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Thomas Butler (abt. 1510 - 1558)

Thomas "1st Baron Cahir" Butler
Born about in Cahir, County Tipperary, Irelandmap
Ancestors ancestors
Son of and
Brother of , [half], [half] and [half]
Husband of — married 1530 [location unknown]
Husband of — married after 1545 [location unknown]
Descendants descendants
Father of and
Died at about age 48 in Irelandmap
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Profile last modified | Created 1 Mar 2017
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Potential confusion regarding the title Baron of Cahir: The title existed twice in Ireland within a short time period. This Thomas was 1st Baron (created 1543) and his son Edmund became 2nd Baron. When Edmund died without male issue (1560), the title went into abeyance until it was granted (1583) to Edmund's first cousin Theobald Butler, who became 1st Baron Cahir (2nd creation).

Contents

Biography

Thomas Butler was the son of Edmund Butler and Catherine le Poer, daughter of Sir Pierce le Poer, Knight.[1]

Notes on Pedigree:

  • Thomas descended from James "Gallda" Butler's son Piers Butler, Lord of Cahir (d.1464), whose son Thomas waged open warfare with his 2nd cousin James Butler of Polestown, Co. Kilkenny: "From the 1450s onwards the Butlers of Cahir charted their own independent course in Munster, and were not fully returned to comital control till the 1520s."[2]

From the Dictionary of Irish Biography profile for James Butler, 10th Baron Dunboyne:[3]

  • Dunboyne and Piers Butler [8th Earl of Ormond] shared a common problem in the activities of the Butlers of Cahir. A state of almost open warfare reigned (1516–26) in Tipperary as Ormond tried to assert his authority. Dunboyne was involved in several attempts to secure the peace with their cousins of Cahir; but when all efforts failed, he defeated them in pitched battle (1526).
  • Dunboyne usually supported Ormond against the Butlers of Cahir; but when his own position was threatened, he was prepared to join the Earl of Desmond's rebellion. During his rebellion, and probably before, Dunboyne resorted to exacting coyne and livery from the people of Tipperary, despite several oaths that he would cease this practice. He was no different in this respect from Ormond or the Butlers of Cahir.

From the Calendar of Ormond Deeds, Vol.4:[4]

  • A lengthy agreement between Thomas, 1st Baron Cahir, and James, 9th Earl of Ormond, regarding lands near Clonmel and how to resolve future disputes. Witnessing the agreement, among others, are Thomas' brother Piers Butler, James' half-brother Edmund Butler (Archbishop of Cashel), James' full brother Richard Butler (future Viscount Mountgarret), the 14th Earl of Desmond (James FitzJohn FitzGerald), Dublin mayor Walter Foster, Waterford mayor Edward Sherloke, Bishop of Ossory Myles [Baron/FitzGerald], and Kilkenny sovereign Walter Archer.

Marriage & Children

Thomas' marriage date to Eleanor is estimated (1530) based on 3 factors:

  • A marriage age of around 20
  • The fact that their son Edmund was married and inherited his father's title (1558) before dying himself (1560)
  • The fact their son's wife was born no later than 1540 (her father James FitzMaurice, de jure 12th Earl of Desmond, died in March 1540)

This marriage ca.1530 between a Butler of Ormond and a Butler of Cahir (common ancestor James, 3rd Earl of Ormond) was significant because it aimed to put an end to 80 years of hostility between the 2 branches. Paving the way for this marriage was the 1517 "Composition", a treaty whereby Thomas' father Edmund FitzThomas recognised Eleanor's father Piers' "lordship over the whole county". In exchange, Edmund received Cahir Castle for himself and his heirs -- including Thomas, who was ennobled as 1st Baron Cahir in 1543.[5]

Thomas married (ca.1530) 1) Eleanor, 5th daughter of Piers, 8th Earl of Ormond, and had children:[6]

  1. Edmund (inherited title in 1558; died in 1560 and title went into abeyance until re-created for Edmund's cousin Theobald in 1583)

Thomas married (ca.1545) 2) Ellen, daughter of Maurice FitzThomas, son of Thomas, 11th Earl of Desmond, and had children:

  1. Joan married Jeffrey Prendergast of Newcastle
  2. Eleanor, who married 1) Sir John Fitzgerald,[7] Knight, (brother of Gerald, 15th Earl of Desmond); and 2) "Sir John Oge", Knight.[8]

Notes on Family:

  • Thomas was the elder brother of Piers Butler, whose son Theobald eventually inherited the title of Baron of Cahir in 1583 (2nd creation).

