The son and heir of Miles Burke, 2nd Viscount Mayo, by his first wife Honora, Bourke was reported to have been educated at Oxford, which at the time was open only to Anglicans. Like his father, he was said to have been created a Baronet (Scotland) about 1638. As Sir Theobald Bourke, he was one of the two Members of Parliament for County Mayo from 1640 to 1649, when he succeeded his father in the Lords; he distinguished himself in the Royal cause during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.[1]
He married twice: firstly after September 1634, Elizabeth Talbot, daughter of Thomas Talbot and Anne Fleetwood; secondly Eleanor, daughter of Sir Luke FitzGerald, of Tecroghan, County Meath, by Mary, daughter of Nicholas, 1st Viscount Netterville.[1]
He had four children with Elizabeth Talbot; his heir Theobald Bourke the fourth Viscount Mayo, Miles Bourke the fifth Viscount Mayo, Margaret Bourke who married Sir Henry Lynch, 3rd Baronet, and Maud Bourke.
His daughter Maud married Colonel John Browne who built the first Westport House.[2]
Execution
In December 1652, Mayo was found guilty by Cromwell's High Court of Justice in Connaught, of murders committed in the 'late rebellion', and was “ shot to death,” 15 January I652/3, at Galway, and buried there.[3] His widow died in 1693.
Arms
Coat of arms of Theobald Bourke, 3rd Viscount Mayo
Crest
On a Chapeau Gules, turned up Ermine, a Lion sejant Argent, langued Gules, ducally gorged Or.
Escutcheon
Party per fess Or and Ermine, a cross gules, in the first quarter a lion rampant sable and in the 2nd a dexter Hand affrontée, both Sable.
Supporters
Dexter: A Harpy guardant wings and lions body Or, human face neck chest and hair proper, armed Gules; Sinister: A Man in Armour to the middle of his thigh, Sword proper, suspended from a Belt Gules, about his head a square White Band, sandles Sable, in the exterior hand a Battle-Axe proper.[4][5]
