Thomas Butler KB (abt. 1425 - abt. 1515)

Born about 1425 in Ireland

Ancestors

Husband of Anne (Hankford) Butler — married before 11 Jul 1445 in England

Husband of Lora (Berkeley) Butler — married before Nov 1496 in England

Descendants

Died about 3 Aug 1515 at about age 90 in England

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Magna Carta Project WikiTree [send private message]

Magna Carta Surety Baron Descendant (see text). Join: Magna Carta Project Discuss: magna_carta

Disambiguation This person in NOT the Sir Thomas Boteler of Bewsey, Lancashire, the first, XVth Baron of Warrington, b 1461, d 27 Apr 1522, son of Sir John Boteler and Margaret Stanley who married Margaret Delves born c1492, daughter of Sir John Delves of Doddington, Knight, and Elen de Egerton.

Biography

Birth and Parents

Thomas was a younger son of James Butler, 4th Earl of Ormonde and his first wife Joan Beauchamp. His birth date is uncertain.^[1][2][3] He was born in Ireland.^[4]

Marriages and Children

Thomas married twice. His first wife was Anne Hankford, daughter and co-heiress of Richard Hankford and his second wife Anne de Montagu. They married before 11 July 1445.^[1][2][3] They had two daughters:

• Anne, who married Ambrose Cresacre and James St Leger^[1][2]
• Margaret, who married William Boleyn^[1][2]

Thomas's first wife died on 13 November 1485. He remarried before November 1496, his second wife being Lora Berkeley, widow of John Blount and Thomas Montgomery, and daughter of Edward Berkeley and Christian Holt.^[1][2][3] They had one daughter:

• Elizabeth^[1][2]

Lora died before 30 December 1501.^[3]

Life

Thomas was a Lancastrian during the first part of the Wars of the Roses. He was attainted in November 1461. He then supported the attempted rebellion in Ireland of his brother John against Edward IV, and this led to a second attainder in January 1462/3. He joined other leading Lancastrians in exile in France, returning to England after Henry VI regained the throne in 1470. On 4 May 1471 he was captured by the Yorkists in the Battle of Tewkesbury. In October 1473 he received an official pardon.^[4]

Thomas's brother John, 6th Earl of Ormonde, died in October 1476^[1][2] and Thomas succeeded to the earldom.^[4]

Thomas, as "Thomas Ormond", was made a Knight of the Bath in July 1483 at the coronation of Richard III.^[4][5] He served as a Privy Councillor both under Richard III and Henry VII.^[4] In 1484 he was a Commissioner of Array for Devon and Cornwall.^[6]

After Henry VII gained the throne in 1485, Thomas' English attainder was finally fully reversed. Before August 1486 he became chamberlain to Henry VII's wife, Elizabeth of York.^[3][4] On 13 January 1488/9, as "Sire de Ormond", he was a trier of British petitions, meaning he was by then Lord Ormond.^[7] In 1490 he was one of those entrusted with oversight of alterations to the Palace of Westminster. In 1495 he was summoned to Parliament as "Thomas Ormond de Rochford, Chivalier".^[3]

He was sent on diplomatic missions to Brittany in 1491,^[4] France in 1492^[6] and Burgundy in 1497.^[4][8]

In 1509 Thomas attended the funeral of Henry VII and the coronation of Katherine of Aragon, to whom he was appointed Lord Chamberlain.^[3][6]

Lands and Possessions

Thomas's first marriage brought him extensive lands in England.^[4][9]

After the beheading of his brother James in May 1461, Thomas found £40000 in money in James's house in London, making him one of the richest people in England and Ireland.^[8]

Thomas's attainders led to his lands being forfeited. Some English lands were restored on a legal technicality, that the attainder had been for "Thomas Ormond Knyght" and that was not how he was styled. In 1477 he was given possession of his brother John's Irish estates.^[3]

The accession of Henry VII, and the reversal of his English attainder, enabled Thomas to regain his English lands. In December 1486 he was given seisin of lands of his first wife.^[10] A Close Rolls entry of 16 December 1488 records an agreement reached for his gaining possession of some other English lands.^[11]

Thomas spent little time in Ireland, and this may have contributed to trouble he had in the 1490s securing control of his Irish possessions.^[4] These included much of County Kilkenny.^[12] Opposition to him there was led by his cousin Piers Butler and Gerald FitzGerald, 8th Earl of Kildare. He sent his illegitimate nephew James to Ireland to act on his behalf, but this failed and he was compelled to seek the assistance of Piers in restoring order.^[4]

Death, Will and Burial

Thomas died on 3 August 1515, possibly in London - he was buried at the chapel of St Thomas of Acre, Cheapside, London.^{[1][2][4][13]}

