ABSTRACT
Son of Richard, the first, the "Great," Earl of Cork, Robert was born on January 26th, 1627, in the reign of Charles I. The circumstances of his life illustrate in an interesting way the frequent coincidence of intellectual activity with political or revolutionary disturbance in a nation. For Boyle was a witness of the destruction of the British Monarchy and its restoration, violent parliamentary oscillations and repeated changes in the national religion, the Great Plague and the Great Fire of London. An account of Robert Boyle during his minority was left by Boyle himself under the pseudonym Philaretus, and from this autobiography, though never completed; several incidents of his early life may be extracted. Roger Boyle, born at Youghal in 1606, was sent to school in England when he was seven years old. He stayed the greater part of the time with relatives of his mother, at Deptford, and there after a short illness he died.
