Richard Bourke KCB (1777 - 1855)

Born 4 May 1777 in Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland

Husband of Elizabeth Jane Bourke — married 22 Mar 1800 in Lothbury, London, England

Descendants

Died 13 Aug 1855 at age 78 in Thornfield Castle near Connell, Co. Limerick, Ireland

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Biography

Richard Bourke KCB is Notable.

Preceded by Lieutenant General Sir Ralph Darling GCH

8th Governor of New South Wales 3 Dec 1831 to 5 Dec 1837

Succeeded by Major Sir George Gipps

Richard Bourke KCB is Notable.

Lieutenant General Sir Richard Bourke KCB was born on 4th May 1777 in Dublin, Ireland. He was the son of John Bourke of Drumsally, County Limerick, and his wife Anne Ryan, daughter of Edmund Ryan of Boscable, County Tipperary. Richard was educated at Westminster School and at Exeter College, Oxford University (BA, 1798). ^{[1] [2]}

Richard was gazetted Ensign in the Grenadier Guards on 22nd November 1798, and saw active service in the Netherlands in 1799 where he was badly wounded through both jaws. In later life he felt that the effects of this wound prevented him from speaking forcefully in public and consequently declined all invitations to stand for parliament. ^[1]

On 22nd March 1800 in St Margaret's Church, Lothbury, London, England, Richard married Elizabeth Bourke, youngest daughter of John Bourke, receiver-general of the land tax for Middlesex. ^[3] They had two sons and three daughters:

• John (c1802-), was an invalid
• Mary Jane (c1804-88), married Dudley Perceval, clerk of the council at the Cape of Good Hope and later an official in the British Treasury
• Anne (1806-84), married Edward Deas Thomson
• Frances (c1809-66), married Reverend John Jebb
• Richard (1812-1904), came to New South Wales as private secretary to his father from 1831 to 1834; he returned to England to study law, was called to the Bar and practised as a barrister in Dublin

In 1806 Richard became superintendent of the junior department of the Royal Military College with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He saw active service again in 1807 as quartermaster-general with the unsuccessful expedition to South America. He served in the Peninsula, where his knowledge of Spanish proved useful, and in 1812-14 he was stationed at Corunna as military resident in Galicia. ^[1]

After the war Bourke retired on half-pay and managed his estate, Thornfield, County Limerick, acted as a magistrate and chairman of the Irish Distress Committee for Limerick, and encouraged public education, local industries and schemes for draining bogs. ^[1]

On 15th June 1825 he was promoted to Major General and appointed to the staff at Malta. Bourke was appointed lieutenant-governor of the Cape of Good Hope and arrived at Cape Town in February 1826 to become acting governor. Bourke left the Cape in September 1828. Although offered the government of the Bahamas, he refused, thinking the climate might harm his wife's health. He resumed the life of a country gentleman, but soon found his income inadequate and again sought an appointment. ^[1]

When the Whigs took office, his position became stronger, and in March 1831 he was appointed Governor of New South Wales. He arrived with his family in Sydney on 3rd December 1831. Elizabeth died the following May at Parramatta. One of Bourke's first political actions was to propose the extension of trial by jury and the substitution of civil for military juries in criminal cases. He proposed new policies for religion and education, and criminal law relating to convicts. Bourke's governorship was a period of active economic growth. Whilst this growth began before Bourke arrived, it was accelerated by his administration, especially of land. In 1831 land was sold only within certain boundaries, the so-called limits of location, but unauthorised squatting on unoccupied crown lands was becoming common. Bourke had seen at the Cape that large tracts were needed for raising stock in a dry climate, so he did not restrict squatting in New South Wales. Although in 1831 Bourke had been told in London that transportation to New South Wales was soon to stop, convicts were transported in greater numbers; in 1831 New South Wales had some 21,000 convicts, in 1837 some 32,000. In addition, a scheme for assisting free migrants, managed from London but paid for from colonial funds, was tentatively begun in 1832 but was most unsuitable. Bourke identified himself with the colonial viewpoint, and in 1835 appointed a select committee that recommended a plan on which Bourke set in motion the so-called 'bounty' system of immigration, controlled and organised from the colony. With the aid of immigration, both penal and free, the population rose from about 51,000 in 1831 to over 97,000 in 1837, and the proportion of convicts to free persons decreased. On 30th January 1837 Bourke formally resigned his governorship. In December, after his successor had been appointed, he left the colony. Bourke's high place in popular esteem was shown by the ovation which the crowd gave him on his departure. A fund to erect his statue (which stands before the Public Library of New South Wales) was opened and rapidly filled. ^[1]

He was created Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in 1835. In 1837 he was gazetted Lieutenant General. ^[1]

Once again he settled down at Thornfield, in his leisure editing for publication the correspondence of Edmund Burke in collaboration with Earl Fitzwilliam. In 1839 Bourke was appointed high sheriff for the County of Limerick, and was offered, but declined, the governorship of Jamaica, the command-in-chief of the forces in India, and the 'safe' electorate of Limerick in the parliamentary elections. He was promoted General on 11th November 1851. ^[1] At the time of Griffith's Valuation, Sir Richard Bourke of Thornfield held an estate in the parishes of Clonkeen and Killeenagarriff, barony of Clanwilliam and Doon, barony of Coonagh, county Limerick and Kilcomenty, barony of Owney and Arra, county Tipperary. The two townlands in the parish of Clonkeen were held from John Lucas. ^[4] For an account of some of his subtenants in the townland of Ballyguy on the Lucas property, see Flannery of Ballyguy.

In his later years he was partially blind. He died suddenly on 13th August 1855 at Thornfield Castle. ^[1]

In Melbourne, a major street, later a pedestrian mall, was named in his honour and Elizabeth Street for his wife. A river port on the Darling River in western New South Wales was developed and named in his honour. ^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9} King, Hazel. Bourke, Sir Richard (1777–1855), Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1966; accessed online 22 Aug 2019
2. ↑ Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715-1886 by Joseph Foster
3. ↑ LDS marriage record
4. ↑ Landed Estates: Bourke Thornfield

See also

• The Peerage.com.