James Butler (abt. 1360 - 1405)

Born about 1360 in County Kilkenny, Ireland [uncertain]

Ancestors

Husband of Anne (Welles) Butler — married before 17 Jun 1386 in England

Descendants

Died Sep 1405 at about age 45 in Gowran, County Kilkenny, Ireland

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Biography

Birth and Parents

James was the second son of James Butler, 2nd Earl of Ormond, and Elizabeth Darcy.^[1][2] He was said to be 22 at his father's death in 1382, pointing to a birth date of about 1360. He was probably born in County Kilkenny, Ireland, where his father's main landholdings lay. His older brother Ralph died in his father's lifetime, so James was his father's main heir and inherited the earldom of Ormond.^[3][4]

Marriage and Children

Before 17 June 1386, James married Anne Welles, daughter of John de Welle/Welles and Maud de Ros/Roos.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} They had at least two sons:

• James^[3][4]
• Richard^[3][4]
• Elizabeth, not listed by Richardson: on 30 May 1401 James entered into a settlement for the marriage of his daughter Elizabeth to Theobald fitz Walter de Burgo:^[6] Theobald may be a son of Walter de Burgh.

Anne Welles died before 3 December 1399.^[3][4]

James also had a number of illegitimate children. By Katherine FitzGerald, daughter of Gerald FitzMaurice, 3rd Earl of Desmond,^[3][4] he had

• James^[3][4][5][7]
• Edmund^[3][4][5]
• Gerald^[3][4][5]
• Theobald^[3][4][5]

James and Katherine seems to have made an attempt to legalise their relationship: in December 1399, after the death of Anne Welles, Katherine offered to give up £200 she had been granted by James if James secured a papal dispensation for their marriage.^[5]

He had two other illegitimate children, whose mother is not known:

• Thomas,^[3][4] who came Prior of Kilmainham, County Dublin^[5]
• Robert^[3][4]

Life

James spent much of 1385-86 in England, where he paid homage in October 1385^[2][3][4] and where he was knighted by Richard II on 9 November 1385 "in full parliament at Westminster".^[8]

James built a series of alliances with leading Gaelic-speaking and Anglo-Norman families in Ireland, to strengthen his position. He was engaged in violent disputes with the Earls of Desmond. Official attempts to patch things up were made in 1384 and 1387. In 1396 James's brother Thomas was killed in Waterford by John FitzGerald, son of the then Earl of Desmond: John FitzGerald agreed to pay 800 marks to James in compensation. Violence broke out again in 1399, when James appears to have instigated some English lords to plunder Desmond lands, and John FitzGerald (who had by now inherited the Earldom of Desmond) plundered Butler property in Cahir, County Tipperary. On 11 October 1399 an accord was reached between the Desmonds and Butlers,^[5] but the Annals of Ulster record further warfare breaking out in 1403.^[9]

James was Deputy Lieutenant of Ireland in 1384-5.^[5] His first period as Deputy Lieutenant was under Philip Courtenay: when Philip's brother William, Archbishop of Canterbury, was in dispute with Richard II, Philip supported William but James sided with the king. The quarrel between James and Philip led to unrest in Ireland, and in 1386 John Stanley was sent to restore order. James joined John Stanley's forces and was reappointed Deputy Lieutenant.^[8][10]

In 1388-9 James was made governor of Counties Kilkenny and Tipperary, Ireland.^[2]

James was again Deputy Lieutenant of Ireland in 1394.^[5] He also served as Royal Justiciar in Ireland.^[11]

It is said that James served at one point as interpreter for Richard II in contacts with Gaelic-speaking Irish.^[1]

In the 1390s, James's attempts to assert his authority over Ossory and the O'Carrolls brought him into conflict with Teige/Tadgh O'Carroll, King of Eile, who had previously been married to his sister Joan (see Research Notes below). Despite an agreement being reached in April 1395, James re-engaged in hostilities that summer. When Teige returned from a pilgrimage to Rome, fighting resumed, in 1399. James captured Teige and held him at Gowran. Teige escaped in 1400.^[12]

