William de Burgh

William de Burgh (; ; ; ; –winter 1205/06) was the founder of the House of Burgh (later surnamed Burke or Bourke) in Ireland and elder brother of Hubert de Burgh, 1st Earl of Kent and Geoffrey de Burgh, Bishop of Ely. In Ireland William de Burgh was the eldest son of Walter de Burgh and his wife, Alice, of Burgh-next-Aylsham, Norfolk or Burgh, Suffolk, and had three brothers: Hubert, Earl of Kent, Thomas, and Geoffrey, Bishop of Ely. Ellis has made a case that William's father was Walter de Burgh but notes this is "highly conjectural". William was "one of the new wave of Anglo-Normans to come to Ireland with John, lord of Ireland, in 1185" and has been described as "one of the most prominent men involved in the annexation of the kingdom of Limerick in the last quarter of the twelfth century".