Sir John Borlase (1576–1648) was an English army officer and member of the

Parliament of Ireland The Parliament of Ireland () was the legislature of the Lordship of Ireland, and later the Kingdom of Ireland, from 1297 until the end of 1800. It was modelled on the Parliament of England and from 1537 comprised two chambers: the Irish Hou ...

who was appointed joint Lord Justice of Ireland. Born in 1576 in Cornwall, the eldest son of Edward Borlase of London, a mercer, and Suzannah Isham. Borlase was educated at

King's College, Cambridge King's College, formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, is a List of colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college lies beside the River Cam and faces ...

, where he matriculated in 1591. He was knighted at Greenwich in 1606. Borlase served as a soldier in the Low Countries, taking part in the expedition to the Palatinate in 1620 under Sir Horace Vere to defend the Protestant cause. In 1633, he was appointed Master of the Ordnance in Ireland, jointly with Sir Thomas Lucas, a post he held until his death. He was elected to the

Irish House of Commons The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until the end of 1800. The upper house was the Irish House of Lords, House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, ...

for

Enniskillen Enniskillen ( , from , ' Ceithlenn's island') is the largest town in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. It is in the middle of the county, between the Upper and Lower sections of Lough Erne. It had a population of 14,086 at the 2011 censu ...

in 1634 and for Belturbet in 1639. Following the recall to England of Lord Deputy of Ireland,

Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford (13 April 1593 (New Style, N.S.)12 May 1641), was an English people, English statesman and a major figure in the period leading up to the English Civil War. He served in Parliament of England, Parliament ...

, Borlase and Sir William Parsons were appointed joint Lord Justices of Ireland in February 1641. As Wentworth's successors were either ill ( Christopher Wandesford) or absent ( Robert Sidney, 2nd Earl of Leicester) the two men were the virtual rulers of Ireland until their dismissal in 1644 when the Marquis of Ormonde took over as Lord Lieutenant. During their time in office, the two had to deal (somewhat ineffectively) with the major Irish insurgency of 1641. Borlase died in London in 1648. He had married Alice Edwards in 1610. They had a son, Sir John Borlase, who lived and died in Ireland. A second son,

Edmund Edmund is a masculine given name in the English language. The name is derived from the Old English elements ''ēad'', meaning "prosperity" or "riches", and ''mund'', meaning "protector". Persons named Edmund include: People Kings and nobles *Ed ...

, became a physician and historian in Chester.

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* * * ;Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Borlase, John 1576 births 1648 deaths Politicians from Cornwall English army officers Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Fermanagh constituencies Irish MPs 1634–1635 Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Cavan constituencies Irish MPs 1639–1649 Military personnel from Cornwall