Charles Boyle

9 Annotations

First Reading

David Quidnunc  •  Link

PROBABLY Charles, L&M say

It is "probably" Charles Boyle (or possibly his brother, Richard) who appears twice in the diary in April 1660 (and, if it is Charles, never again). Latham & Matthews edition of the diary tell us nothing about him personally, but they give us some details about his relations who figure in the diary, mostly after 1664:

FATHER -- RICHARD (d. 1643):
Charles was the second son of the 2nd earl of Cork. The Boyles were "one of the greatest Royalist families of Ireland."

BROTHER -- ROBERT BOYLE (1627-91):
Charles's brother and Richard's seventh son was a great scientist, one of the founders of the Royal Society.

BROTHER -- ROGER (1621-79):
Baron Broghill, earl of Orrery, a soldier, dramatist and politician.

BROTHER -- RICHARD "THE RICH" (1612-98):
This may be the Boyle mentioned in April 1660. His marriage enriched him. Lord Treasurer of Ireland (1660-95). One of his daughters marries one of the sons of Edward Mountagu, Pepys's patron.

-- L&M, Volume 10 (companion) and 11 (index)

Jenny Doughty  •  Link

Further information on Robert Boyle, whose famous law (although a scientist named Mariotte was the original discoverer) states that pressure varies inversely as volume at constant temperature. Boyle's law appears in a 1662 appendix to his 1660 work 'New Experiments Physio-Mechanicall, Touching the Spring of the Air and its Effects'. The 1660 text was the result of three years of experimenting with an air pump with the help of Hooke, whom he employed as his assistant. His 1661 work 'The Sceptical Chymist' was published with the intention of ridding chemistry of meaningless verbiage. Boyle, thou shouldst be living at this hour!

http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~…

helena murphy  •  Link

The description of the Boyle family as being "one of the greatest royalist families of Ireland" according to Latham & Matthews ,is an incorrect assessment of the family during the period of the English Civil War ,followed by the Commonwealth and the Protectorate . The Boyles had settled in Ireland during the Elizabethan era and gained vast wealth along with social prominence due to the acquisition of former confiscated Geraldine and MacCarthy lands. During the civil war period, Roger Boyle, first baron Broghill and later First Earl of Orrery ,played the most prominent role on the political stage in favour of the Parliamentarian cause. At the approach of the Restoration Charles II had already forgiven him for his support of the Commonwealth, and of Oliver Cromwell.Broghill was assured by the King how he perfectly understood how he had been "carryed away with that torrent" As well as being a soldier, he was an astute and pragmatic politician, who along with General Monk,who had also served in Ireland, helped to bring about the Restoration.
The Irish Royalists were predominantly drawn from the Old English, or those of Welsh Norman stock who settled in Ireland during and after the reign of Henry II in the 12th century, and who remained Catholic after the Reformation. The Stuart monarchs also drew support from the Gaelic Irish Chieftains,as they shared a common linguistic ,ethnic and cultural heritage. The Gaelic genealogists and the bards regarded the Stuarts as the rightful kings of Ireland.,

Cunningham,Bernadette. The World of Geoffrey Keating: Four Courts Press 2000
Clarke, Aidan. The Old English in Ireland,1625-42 Four Courts Press 2000
Clarke, Aidan. Prelude to Restoration in Ireland Cambridge 1999

Pedro  •  Link

Boyle..."His 1661 work ‘The Sceptical Chymist’ was published with the intention of ridding chemistry of meaningless verbiage. Boyle, thou shouldst be living at this hour!

Rather a different view of Boyle and other natural philosophers of the time...

"In the end, we should not be too surprised that Boyle was interested in alchemy. After all, Boyle was a man of the seventeenth century, a period in which alchemical practice flourished before it disappeared in the eighteenth century. Because nearly all major natural philosophers in the seventeenth century England-Newton, Locke, Dee, Ashmole, Starkey, among others-were intensely involved in alchemy, we should be more surprised to find that Boyle was not involved in alchemical pursuits. Aspiring Adept is a rich work that should change the way we present Boyle in a history of chemistry course. For those interested in the history of alchemy, the relationships between "chemistry" and "alchemy," the emergence of the former from the latter, or the place of Boyle in the Scientific Revolution, it is required reading."

http://www.scs.uiuc.edu/~mainzv/H…

Pedro  •  Link

Charles Boyle.