On 5 August 1393 James was reprimanded for exceeding authority given to him to appoint people to ecclesiastical benefices in Ireland.^[13]

Although closely associated with Richard II, James seems to have successfully managed the transition to the reign of Henry IV. In 1400 Henry IV made him Sheriff of Cork and a commissioner to investigate "certain seditions" in Ireland.^[2] He was again Justiciar of Ireland in 1404-5.^[5]

Lands

James came into possession of his father's main lands on 2 March 1383.^[2][5] On 10 March 1385 he was given seisin of lands in Oxfordshire, England.^[14] In 1390 his mother died and he was granted seisin of her dower lands.^[15]

In the early 1390s James bought lands in County Kilkenny, including Kilkenny Castle (which became a main residence of the family for many generations), from the Despensers.^[1][2][5]

Besides his Irish lands, James held estates in England: his Inquisitions Post Mortem show property in Buckinghamshire, Essex, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Suffolk, Surrey and Warwickshire.^[16]

Death

James died at Gowran, County Kilkenny, Ireland on 4, 6 or 7 September 1405.^[2][3][4] He was buried at St. Mary's Church, Gowran, Kilkenny.^[2][5] His Inquisitions Post Mortem disagree as to which of these is the exact death date. His son James, age 13 and more, was found to be his heir.^[16]

Research Notes

Previously-shown Children

The following have previously been attached on WikiTree as children of James, with no good evidence:

• Philip, husband of Elizabeth Cockayne
• Ralph, said to have married Margaret Berwick
• Anne, said to have married John Wogan: the unreliable source for this is a mention in an 1858 issue of Notes and Queries^[17]

Joan, wife of Teige O'Carroll

Douglas Richardson names both the James of this profile and his father as parent of Joan Butler who married Teige O'Carroll.^[3][4] This is obviously a mistake. In a 1374 oath by John FitzNicholas, Lord of Kerry, confirming his agreement to marry Joan, her father is styled Earl of Ormond:^[18] the James of this profile did not become Earl until his father's death in 1382, indicating that Joan was his sister, not his daughter. (Presumably Joan married John FitzNicholas before she married Teige O'Carroll.)

The Dictionary of Irish Biography entry for Teige O'Carroll states that his wife's father was James Butler, 2nd Earl of Ormond, father of the James of this profile.^[12]

Katherine, wife of Thomas Fleming, 2nd Lord Slane

James may have had another illegitimate child, Katherine Butler, who married, as his second wife, Thomas Fleming, 2nd Lord Slane after . The Dictionary of Irish Biography entry for Thomas Fleming says that Katherine was "reputedly" a natural daughter of the James of this profile.^[19] According to Cokayne's Complete Peerage, she was alleged to have been the daughter of James, Earl of Ormond, but the Complete Peerage is clearly not certain of this, gives no source, and does not state which James Butler Earl of Ormond it is referring to.^[20]

If Katherine was a daughter of a James, Earl of Ormond, the James of this profile is the most likely candidate. She has previously been shown on WikiTree as daughter of James's father, but she married after 28 March 1403 (when Thomas's first wife was still alive), making this improbable.

