Richard Burke (9 February 1758 – 2 August 1794) was a

barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include taking cases in superior courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, researching law and ...

and

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. He was born in

Battersea Battersea is a large district in south London, part of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross and extends along the south bank of the River Thames. It includes the Battersea Park. History Batter ...

, the son of

Edmund Burke Edmund Burke (; 12 January NS.html"_;"title="New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">NS">New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">NS/nowiki>_1729_–_9_July_1797)_was_an_ NS.html"_;"title="New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style"> ...

and Jane Mary Nugent. He was educated at

Westminster School (God Gives the Increase) , established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Hea ...

and

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...

, and was called to the bar at the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn an ...

in 1780. His father had high hopes for "the Whelp", never to be realized. He was Recorder of Bristol from 1783 until his early death. In 1791 Richard carried out a mission to the

Koblenz Koblenz (; Moselle Franconian language, Moselle Franconian: ''Kowelenz''), spelled Coblenz before 1926, is a German city on the banks of the Rhine and the Moselle, a multi-nation tributary. Koblenz was established as a Roman Empire, Roman mili ...

headquarters of the French émigré army on behalf of his father, who was indulging in private diplomacy. Thereafter he returned to Ireland to become an agent of the Catholic Committee, which attained a small measure towards

Catholic Emancipation Catholic emancipation or Catholic relief was a process in the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, and later the combined United Kingdom in the late 18th century and early 19th century, that involved reducing and removing many of the restricti ...

in the Irish Parliament's

Roman Catholic Relief Act 1793 The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1793 (33 Geo. III, c.21) is an Act of the Parliament of Ireland, relieving Roman Catholics of certain political, educational, and economic disabilities. The Act was introduced by the Chief Secretary for Ireland, ...

. In 1794 his father resigned his seat in parliament for

Malton, North Yorkshire Malton is a market town, civil parish and electoral ward in North Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the North Riding of Yorkshire, the town is the location of the offices of Ryedale District Council and has a population of around 13,000 ...

over the failure to convict

Warren Hastings Warren Hastings (6 December 1732 – 22 August 1818) was a British colonial administrator, who served as the first Governor of the Presidency of Fort William (Bengal), the head of the Supreme Council of Bengal, and so the first Governor-Genera ...

in a parliamentary impeachment. Richard was elected in succession to his father, but fell ill soon afterwards, and died in

South Kensington South Kensington, nicknamed Little Paris, is a district just west of Central London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. Historically it settled on part of the scattered Middlesex village of Brompton. Its name was supplanted with ...

at the early age of thirty-six on 2 August 1794, and was buried in

Beaconsfield Beaconsfield ( ) is a market town and civil parish within the unitary authority of Buckinghamshire, England, west-northwest of central London and south-southeast of Aylesbury. Three other towns are within : Gerrards Cross, Amersham and High W ...

. The elder Burke suffered grief on a scale described by eyewitnesses as "truly terrific". In the words of his biographer, Edmund's bursts of affliction were of fearful force, so overwhelming indeed as to fright and almost to paralyze those who were around them. The ''

Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

'' article describes the grief of the parents as "almost uncontrollable", and his father considered himself ‘marked by the hand of God’ Richard had been a member of The Club since 1782. His contacts with

Samuel Johnson Samuel Johnson (18 September 1709 – 13 December 1784), often called Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, critic, biographer, editor and lexicographer. The ''Oxford ...

were fairly slight, and on one occasion involved a rebuke to the younger man for futile attempts at "smart drollery". No evidence has been found to support the claim that he was married, though a potential marriage to

Mary Palmer Mary Palmer (née Reynolds; 9 February 1716 – 27 May 1794) was a British author from Devon who wrote ''Devonshire Dialogue'', once considered the "best piece of literature in the vernacular of Devon." She was the mother of painter Theophil ...

, niece of

Joshua Reynolds Sir Joshua Reynolds (16 July 1723 – 23 February 1792) was an English painter, specialising in portraits. John Russell said he was one of the major European painters of the 18th century. He promoted the "Grand Style" in painting which depend ...

was speculated in 1792. F. P. Lock, ''Edmund Burke, Volume II: 1784-1797'',

Clarendon Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

, 2006, 424. Retrieved 1 May 2022. He should not be confused with his uncle, also named Richard Burke. In August 1791, Richard was sent by his father to

with the mission of helping unite royalists on the continent against the revolutionary regime in Paris. He found it beyond his skill to reconcile the different and warring factions among French royalists, and was snubbed by government ministers on his return. He was again an instrument of his father policy in

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

: to secure the loyalty of the comparatively small class of propertied Catholics by securing them the vote on the same very limited, and idiosyncratic, term on which it was available to Protestants. While this was achieved with

, it was not before the younger Burke was replaced as secretary of the Catholic Committee in Dublin by the United Irishman,

Theobald Wolfe Tone Theobald Wolfe Tone, posthumously known as Wolfe Tone ( ga, Bhulbh Teón; 20 June 176319 November 1798), was a leading Irish revolutionary figure and one of the founding members in Belfast and Dublin of the United Irishmen, a republican socie ...

, in a move that signalled a radicalisation of Catholic opinion. On his father’s retirement in 1794, Burke accepted an offer from Lord William Fitzwilliam, appointed

Lord Lieutenant A lord-lieutenant ( ) is the British monarch's personal representative in each lieutenancy area of the United Kingdom. Historically, each lieutenant was responsible for organising the county's militia. In 1871, the lieutenant's responsibility ...

of Ireland, of his English parliamentary seat at Malton. However, after receiving what his father called "a glimmering of public hope", a week after his election, Richard Burke died of tuberculosis on 2 August 1794. Edmund Burke "reproached himself for having made such unsparing use of his son’s services".

References

Resources

''Encyclopedia of Richard Burke''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Burke, Richard Jr 1758 births 1794 deaths People educated at Westminster School, London Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Members of the Middle Temple Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies British MPs 1790–1796 Politicians from County Cork