Hyacinth George Burke

Hyacinth George Burke of Killimor Castle, Athenry, Co. Galway, Ireland, awarded the compensation for 43 enslaved people on the Retreat estate in St Thomas-in-the-East in Jamaica. In 1826 Hyacinth George Burke was shown as heir-at-law of Ulick Michael Burke deceased: Ulick Michael Burke had registered enslaved people on his own behalf in 1817.   

1. Hyacinth George Burke, son of Dominick Burke of Slatefield and Margaret Dolphin, married about 1807 Frances daughter of George Browne of Brownestown, Co. Mayo, left at his decease 04/04/1841 one son Dominick-Joseph-Browne Burke and two daughters, Margaret and Frances.  Seat Killimer [sic] Castle, Athenry.

2. The Landed Estates Database suggests that the Burkes leased Killimer Castle from the Daly family who built it in the 1620s, and says that in the 1870s the Burke family held 700 acres in county Mayo and 185 acres in county Galway.

T71/867 St Thomas-in-the-East claim no. 296. The Retreat itself is shown in the Jamaica Almanacs as the Hon John Scott in 1811 and 1812 and then as the heirs of Hon John Scott (or equivalent) thereafter, and the bulk of the compensation was paid under St Thomas-in-the-East No. 295 to members of the Scott family; Ancestry.com, Slave Registers of former British Colonial Dependencies, 1812-1834 [database on-line], 1817 and 1826 - St Thomas-in-the-East Jamaica.

Letterbooks T71/1592 Hyacinth George Burke to Commissioners 18/03/1834 show him under the impression from reports of Lord Althorp's comments in a Parliamentary debate that the compensation had already been distributed. T71/1602 04/12/1836 he wrote again from Killimor Castle Loughnan Ireland, again under a misapprehension, to say: I've received the first installment [from the £15MM loan raised to fund the compensation payments], where is the second?

1. Burke's A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Landed Gentry of Great Britain and Ireland Peerage (1855), 'Burke of Slatefield' p. 157, which also states that the family was a branch of the ancient house of Burke of Meelick and had the same coat of arms as 'the preceding' (which was Burke of Prospect Villa, Co. Cork).

2. http://www.landedestates.ie/LandedEstates/jsp/family-show.jsp?id=260 and http://www.landedestates.ie/LandedEstates/jsp/estate-show.jsp?id=157 [accessed 02/01/2012].