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3} Dictionary of Irish Biography, entry by David Beresford for 'Butler, James', web, accessed 12 August 2022
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8} G E Cokayne. Complete Peerage, revised edition, Vol. X, St Catherine Press, 1945, pp. 121-123, viewable on Familysearch
3. ↑ ^{3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14} 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. 379-380, BUTLER 8, Google Books
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 4.13 4.14} 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. 49-50, BUTLER 9
5. ↑ ^{5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 5.12 5.13} Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, entry by C A Empey for 'Butler, James, third earl of Ormond', print and online 2004
6. ↑ Edmund Curtis (ed.). Calendar of Ormond Deeds, Vol. II, 1350–1413, The Stationery Office, Dublin, 1934, entry 353, pp. 250-252, downloadable PDF on Irish Manuscripts Commission website
7. ↑ C A Empey and Katherine Simms. The Ordinances of the White Earl and the Problem of Coign in the Later Middle Ages, in 'Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy: Archaeology, Culture, History, Literature', Vol. 75 (1975), p. 165, JSTOR (free account required)
8. ↑ ^{8.0 8.1} Peter Crooks. The "Calculus of Faction" and Richard II’s Duchy of Ireland, c.1382–9, in Fourteenth Century England, Vol. V, ed. Nigel Saul, Boydell Press, 2008, pp. 103-107, partially viewable at Google Books
9. ↑ The Annals of Ulster, CELT: The Corpus of Electronic Texts, Vol. III, p. 50, web (entry for 1403), accessed 12 August 2022
10. ↑ Wikipedia: James Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormond
11. ↑ Calendar of the Patent Rolls, Richard II, A.D. 1391-1396, HMSO, 1905, p. 126, Internet Archive
12. ↑ ^{12.0 12.1} Dictionary of Irish Biography, entry by Emmett O'Byrne for 'O'Carroll (Ó Cearbhaill), Tadhg Ailbhe', web, accessed 12 August 2022
13. ↑ 'Close Rolls, Richard II: September 1393', in Calendar of Close Rolls, Richard II: Volume 5, 1392-1396, ed. H C Maxwell Lyte (London, 1925), pp. 166-169, British History Online, accessed 12 August 2022
14. ↑ 'Close Rolls, Richard II: March 1385', in Calendar of Close Rolls, Richard II: Volume 2, 1381-1385, ed. H C Maxwell Lyte (London, 1920), pp. 536-537, British History Online, accessed 12 August 2022
15. ↑ 'Close Rolls, Richard II: August 1390', in Calendar of Close Rolls, Richard II: Volume 4, 1389-1392, ed. H C Maxwell Lyte (London, 1922), pp. 205-207, British History Online, accessed 12 August 2022
16. ↑ ^{16.0 16.1} entries 26 to 33 J L Kirby, 'Inquisitions Post Mortem, Henry IV, Entries 1-51', in Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem: Volume 19, Henry IV (London, 1992), pp. 1-13, British History Online, accessed 12 August 2022
17. ↑ 'Picton Castle and its Inhabitants' in Notes and Queries, 2nd Series, Vol. V, p. 329, 24 April 1858, Internet Archive
18. ↑ Edmund Curtis (ed.), Calendar of Ormond Deeds , Vol.II, item 189, pp.128-129, downloadable PDF
19. ↑ Dictionary of Irish Biography, entry by Emmett O'Byrne for Thomas Fleming, web, accessed 15 August 2022
20. ↑ G E Cokayne. Complete Peerage, revised edition, Vol. XII, part I, St Catherine Press, 1953, pp. 4-5, viewable on Familysearch

• Brydges, Egerton. Collins' Peerage of England, Greatly Augmented, and Continued to the Present Time, Vol. IX, 1812, pp. 66-68, Internet Archive
• Curtis, Edmund (ed.). Calendar of Ormond Deeds (6 volumes of legal and land transactions in counties Kilkenny and Tipperary in the period 1172-1603): Volume 2 roughly corresponds to James Butler's lifetime - PDFs here (accessed 6 August 2022)
• Kehoe, Imelda. A History of St. Mary’s Church, Gowran, Gowran Development Association 1992
• Lodge, John. The Peerage of Ireland or, A Genealogical History Of The Present Nobility Of That Kingdom, Vol IV, James Moore, 1789, pp. 9-10, Internet archive

Acknowledgements

Magna Carta Project

This profile was developed for the Magna Carta Project by Michael Cayley, finishing on 12 August 2022 and was reviewed by Thiessen-117 on 15 August 2022.

James Butler 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".