Katherine Jones, Viscountess Ranelagh (1615–1691) was a leading Anglo-Irish intellectual in London of the Interregnum

Interregnum

An interregnum is a period of discontinuity or "gap" in a government, organization, or social order...

 period. She was sister to Robert Boyle

Robert Boyle

Robert Boyle FRS was a 17th century natural philosopher, chemist, physicist, and inventor, also noted for his writings in theology. He has been variously described as English, Irish, or Anglo-Irish, his father having come to Ireland from England during the time of the English plantations of...

, and in her own right a political and social figure closely connected to the Hartlib Circle

Hartlib Circle

The Hartlib Circle refers primarily to the correspondence network set up in Western and Central Europe by Samuel Hartlib, an intelligencer based in London, and his associates, in the period 1630 to 1660.-Structure:J. T. Young writes:...

.

Life

She was born Katherine Boyle, daughter of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork

Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork

Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork , also known as the Great Earl of Cork, was Lord Treasurer of the Kingdom of Ireland....

 and one of a very large and important Anglo-Irish family. She married Arthur Jones, 2nd Viscount Ranelagh

Arthur Jones, 2nd Viscount Ranelagh

Arthur Jones, 2nd Viscount Ranelagh was an Irish politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1640 to 1643.Jones was the son of Roger Jones, 1st Viscount Ranelagh and his wife Frances Moore, daughter of Sir Garret Moore, eventual 1st Viscount Moore of Drogheda. He succeeded to the titles of...

, in 1630.

In the mid-1640s in London, having left Ireland after the rebellion of 1641

Irish Rebellion of 1641

The Irish Rebellion of 1641 began as an attempted coup d'état by Irish Catholic gentry, who tried to seize control of the English administration in Ireland to force concessions for the Catholics living under English rule...

, she came to be a friend and supporter of John Milton

John Milton

John Milton was an English poet, polemicist, a scholarly man of letters, and a civil servant for the Commonwealth of England under Oliver Cromwell...

, sending him as pupil her nephew Richard Barry

Richard Barry, 2nd Earl of Barrymore

Richard Barry, 2nd Earl of Barrymore, 7th Viscount Buttevant, 20th Baron Barry was the son of David Barry, 1st Earl of Barrymore and Lady Alice Boyle....

 in 1645. Barry was followed some time later by her son Richard.

Apart from Samuel Hartlib

Samuel Hartlib

Samuel Hartlib was a German-British polymath. An active promoter and expert writer in many fields, he was interested in science, medicine, agriculture, politics, and education. He settled in England, where he married and died...

 himself and his closest ally John Dury

John Dury

John Dury was a Scottish Calvinist minister and a significant intellectual of the English Civil War period. He made efforts to re-unite the Calvinist and Lutheran wings of Protestantism, hoping to succeed when he moved to Kassel in 1661, but he did not accomplish this...

, she knew John Beale

John Beale (writer)

John Beale was an English clergyman, scientific writer, and early Fellow of the Royal Society. He contributed to John Evelyn's Sylva, or A Discourse of Forest-Trees and the Propagation of Timber, and was an influential author on orchards and cider...

, Arnold Boate and Gerard Boate

Gerard Boate

Gerard Boate was a Dutch physician, known for his Natural History of Ireland.-Life:...

, Sir Cheney Culpeper, Theodore Haak

Theodore Haak

Theodore Haak was a German Calvinist scholar, resident in England in later life. Haak’s communications abilities and interests in the new science provided the backdrop for convening the “1645 Group,” a precursor of the Royal Society.Although not himself known as a natural philosopher, Haak's...

, William Petty

William Petty

Sir William Petty FRS was an English economist, scientist and philosopher. He first became prominent serving Oliver Cromwell and Commonwealth in Ireland. He developed efficient methods to survey the land that was to be confiscated and given to Cromwell's soldiers...

, Robert Wood

Robert Wood (mathematician)

-Life:Born at Pepperharrow, near Godalming in Surrey, in 1621 or 1622, was the son of Robert Wood , rector of Pepperharrow. He was educated at Eton College, and matriculated from New Inn Hall on 3 July 1640. Obtaining one of the Eton postmasterships at Merton College in 1642, he graduated B. A....

 and Benjamin Worsley

Benjamin Worsley

Benjamin Worsley was an English physician, Surveyor-General of Ireland, experimental scientist, civil servant and intellectual figure of Commonwealth England. He studied at Trinity College, Dublin, but may not have graduated....

. Christopher Hill

Christopher Hill (historian)

John Edward Christopher Hill , usually known simply as Christopher Hill, was an English Marxist historian and author of textbooks....

 suggested that her house may have been the meeting place of the "Invisible College

Invisible College

The Invisible College has been described as a precursor group to the Royal Society of London, consisting of a number of natural philosophers around Robert Boyle...

" of the later 1640s. From 1656 Henry Oldenburg

Henry Oldenburg

Henry Oldenburg was a German theologian known as a diplomat and a natural philosopher. He was one of the foremost intelligencers of Europe of the seventeenth century, with a network of correspondents to rival those of Fabri de Peiresc, Marin Mersenne and Ismaël Boulliau...

 was tutor to her son Richard. In the 1650s her brother Robert Boyle had a laboratory in her London house, as well as in Oxford, and they experimented together. She was also prominent in the Hartlib Circle

Hartlib Circle

The Hartlib Circle refers primarily to the correspondence network set up in Western and Central Europe by Samuel Hartlib, an intelligencer based in London, and his associates, in the period 1630 to 1660.-Structure:J. T. Young writes:...

 of correspondents.

In 1656 she went to Ireland on family business, staying several years. With Arthur Annesley

Arthur Annesley, 1st Earl of Anglesey

Arthur Annesley, 1st Earl of Anglesey PC was an Anglo-Irish royalist statesman. After short periods as President of the Council of State and Treasurer of the Navy, he served as Lord Privy Seal between 1673 and 1682 for Charles II...

 and William Morice

William Morice (Secretary of State)

Sir William Morice was an English statesman and theologian. He served as Secretary of State for the Northern Department and a Lord of the Treasury from June 1660 to September 1668....

 she interceded for Milton, arrested after the English Restoration

English Restoration

The Restoration of the English monarchy began in 1660 when the English, Scottish and Irish monarchies were all restored under Charles II after the Interregnum that followed the Wars of the Three Kingdoms...

 of 1660. In 1668 her brother Robert came to live with her on Pall Mall

Pall Mall

-Places:* Pall Mall, urban downtown ares of Bendigo, Australia* Pall Mall, London, a street in the City of Westminster, London* Pall Mall, Tennessee, a small unincorporated community in Fentress County, Tennessee...

.

Family

Her children were:

• Catherine, born 1633, who married Sir William Parsons and then in 1660 Hugh Montgomery, 1st Earl of Mount Alexander
  Hugh Montgomery, 1st Earl of Mount Alexander
  Hugh Montgomery, 1st Earl of Mount Alexander , known as The Viscount Montgomery from 1642 to 1661, was an Irish peer. He was appointed to command his father's regiment, 1642. He was commander-in-chief of the Royalist army in Ulster in 1649 and seized successively Belfast, Antrim, and Carrickfergus...
  
  .
• Elizabeth;
• Frances, born 1639
• Richard Jones, 1st Earl of Ranelagh
  Richard Jones, 1st Earl of Ranelagh
  Richard Jones, 1st Earl of Ranelagh PC FRS , known as The Viscount Ranelagh between 1669 and 1677, was an Irish peer, politician both in the Parliaments of England and Ireland.-Background:...
  
  , born 1640.