 6th Earl of Clanricarde
2. William (died 1687)

It is likely that he also had sisters, but nothing seems to be known about them.^{[original research?]}

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.^[5] They had three sons:

1. Richard (died after 1708), became the 8th Earl of Clanricarde;^[6]
2. John (1642–1722), became the 9th Earl of Clanricarde.^[7]
3. Thomas (died 1688), killed at the Siege of Buda, Hungary;^[8][c][d][9]

During William's childhood his uncle Richard was Earl of Clanricarde, the 4th of his name. That uncle died on 12 November 1635^[10] 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.^[11] He died in July 1657 and was succeeded by William's brother Richard as the 6th Earl of Clanricarde.^[12]

Burke married secondly to Helen, widow of Sir John FitzGerald of Dromana and daughter of Donough MacCarty, 1st Earl of Clancarty.^[13][14] 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:^[c]

1. Ulick (1670–1691), was created Viscount of Galway and fell at the Battle of Aughrim fighting for the Jacobites;^[15][c]
2. Margaret (1673–1744), first married Bryan Magennis, 5th Viscount of Iveagh, and then Thomas Butler of Garryricken;^[16][c]
3. William, died childless in France;^[17][c]
4. Honora (c. 1675 – 1698), married 1st Patrick Sarsfield and 2nd the Duke of Berwick.^[18]
5. Thomas (d.1666)

In 1666 his elder brother Richard, the 6th Earl of Clanricarde, died^[19] 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.

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.^[20]

Clanricarde died in October 1687^[21] 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.^[22][23]