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Life
| ?1620-1682 [occas. Burlace]; b. Dublin, son of Sir John Borlase, Chief Justice 1640-43 [q.v.]; Ed. TCD; grad. Doctor of Physic, Leiden 1650; studied further at Oxford and grad. MD Oxon., 1660; practised medicine at Chester, patronised by Earl of Derby; wrote the Reduction of Ireland (1675), based unfaithfully on MS of Earl of Clarendon [Edward Hyde]; The History of the Execrable Irish Rebellion (1680), an expurgated copy of same, was issued by Roger L’Estrange; |
| Borlase was answered in Castlehaven’s Memoir ... of his engagement and his carriage in the Irish War (1680) and later pilloried in Matthew Carey’s Hibernia Vindiciae (1819); he returned to the attack in Brief Reflections on the Earl of Castlehaven’s Memoirs (1682); also Brief Reflections on the Earl of Castlehaven’s Memoirs; the copy of Reduction in the Bishop Stearne Collection of Marsh’s Library is a replacement of the lost original. RR ODNB DIW OCIL |
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Works
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Bibliographical details
The History of the Execrable Irish Rebellion, trac’d from many preceding acts to the Grand Eruption of the 23 of October 1641 and thence pursued to the Act of Settlement MDCLXII [1662], 138pp. Epigraph, Spartanos ... &c.’, Sen Hipplytus; includes ‘A Collection of Murthers in several counties of Ireland, pp.109-25; also as an appendix, ‘Dr Bedel[l] Bishop of Kilmore his Information of the Papists Insolence.’ Another edn., [Do.] to which are added letters to and from Oliver Cromwell, Ireton, Preston, et al., ed. Roger L’Estrange (1680); Brief Reflections on the Earl of Castlehaven’s Memoirs of his engagement and his carriage in the Wars in Ireland. By which the Government at that time and justice of the Crown since, are vindicated from aspersions cast upon both [with Epistle to the King, signed ‘E. B.’] (1682). (London: Robrt Clavel MDCLXXX); includes ‘A Collection of Murthers in several counties of Ireland, pp.109-125. Includes an index, viz., ‘Dr Bedel Bishop of Kilmore his Information of the Papists Insolence.’
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Criticism
Ann de Valera, Antiquarian and historical investigations in Ireland in the eighteenth century (MA thesis UCD 1978); Royce MacGillivary, ‘Edmund Borlase, Historian of the Irish Rebellion,’ in Studium Hibernicis., 9 (1969) 86-92; Alan Ford, ‘Past but still present: Edmund Borlase, Richard Parr and the reshaping of Irish history for English audiences in the 1680s’, in Reshaping Ireland, 1500-1700: Colonization of and Its Consequences, ed. Brian Mac Cuarta (Dublin: Four Courts Press 2011), Chap. 13 [pp.281-99].
[ See also quotation, under Roger Boyle (Lord Broghill), - infra. ]
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Commentary
William [Archbishop Derry] The Irish Historical Library (1724), Edmund Borlase [whose Brief Reflections was in defence of his father and William Parsons, and whom Dr Nalson [has censured as] ‘being openly and avowedly a favourer of faction’ and ‘an author of such strange Inconsistency’ that he is ‘rather a paradox than a history’, noting that Clarendon’s manuscript has been ‘very unartfully blended it with his own rough and unpolish’d heap of Matter’ (Nelson, intro. to Impart. Collect., ii p.8) [56]
Joep Th. Leerssen, Mere Irish & Fíor Ghael (1986), gives an account of Borlase’s History noting that it reappeared in 1743 (p.483).
