John Smith de Burgh, 11th Earl of Clanricarde

Lord John Smith Burke was born to Michael Burke, 10th Earl of Clanricarde and his wife Anne Smith in 1720. He was the couple's fourth and last child, and the heir to the earldom, having two older sisters. An older brother had died in infancy. He succeeded his father on the latter's death in 1726, at the age of six.

Lord Clanricarde was educated at Winchester College. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1753. He was a Privy Counsellor of Ireland for eight days in 1761, being struck off the list of the Council on 16 July.[1] He died in April 1782 at Portumna Castle, County Galway and was buried in the Dominican friary, Athenry.

In 1740, he married Hester Amelia Vincent, daughter of Sir Henry Vincent, 6th Baronet of Stoke d'Abernon. He changed his name to de Burgh by deed poll in 1752.

The couple had four children:

• Lady Hester Amelia de Burgh
• Lady Margaret Augusta de Burgh, wife of Luke Dillon (d.1825) of Hall Place, Warnford, Hampshire.[2] The couple's funeral hatchment survives in the Church of Our Lady, Warnford.[3]
• Sir Henry de Burgh, 1st and last Marquess of Clanricarde
• General John Thomas de Burgh, 13th Earl of Clanricarde.

• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages
• Portumna Castle and its Lords, Michael Mac Mahon, 1983.
• Burke:People and Places, Eamon Bourke, Dublin, 1995.
• From Warlords to Landlords:Political and Social Change in Galway 1540–1640, Bernadette Cunningham, in "Galway:History and Society", 1996.