KING GEORGE'S IRISH DESCENT. [To THE EDITOR OP THE "
STECTATOR."1
Sia,—Mr. C. L. Kingsford in the Spectator of June 24th clearly proves that the suggested Irish descent of King George—either through a daughter of Roderick O'Conor, wife of Hugh de Lacy (senior), or through a suggested inter- marriage of Richard Mor de Burgh with Una (Agnes), daughter of Hugh O'Conor (son of Cathal Crovedearg O'Conor)—cannot now be supported. But King George's Irish descent may probably be sustained through an O'Brien —not an O'Conor—ancestry. William de Burgh—the first of the name in Ireland—went to that country probably along with Prince John in A.D. 1185; he was certainly in Ireland before the death of King Henry II. in A.D. 1189 ; and he died A.D. 1205-6. His son Richard Mor de Burgh was a minor at his father's death, but came of age about A.D. 1214, when he got seisin of his father's lands (Patent Roll, 16 John). Richard Mor de Burgh must therefore have been born about A.D. 1193. Now according to a tract in the " Great Book of Lecan " (an Irish MS. preserved in the Royal Irish Academy), Compiled about A.D. 1418 (from earlier sources) by Giolla Ise MacFirbis, a daughter (whose name is not recorded) of Donnell Mor O'Brien, King of Thomond (who died A.D. 1194), married William de Burgh, there described as " William Finn (the Fair)," and "was the mother of Richard, from whom are the Clan-Rickard (Burkes)."
If that lady be the mother of Richard Mor de Burgh—and it is probable she was, having regard to the date of the birth of Richard Mor de Burgh—then King George's Irish descent through her would be established, for the King's descent from Richard Mor de Burgh is well authenticated. I have found nothing in the English State Records to discredit the marriage of the first William de Bergh with a daughter of Donnell Mor O'Brien, King of Thomond. Another daughter of Donnell Mor O'Brien, namely, Mor (Mary), certainly married Cathal Crovedearg O'Conor, King of Connaught. O'Conor Don is their lineal descendant in the male line. The first William de Burgh in Ireland has long been wrongly identified with William Fitz Andelin, the steward (dapifer) of King Henry II., who was appointed that King's Deputy in Ireland in Jane, A.D. 1176. Neither the name of the father nor the ancestry of the first William de Burgh in Ireland has ever yet been satisfactorily ascertained.—I am, Sir, &c., If. J. D.
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