William Burton Conyngham
William Burton Conyngham (1733–31 May 1796) was an Anglo-Iirish politician and landowner. He was born William Burton, the son of Francis Burton and Mary Conyngham, sister of Henry Conyngham, 1st Earl Conyngham. In 1781, by Royal Licence, he changed his name to Burton Conyngham to inherit his uncle’s estates.
He studied at Queens’ College, Cambridge, from 1750 and at Lincoln’s Inn from 1753, then pursued a military career, becoming a captain in 1759 and rising to lieutenant-colonel in the 12th Dragoons by 1769. He resigned from the Regular Army in 1774, but in 1793 was appointed colonel to raise and command the Prince of Wales’s Own Donegal Militia.
Conyngham served as a member of the Irish Parliament for several constituencies: Newtown Limavady (1761–1777), Killybegs (1776–1777, 1783–1790), and Ennis (1776–1783, 1790–1796).
He planned a settlement on Rutland Island and, from 1784, built a community there with homes, a post office, a school and a fish landing facility. The island remained inhabited into the 1960s, and the nearby mainland village of Burtonport, which grew around the pier, bears his name. In 1785 he began building Slane Castle on the River Boyne, with help from his nephew, the 1st Marquess Conyngham.
From 1793 he was a Commissioner of the Treasury for Ireland. He is best remembered for presenting the Trinity College Harp to Trinity College Dublin; this harp was later used as the symbol for the insignia of Ireland and was adopted by Guinness as a trademark image.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 00:50 (CET).