Thomas Burgh (1670–1730)

Colonel Thomas de Burgh 1670 – 18 December 1730), always named in his lifetime as Thomas Burgh, was an Irish military engineer, architect, and Member of the Parliament of Ireland. He designed a number of the large public buildings of Dublin including the old Custom House (1704–6), Trinity College Library (1712–33), Dr Steevens' Hospital (1719), the Linen Hall (1722), and the Royal Barracks (1701 onwards).

Thomas Burgh was the son of Rt Rev Ulysses Burgh (d. 1692) of Drumkeen, County Limerick, who was Dean of Emly and later Bishop of Ardagh. His mother was Mary, daughter of William Kingsmill of Ballibeg, County Cork. His brothers, Richard Burgh of Dromkeen and Drumrusk and William Burgh of Bert House, Athy, were both Members of the Irish Parliament.

Thomas was educated at Delany's school in Dublin, and Trinity College, Dublin, where he matriculated on 22 November 1685 and left without taking a degree. Prior to the outbreak of the 1688 wars he is likely to have left Ireland for London with his father. He returned to Ireland in the army of King William III, as a lieutenant in Lord Lovelace's regiment of foot, and served at the Siege of Limerick. This may have been followed by a brief spell in the Irish engineers from 1691. In any case, de Burgh was commissioned as a Captain in 1692 in the Royal Regiment of Foot. In this capacity he served in the Low Countries at the battles of Steenkerke (1692) and Landen (1693), and as engineer at the siege of Namur (1695). During this time, he absorbed the ideas of the Dutch engineer Menno van Coehoorn (1641–1740). In 1697 he became Third Engineer on the Irish establishment.

...
Wikipedia