Bridget McWalter (Burke) Howley (1725 - 1797)

Born 1725 in Borrisoleigh, Tipperary, Ireland

Wife of Michael Howley — married about 1747 in Killenaule, County Tipperary, Ireland [uncertain]

Descendants

Died 18 Aug 1797 at about age 72 in Glengoole, County Tipperary, Ireland

Problems/Questions Profile manager: John Howley [send private message]

Bridget (Burke) Howley was born in Ireland.

1. A picture of her tombstone is on the Ireland Historic Graves website:

http://historicgraves.com/killenaule/ts-klnl-127/grave.

2. Finn's Leinster Journal: August 19, 1797 - Bridget Howley died at Glengoole "a few days ago". Death notice also published in Clare Journal, August 28, 1797 and in Dublin Evening Post, August 22, 1797.

3. Note: Archbishop Michael Francis Howley visited Killenaule in 1914 and transcribed the headstone. His transcription reads:

“Here lieth the body of Michael Howley who departed June 10th 1772 aged 57 years. Also his widow Bridget Burke who departed August the 18th 1779 aged 72 years and their son James Howley who departed at Passage November the 24 1815 aged 49 years. May they rest in peace. Amen.”

The 1779 in MFH's transcription is an error. Her death was recorded in Irish newspapers in 1797. If she died in 1779 at age 72, then her year of birth would have been 1707. Her known children were born between 1749 and 1768. If she was born in 1707, then her first child was born when she was 42 and her last one when she was 61 but if she was born in 1725, that puts her at age 24 for her first child and 43 for her last. 1779 is clearly incorrect. Also the 1815 in James' death date is most likely 1813. The lettering on the headstone was probably eroded by 1914 when MFH saw it.

4. According to the Howley family history (Anne Quinn, 1870), Bridget and her sister Catherine (who married Howley brothers Michael and Richard), were daughters of John McWalter Burke of Castle Borrisoleigh. The McWalter Burke's of Ileagh, Co. Tipperary, are descended from de Burgh's; an Anglo-Norman family whose lineage can be traced to 13th century Ireland.

The following provides some background on the origins of the McWalter Burke's. While the direct line from Walter Bourke (1541-1623) to Bridget (1725-1797) and her sister Catherine (d.1778) is not established, he would have likely been their 4th or 5th ggf.

http://burkeseastgalway.com/burke-part-2/#_edn16

"MacWalter Bourke of Ileagh, Co. Tipperary: Another line of the de Burghs, established in a small territory in the north of County Tipperary, became identified as a minor sept or branch in its own right, known as the Bourkes of Ileagh, the head of their branch known as MacWalter Bourke of Ileagh. It is uncertain from whom this sept derive their descent and although a funeral entry in the records of the Ulster King of Arms for a senior family member dated 1635 described them as ‘descended from the Bourkes of Clanricard,’ they came to bear arms similar to those of Castleconnell. The head of this family, Walter Bourke of Burres (Borrisoleigh), County Tipperary died on 10th June 1623 and was buried at Glenkeen graveyard, near Borrisoleigh."

"Of this family, Honor Burke, wife of Richard McWalter Burke, esquire, late of Borish O Leigh in Co. Tipperary bequeathed seven pounds sterling to the Franciscan friary of Meelick in east Galway in 1660. Giblin, G., OFM, Papers relating to Meelick Friary 1644-1731, Collectanea Hibernica, No. 16, B. Millett OFM (general editor), Naas, Leinster Leader ltd., 1973, pp. 48-88." (Honor and Richard are quite likely great grandparents of Bridget.)

"Callanan, M., The de Burgos or Bourkes of Ileagh, N. Munster Antiquarian Journal, Vol. II, 1937, pp. 67-77. The wall tomb was erected against the north wall of the old church. The inscription at the tomb, according to M. Callanan read ‘Hoc sibi monumentum fieri fecit in eoq sepultus est Walterus de Burgo, territorii de Illieagh, quondam valida ac prudes propugnator qui obiit Junii 10 1623, aetatis 72, ano Domini 1623. Uxore habuit Silia, filia Ydhir, ex qua multa sucepit prole 4 sc. Filius. Theobalu, Gulielmu, Mileru et Johane et multas filias oesque lectissimis congibus collocata.’ The Journal of the Association for the Preservation of the Memorials of the Dead in Ireland, 1909, Vol. VII, No. III, Part 2, pp. 670-672 records a similar inscription on the table portion of monument and about the shaft of the cross, but found elements relating to the year of death and his age somewhat difficult to read. . . . A footnote therein also attested to the reference in the Fiants of Queen Elizabeth of a pardon extended by the Crown in 1585 to Walter fitzWilliam fitzTheobald Bourke of Ileaghe and to his wife Gyles alias Sylye I Dower (or ‘O Dwyer’) and to the death of this Walter Burke recorded in a 1628 County Tipperary Chancery Inquisition as occurring in January 1624. The same inquisition gave his sons as the four outlined on the Glenkeen monument."