[1] Like most of the Priors of Kilmainham in the fourteenth century he was English by birth, (a fact sometimes resented by the Irish monks), and he had entered the Order of St. John in England.
The Knights of St John were a fighting Order of monks, and the Prior had long played a key role in the defence of Dublin and the Pale surrounding it.
In 1359 the Privy Council ordered him to be paid £43 as a reward for his good services in defence of Dublin against the O'Tooles of County Wicklow, and mounting a punitive campaign against them, at a time when the Exchequer of Ireland simply had no money to pay for regular troops.
[3] He clashed with many of his judicial colleagues, notably Richard White, the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, and numerous complaints of maladministration and corruption were made against him.
He was removed as Lord Chancellor in 1364, after the Irish House of Commons sent a powerful delegation, including White and Maurice Fitzgerald, 4th Earl of Kildare, to England to complain of his misconduct; the precise complaint being that he had seriously misrepresented to King Edward III the state of affairs in Ireland.
[7] Burley was appointed to negotiate a treaty with them, together with John Fitzrichard, High Sheriff of Meath, and Robert Tyrrel, Baron of Castleknock.