d of October 1566, and was
educated at the King's school and at Bennet (Corpus Christi) College,
Cambridge, where he was admitted in 1583. He afterwards studied law at
the Middle Temple and became clerk to Sir Richard Manwood, chief baron
of the exchequer; but finding his position offered little opportunity
for advancement he determined to make a new start in Ireland. He landed
in Dublin on the 23rd of June 1588, as he relates himself, with L27, 3s.
in money, a gold bracelet worth L10, and a diamond ring, besides some
fine wearing apparel. He began to make his fortune almost immediately.
In 1590 he obtained the appointment of deputy escheator to John Crofton,
the escheator-general, and in 1595 he married Joan, daughter and
co-heiress of William Appsley of Limerick, who died in 1599, having
brought him an estate of L500 a year.

Meanwhile he had been the object of the attacks of Sir Henry Wallop and
others, incited, according to his own account, by envy at his success
and increasing prosperity, and was apprehended on various charges of
fraud in his office, being more than once thrown into prison. He was on
the point of leaving for England to justify himself to the queen, when
the rebellion in Munster in October 1598 again reduced him to poverty
and obliged him to return to London to his chambers at the Temple. He
was, however, almost immediately taken by Essex into his service, when
Sir Henry Wallop again renewed his prosecution, with the result that
Boyle was summoned before the star chamber. His enemies appear to have
failed in substantiating their accusations, and in the course of the
inquiry, at which he had secured the presence of the queen herself, he
was able to expose several instances of malversation on the part of his
opponent, who was dismissed in consequence from his office of treasurer,
while Boyle himself, who had favourably impressed the queen, was
declared by her as "a man fit to be employed by ourselves" and was at
once made clerk of the council of Munster. He brought to Elizabeth the
news of the victory near Kingsale in December 1601, and in October 1602
was again sent over by Sir George Carew, the president of Munster, on
Irish affairs; and on this occasion, at the instance of Carew, he bought
for L1000 the whole of Sir Walter Raleigh's lands in Cork, Waterford and
Tipperary, consisting of 12,000 acres with immense capabilities of
development. This offered a splendid opportunity for the exercise of his