Theobald Butler (abt. 1542 - 1596)

Born about 1542 in Cussington, County Meath, Ireland

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 28 Apr 1596 at about age 54 in Cahir, County Tipperary, Ireland

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Sir Theobald Butler was a member of the aristocracy in British Isles.

Note on potential confusion regarding the Barons of Cahir: The Wikipedia profile for Theobald Butler indicates that there were 2 different creations of "Baron Cahir". The first creation was Theobald's paternal uncle Thomas Butler^[1] who married Eleanor Butler, daughter of Piers Butler, 8th Earl of Ormonde. Thomas died in 1558 and their son Edmond Butler became 2nd Baron Cahir but died in 1560 without issue. The title went into abeyance until it was revived for Edmond's first cousin Theobald in 1583.^[2]

Note: The modern spelling for the town and castle in County Tipperary is "Cahir", which is also useful for distinguishing it from another Butler branch which settled in Caher, County Waterford, on the south coast of Ireland.

Biography

From Cokayne's Peerage, 2nd edition, with edits for context and clarity:

• Theobald Butler, cousin and heir male, being son and heir of Piers Butler (living Feb 1568), who was next brother to Thomas (ca.1510-1558), 1st Baron Cahir, by ( — ), daughter of Baron Dunboyne, successor to the estates of the family.

• Theobald was knighted 14 Feb 1567 at Clonmel. Having rendered signal services to the Queen's Government, he was, after the surrender of all rights (confirmed 14 July 1585) on the part of the heirs general, created 6 May 1583, Baron of Caher, to him and the heirs male of his body.^[3][4][5]

• Theobald married Mary, daughter of Sir Thomas Cusack, of Lismullen, County Meath, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, by his 2nd wife, Maud, daughter of George Darcy, of Plattyn, County Meath.

• He died 28 Apr 1596, at Caher. Will dated 27 Nov. 1593, desiring to be buried at Clonmel. His widow was living in 1601.

Verbatim from Lord Dunboyne's "Butler Family History":

• "Theobald Butler, the 1st Lord Cahir of the 1583 creation, was described by the Four Masters as a man of benevolence and great bounty who “had the greatest collection of poems of any, for the most part, of the Normans in Ireland.” His barony is supposed to have expired with Richard Butler, 2nd Earl of Glengall,^[6] in 1858; but probably neither of the Cahir baronies is extinct yet; each of them could very likely be claimed and revived."^[7]

From A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire:^[8]

• "This nobleman received the honour of knighthood in 1567 from Lord Deputy Henry Sidney, who thus mentions him in a letter to the lords of the council, dated Limerick, 27 February 1577":
  • There were with me that descended of English race Sir Maurice Fitzgarrold, brother to the Viscount Decies;^[9] Sir Thibald Butler, whose uncle and cousins-germain were Barons of the Cayre [Cahir], whose lands he lawfully and justly enjoyeth, and better deserveth that title of honour than any of them ever did; for whom I intend more specially to write, for truly ... he is worthy any commendation.

He appears in the 1574 Survey of Ireland:^[10]

• "Men of Name [in the province of Munster]: Earl of Ormond, Count Palatine; Baron of Don Boyen [Dunboyne], Sir Tobot [Tibbot/Theobald] Butler of Cayer [Cahir], James Tobyn of the Compsey, Piers Butler of Grallo [Grallagh], O’Mulreans [O'Mulryan], O’Kennedy of Ormonde, Purcell, Baron Loughmaye [Loughmoe]; Cantwell."^[11]

Marriage & Children

Theobald married Mary Cusack, daughter of Sir Thomas Cusack of Cussington, County Meath, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and his 2nd wife Maud Darcy. Theobald was invested as a Knight on 14 February 1567 at Clonmel. His last will was dated 27 Nov 1593. He died on 28 Apr 1596 at Cahir, County Tipperary. He had issue:

• Thomas Butler, 2nd Baron Cahir (born circa 1568, died 31 Jan 1626/27);^[12]
• Piers Butler of Cloghcullie, County Tipperary, who married Eleanor, the daughter of Pierce Butler of Callan, County Kilkenny,^[13] father of Thomas, the 3rd Baron^[14][15]
• Edmund left a son Thomas;
• Mary Butler married Sir Cormac McCarthy of Blarney, and was the mother of the 1st Viscount Muskerry;
• Ellen married Richard Butler of Ballyboe, County Tipperary;
• James Butler (died 1630) was involved in the rebellion of 1598. He re-took his brother Thomas' castle in 1600 following the famous siege of Cahir Castle. James was father to the 5th Lord Cahir.
• Eleanor, who was said to have married John Butler, eldest son of James Butler, 2nd Baron Dunboyne; but the claim, made in the course of an inheritance dispute over the right to the Dunboyne title, was probably false.^[16]