L&M say the entries are PROBABLY Charles Boyle, but give no personal details about him.

In his biography of Robert Boyle, Louis Trenchard More says the Diary entries of the 11th and 20th April 1660 may refer to Robert Boyle. He also has no information of Charles Boyle, but obviously much on Robert, so casting doubts on L&M?

Second Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

To throw in another name, as suggested by a 1914 biography of Robert Boyle, which of necessity includes his myriad relatives, see :

http://www.archive.org/details/cu…

BACKGROUND: As long as possible, Roger Boyle, Lord Broghill supported Richard Cromwell's protectorate. But before Richard's abdication Roger Boyle, Lord Broghill and Sir Charles Coote were back in Ireland. Broghill was in command of Munster and Coote of Connaught, and they were both working for Charles II's return. (Broghill was one of the chief of the "Dynastic" or "Court" Cromwellians, in opposition to the "Army" Cromwellians.)

Early in 1660, Gen. George Monck (from England) and Sir Charles Coote and Broghill (from Ireland) were in communication with Charles II. Broghill's letter to Charles was carried to Breda by Francis "Frank" Boyle, Viscount Shannon: it is said to have been in Charles II's hands before Monck's emissary had done his work.

(Frank Boyle was husband of Charles' former mistress, Elizabeth "Black Betty" Killigrew. They had retired to their Irish estates to bring up their children quietly, including Charlotte Jemima Henrietta Maria Boyle much later acknowledged by Charles. So Broghill and Shannon would have been physically close enough to pull this off.)

Broghill's proposal that Charles II should land in Ireland proved superfluous.

Terry Foreman  •  Link

Perhaps Charles Boyle, 3rd Viscount Dungarvan, 3rd Baron Clifford, FRS (bapt. 12 December 1639 – 12 October 1694), a British peer and politician. Boyle was the son of Richard Boyle, 2nd Earl of Cork, and his wife, Elizabeth, suo jure 2nd Baroness Clifford, and was styled with the courtesy title of Viscount Dungarvan from birth. Commons, then for Yorkshire from 1679. In 1689, he was called to the British House of Lords in the barony of Clifford of Lanesborough, which had been created for his father in 1644. On 7 May 1661, Dungarvan had married Lady Jane Seymour (1637-1679), the fourth daughter of William Seymour, 2nd Duke of Somerset and his wife, Frances. They had five children. After the death of his wife in 1679, Dungarven married Lady Arethusa Berkeley (1664-1743, daughter of George Berkeley, 1st Earl of Berkeley) in 1688 and they had one child. Boyle died on 12 October 1694. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cha…

Third Reading

San Diego Sarah  •  Link

You're right, Terry ... Charles Boyle's Parliamentary bio records:

b. 17 Nov. 1639, 2nd s. of Richard Boyle, 2nd Earl of Cork [I] and 1st Earl of Burlington (d. 15 Jan. 1698), by Lady Elizabeth Clifford, suo jure Baroness Clifford, da. and h. of Henry Clifford, 5th Earl of Cumberland.
educ. Christ Church, Oxf. 1654,
****** travelled abroad (Holland, France) Apr.-Aug. 1660. ******
m. (1) 2 May 1661, Lady Jane Seymour (d. 23 Nov. 1679), da. of William Seymour, and Duke of Somerset, 4s. 6da.;
m. (2) 26 Jan. 1688, Lady Arethusa Berkeley (d. 11 Feb. 1743), da. of George, 1st Earl of Berkeley, 1da.
summ. to Lords as Visct. Dungarvan 20 Feb. 1663;
styled Lord Clifford 20 Mar. 1664;
summ. to Lords in his father’s barony as Lord Clifford of Lanesborough 16 July, 1689.

It further specifies that "On the eve of the Restoration Clifford [as Charles Byle would later be known] brought some packets from England to the King, returning a few months later in the company of Sir John Reresby."

Since he wasn't elected to Parliament until 1669, they don't give us anything further about him relative to Pepys.
https://www.historyofparliamenton…

So Robert Boyle FRS was his uncle, as was the playwrite Roger Boyle, 1st Earl of Orrery.

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References

Chart showing the number of references in each month of the diary’s entries.

1660