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| Richard Ryan, Biographia Hibernica: Irish Worthies, Vol. I [of 2] (London & Dublin 1819) - “Edmund Borlase” |
| OF this skilful physician and celebrated historian so few particulars are known, that we should have been inclined to have passed him over in silence, had not his interesting account of the great rebellion in 1641, claimed our peculiar notice. He was the son of Sir John Borlase, master of the ordnance, and one of the lords justices of Ireland. He was born in Dublin, and received his education in the university of that city, and afterwards travelled to Leyden, his inclination for medicine leading him to prefer finishing his studies at that place, which was then the best school to acquire a knowledge of that art. He remained there for some years, and took his degree as doctor of physic in 1650, soon after which he returned to England, and was admitted to the same degree at Oxford. At length he settled at Chester, where he continued till his death in 1682, practising his profession with great reputation and success. The following may be enumerated among his productions; “Latham Spaw in Lancashire; with some remarkable Cases and Cures effected by it,” London, 1670, dedicated to Charles, Earl of Derby. “The Reduction of Ireland to the Crown of England; with the Governors, since the Conquest by king Henry II. anno 1172, and some Passages in their Government. A brief Account of the Rebellion Ann. Dom. 1641.” Also the [“]Original of the University of Dublin, and the College of Physicians.” “Brief Reflections on the Earl of Castlehaven’s Memoirs of his Engagement and Carriage in the War of Ireland. By which the Government of that time, and the Justice of the Crown since, are vindicated from {123} Aspersions cast upon both.” And lastly, his most extensive and celebrated work, “The History of the execrable Irish Rebellion, traced from many preceding Acts to the Grand Eruption, October 23, 1641; and thence pursued to the Act of Settlement 1672.” Wood informs us that much of this is taken from “The Irish Rebellion; or, the History of the beginning and first Progress of the General Rebellion raised within the Kingdom of Ireland, October, 23, 1641,” which was written by Sir John Temple, master of the rolls, and one of his majesty’s privy council in Ireland, and father of the’celebrated Sir William Temple. The following observations on this work are by Dr. Nalson, who says, “That besides the nearness of his relation to one of the lords justices, and his being avowedly a favourer of the faction, men, and actions of those times, he is an author of such strange inconsistency, that his book is rather a paradox than a history. And it must needs be so; for I know not by what accident the copy of a MS written by the Earl of Clarendon, happening to fall into his hands, he has very unartfully blended it with his own rough and unpolished heap of matter; so that his book looks like a curious embroidery, sowed with coarse thread upon a piece of sackcloth. And truly had he no other crime than that of a plagiary, it is such a sort of theft to steal the child of another’s brain, that may well render him suspected not to be overstocked with honesty and justice, so necessary to the reputation of an unblemished historian; but it is far more unpardonable to castrate the lawful issue of another man’s pen, and thereby disable it from propagating truth, and to teach it.to speak a language which the parent never intended. And yet this is the exact case of Dr. Borlase’s history, in which he has taken great pains to expunge some, and alter many passages, which he thought were too poignant against his favourites, or spoke too much in vindication of his late “majesty and his ministers!” |
| See full copy in RICORSO > Library > Criticism > History > Legacy - via index, or as attached. |
Henry Bradshaw Collection of Irish Books in the University Library, Cambridge (Cambridge UP 1916), Vol. 1, lists Edmund Borlase, History [printed O Nelson] 1743 Folio, in association with the bookseller Charles Connor [sic]; who is also associated with Clanricarde, Memoirs [S Power] 1744, 8o (p.247).
Muriel McCarthy & Caroline Sherwood Smith, Hibernia Resurgens: Marsh’s Irish Books [Catalogue of 1994 Exhibition] (Dublin: Marsh’s Library 1994), item 61, p.62: The father contributes some personal reflections, of which they mention the unforgettable picutre of Collonel Hugh Oge-Mac-Mahone, one of the rebels arrested and brought before the lord justice, drawing ‘Gibbets (in Chalk) with men hanging on them in several places in the Lorrd Borlases Hall’; finds the work less interesting than the title suggests; one his infamous History of the execrable Irish rebellion (1680), the catalogue quotes Sir James Ware (Writers of Ireland, ed. Harris, 1745), citing Dr. Nalson: ‘the copy of a M.S. written by the Earl of Clarendon happing to fall into his hands, he has very unartfully blended it with his own rought and unpolished Heap of Matter’; took ‘great pains to expunge some and alter many Passages’ to make the whole reflect what the eds. call his own rabid protestantism.
Cathach Books (Cat. 12) lists Burlace [sic], The History of the Irish Rebellion - traced from many preceeding Acts, to the grand eruption 23rd October 1641; and Thence pursued to the Act of Settlement [?]1592 (1793).
British Library holds Reduction of Ireland to the Crown of England by King Henry II anno 1172, with some passages in the government; A brief account of the Rebellion anno Dom. 1641, and originals of the Universitie of Dublin and the College of Physicians ... from a manuscript by Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon (1675); HISTORY OF THE EXCRABLE REBELLION traced from many preceeding acts to the grand eruption, 23 Oct. 1641, and thence pursued to the Act of Settlement (1682). Another ed., ... to which are added letters to and from Oliver Cromwell, Ireton, Preston, et al. [A compilation; expurgated by Roger L’Estrange and issued as Execrable Rebellion, London 1680, ODNB]; Brief Reflections on the Earl of Castlehaven’s Memoirs of his engagement and his carriage in the Wars in Ireland. By which the Government at that time and justice of the Crown since, are vindicated from aspersions cast upon both [with Epistle to the King, signed ‘E. B.’] (1682).
Ulster Libraries, Belfast Public Library History of the Execrable Irish Rebellion (1680); Reductions of Ireland to English Crown (1675); Belfast Linen Hall Library holds History of the Irish Rebellion 1641-1680 (1680); Library of Herbert Bell, Belfast, holds Reductions.
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Notes
A Dictionary of Irish Writers, ed. Brian Cleeve & Anne Brady (Dublin: Lilliput 1985), contains errors under Borlase and Castlehaven.
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