Sources

• Pedigree of Butler, Baron Cahir and Earl of Glengall, and of Knockananomagh, and of Glengall in Co. Tipperary, and of Knocklofty, c. 1500 - 1829 GO MS 170. Ireland. Genealogical Office. Registered Pedigrees Vol. 16, [between ca. 1816 and 1817]. pp. 225-230 (Image 97. Genealogical Office. The National Archives of Ireland

• Cokayne's Peerage entry for the Barons of Cahir:
  • Cokayne, George Edward and Vicary Gibbs ed. Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom,Vol. II: Bass - Canning, 2nd edition (London, 1912).
    • https://archive.org/details/completepeerageo02coka/page/464/mode/2up

• wikipedia:Theobald Butler, 1st Baron Cahir

• Burke, Sir Bernard (1866). A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire. London: Harrison and Sons, p. 96.
  • Butlers of Cahir

• Theobald's ancestor Piers Butler (d. 1464), Lord of Cahir, son of James Gallda Butler, as profiled in the Dictionary of Irish Biography:
  • https://dib.cambridge.org/viewReadPage.do?articleId=a1275

• History of Cahir Castle through the ages, from the blog entry (11 Sep 2020) of Rev. Patrick Comerford:
  • http://www.patrickcomerford.com/2020/09/cahir-castle-childhood-pit-stop-and.html

1. ↑ Wikipedia: Thomas Butler
2. ↑ Lodge, Edmund, "The genealogy of the existing British peerage with brief sketches of the family history of the nobility.", 1832, pg 160.
3. ↑ A footnote in Cokayne gives the following context about the title going into abeyance after 1560 (death of Theobald's cousin Edmund):
   • On Edmund's death (1560) the Barony fell into abeyance between the heirs general, i.e., the 2 daughters of [Thomas, 1st Baron Cahir] his father by the 2nd wife, viz. (1) Ellenor Butler and (2) Thomas Prendergast, son and heir of Thomas of Newcastle, by Joan Butler, another of the said daughters. The Queen wrote to the Lords Justices "to travel earnestly" with these ladies to surrender the dignity. This was done accordingly by deed, dated at Cahir, 14 July 1585, in which they surrendered to "our well beloved cosen Sir Theobald Butler of the Cahir, Knt., the name, dignitie, estate, lordship, degree, creacion, prehemynences and pryvileges of Lord Baron of the Cahir descended and come to us from the said Sir Thomas Butler [their father] as his heyres..."
4. ↑ Note: This was the same Thomas Prendergast murdered at Cahir Castle in 1626 in a dispute with Edmund, 3rd Baron Dunboyne, whose wife was Sir Theobald's granddaughter.
5. ↑ Cokayne records that it was Lord Deputy Henry Sidney who had earlier (1569) recommended Theobald for this title.
6. ↑ Son of Richard Butler, 1st Earl of Glengall
7. ↑ Patrick Theobald Tower Butler (Lord Dunboyne), "Butler Family History", Butler Society, Kilkenny, Ireland (1966), pp.29:
   • https://archive.org/details/butlerfamilyhist00dunb/page/28/mode/2up?q=glengall
8. ↑ A Genealogical History of the Dormant: Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct, p.96
9. ↑ Sidney's wording is a bit confusing here. Is he evoking Maurice FitzGerald, their famous English (Welsh) ancestor who settled in Ireland in the 1100s? As for the Decies men living in the period 1567-1577, the 3 options would be the Viscount Decies himself, Maurice (d.1571), his next brother James, 5th Lord Decies (d.1580), or the youngest brother Gerald (d.1599).
10. ↑ Sir Henry Blackall, The Butlers of County Clare, Appendix V: Survey of Ireland, 1574. (from the Carew Manuscripts, Lambeth Palace Library, Vol. 621 p. 106):
    • http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/genealogy/butlers/appendix5.htm
11. ↑ Likely referring to Piers Cantwell, head of his family at Moykarky, Co. Tipperary.
12. ↑ Thomas' daughter Margaret married Edmund Butler, 3rd/13th Lord of Dunboyne
13. ↑ Cokayne (revised edition, 1910) puts Piers as husband of Eleanor (daughter of Pierce Butler of Callan) and father of Thomas, 3rd Baron. Meanwhile, Burke (1866) says it was Edmund who married Eleanor and had Thomas. Opting here for Piers, given that Cokayne is the newer, revised version:
    • https://archive.org/details/completepeerageo02coka/page/466/mode/2up
14. ↑ Thomas, 3rd Baron, married Eleanor, sister of John, 5th Baron Power
15. ↑ Thomas, 3rd Baron Cahir, was one of the leaders of the Munster uprising in 1641 Irish Rebellion. See profile of Theobald Purcell, Baron of Loughmoe.
16. ↑ John Butler was murdered in 1602 by Oliver Grace, and the next brother, Pierce Butler, tried in vain to have John's son Edmund declared illegitimate. Details on Pierce's profile.