Thomas's will, dated 31 July 1515, was proved on 25 August 1515.^[3] It covered only a lease on his London house and some money, and the bequests were to his godson John Talbot and John's father Sir Gilbert Talbot, who was appointed overseer.^[14]

He left no immediate male heir. The right to the earldom of Ormonde was contested between his cousin Piers and his grandchildren, notably Thomas Boleyn: Piers ended up successful.^[4]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7} Douglas Richardson. Magna Carta Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 4 vols, ed. Kimball G. Everingham, 2nd edition (Salt Lake City: the author, 2011), Vol. I, pp. 382-384, BUTLER 10, Google Books
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7} Douglas Richardson. Royal Ancestry: A Study in Colonial and Medieval Families, 5 vols, ed. Kimball G. Everingham (Salt Lake City: the author, 2013), Vol. II, pp. 52-54, BUTLER 11
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8} G E Cokayne.Complete Peerage, revised edition, Vol. X, St Catherine Press, 1945, pp. 131-133, viewable on Familysearch
4. ↑ ^{4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12} Dictionary of Irish Biography, 2009, entry for Butler, Thomas (c.1424–1515), accessed 6 August 2022
5. ↑ W A Shaw. The Knights of England, Vol. I, Sherratt and Hughes, 1906, p. 141, Internet Archive
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1 6.2} James E Doyle. The Official Baronage of England showing the Succession, Dignities and Offices of Every Peer from 1066 to 1855, Vol. III, Longmans, Green & Co, 1886, pp. 157-158, Internet Archive
7. ↑ 'Henry VII: January 1489', in Parliament Rolls of Medieval England, ed. Chris Given-Wilson, Paul Brand, Seymour Phillips, Mark Ormrod, Geoffrey Martin, Anne Curry and Rosemary Horrox (Woodbridge, 2005), British History Online, accessed 6 August 2022
8. ↑ ^{8.0 8.1} Thomas Carte. The Life of James, Duke of Ormond, Vol.1, Oxford University Press, 1851, p. lxxxiii, Internet Archive
9. ↑ Inquisitions Post Mortem for ANNE, late the wife of THOMAS ORMOND, knt., Maskelyne and H. C. Maxwell Lyte, 'Inquisitions Post Mortem, Henry VII, Entries 151-200', in Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem: Series 2, Volume 1, Henry VII (London, 1898), pp. 60-91, British History Online (entries 153-155), accessed 6 August 2022
10. ↑ 'Close Rolls, Henry VII: 1486-1487', in Calendar of Close Rolls, Henry VII: Volume 1, 1485-1500, ed. K H Ledward (London, 1955), pp. 41-58, British History Online, accessed 6 August 2022
11. ↑ 'Close Rolls, Henry VII: 1488-1489', in Calendar of Close Rolls, Henry VII: Volume 1, 1485-1500, ed. K H Ledward (London, 1955), pp. 111-116, British History Online, accessed 6 August 2022
12. ↑ David Edwards. The Ormond lordship in County Kilkenny, 1515-1642 (thesis), Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). Department of History, 1998, p. 9, downloadable PDF, accessed 6 August 2022
13. ↑ John Weever. Ancient Funeral Monuments, Thomas Harper, 1631, p. 400, Internet Archive
14. ↑ Nicholas Harris Nicolas. Testamenta Vetusta, Vol. II, Nichols and Son, 1826, pp. 530-531, Internet Archive

• Wikipedia: Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond
• Curtis, Edmund (ed.). Calendar of Ormond Deeds (6 volumes of legal and land transactions in counties Kilkenny and Tipperary in the period 1172-1603): Volumes 3 and 4 roughly correspond to Thomas Butler's lifetime - PDFs here (accessed 6 August 2022)
• Weis, Frederick Lewis. Ancestral Roots of Certain American Colonists who Came to America Before 1700, 8th edition, Genealogical Publishing Company, 2004, p. 118, line 120/37

Acknowledgements

Magna Carta Project

This profile was developed for the Magna Carta Project by Michael Cayley on 6 August 2022 and was reviewed the same day by Thiessen-117.

Thomas Butler KB is in a Richardson-documented trail from the Alsop Gateway Ancestors (Timothy, Elizabeth and George) to Magna Carta Surety Barons Roger le Bigod and Hugh le Bigod (Magna Carta Ancestry, vol. I, pages 6-9 ALSOP) which was badged in August 2022. See the trails HERE.

See Base Camp for more information about identified Magna Carta trails and their status. See the project's glossary for project-specific terms, such as a "badged trail".