Toby Bourke

Theobald Bourke (1675–12 May 1742), also known as Toby Bourke and Tobias du Bourk, was an Irish Jacobite courtier, agent and diplomat.

Biography Bourke was born at Shanid, County Limerick, the son of Richard Bourke and his wife Silena O'Brien. In Madrid he became the leading agent of Jacobite activity in Spain, assisting in the affairs of Irish emigres and exiles, such as James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde, and facilitating the entry of men into the Regiment of Hibernia. In 1705 he also became an informant for the French diplomat, the Marquess of Torcy, to whom Bourke sent detailed written reports twice a year in return for an annual subsidy of 6,000 francs from Louis XIV.

The Peace of Utrecht in 1713 saw relations deteriorate between the Jacobite and Spanish courts, but Bourke continued to reside in Spain. In 1715, the Spanish diplomat Giulio Alberoni commissioned Bourke to conduct an embassy to Charles XII of Sweden, but the mission was later abandoned. He had returned to Spain by 1739 and died in that country in 1742.