"Robert Boyle was a younger son of Richard Boyle, first earl of Cork, the next to last of his father's sixteen children, and the youngest surviving son. Boyle's father was... a self-made man... it is probable that his parents were of yeomen stock. Arriving in Dublin from England at age twenty-one... he launched a career whose ambition and acquisitiveness were matched only by its spectacular success. ...All this was not achieved without manking many enemies. In their view, and that of most Irish historians, Boyle was a robber baron of heroic stature, using his position to defraud Irish landowners... of their existing titles and and to pass title to himself at absurdly deflated prices. He then expelled the Irish tenants and replaced them with more pliable and profitable English settlers. ...Boyle was twice imprisoned, and he was obliged to use his considerable connections to obtain a royal pardon for... charges of fraud."