Formal complaint to Henry VIII

Excerpted from History of Clonmel, with light edits for clarity:[9]

  • In 1542 a body of [Irishmen][10] petitioned King Henry VIII and told a story piteous in its quaint details. The petitioners were Thomas Prendergast of Newcastle, James Keating of Moortown, James Walsh of Rathronan, James Oge Wall of Finglas, Richard son of William Butler of Kilcash, Geoffry Mockler of Mocklerstown, St. John of St. Johnstown, William Power of Rathcoole, John Comyn of Kilconnell, Richard fitz Theobald of Ballylynch, Richard son of William and grandson of John Butler of Cabbragh, James Oge Butler[11] of Lismalin, Geoffry Fanning of Ballingarry, James Laffan of Graystown, Pierce fitz Richard Butler of Moykelly and John O'Neill of Maynestown.
  • They and their ancestors, they said, provided a retinue by which the Earls of Ormond as lords of the liberty of Tipperary right well governed and defended the said county. On the departure of the White Earl to England in 1430 he divided the county into certain districts among his kinsfolk assigning to each of them a proportion of the agreed retinue. These kinsfolk "entered into such a wrongfull inordynate pride and malicious division between them selfs that they fell suddenly out of their good obedience to be murderers and mansleers of either other."
  • Though the Earl on his return restored the county to its " prestynate estate," his sons as Earls of Wiltshire [5th, 6th, 7th Earls of Ormond] resided wholly in England. During this period again the Ormond kinsfolk partly by joining in the Irish wars, partly by internecine strife "brought the countrie not oonely into disobedience but also in effect, into utter desolation and waste saving a few castells and so contynued till about 1524."
  • The late Earl of Ormond [referring to Piers, 8th Earl, d.1539] "to the great daunger of his person at sundry tymes began to styrr soo with Syr Edmunde Butler [of Cahir] and Syr James Butler [of Kiltinane][12] being then men of good power and strongely allied with the Brenes [O'Briens] as with the Desmonds that he readoptid vnto him agayn moche of the power of the same retynue that were so commytted by his auncestors vnto the auncestors of the said Syr Edmonde and Syr James."
  • The Kiltinane Butlers were soon brought into subjection but not so with the lords of Cahir. Edmund Butler cousin german of the 11th and 12th Earls of Desmond and married to a daughter of [[Poer-5|Lord Power] [Piers], despised the orders of the lords deputy though sworn for performance thereof. His son Sir Thomas Butler [created 1st Baron Cahir in 1543] "slakith not to sesse [cess] and exacte many kinds of inordynate exactions and taxes daily."

Sources

  • Foster, J. The Royal Lineage of our Noble and Gentle Families, together with Their Paternal Ancestry, Hazell, Watson and Viney, London 1884, p 74
  1. ↑ A Genealogical History of the Dormant: Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct ... by Sir Bernard Burke p 96 [1]
  2. ↑ Dictionary of Irish Biography profile for Piers Butler, Lord of Cahir (d.1464):
  3. ↑ Authored by David Beresford, as published online by Cambridge University Press:
  4. ↑ pp.262-265:
  5. ↑ For more context on this treaty of 1517, see Edmund's Wikitree profile, or consult the original document here:
  6. ↑ Burke, John (1826). A General and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire, Vol 1. London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, p. 512.
  7. ↑ Source needed for this. The profile for Sir John mentions 2 women but not Eleanor.
  8. ↑ Of undetermined surname
  9. ↑ William P. Burke, History of Clonmel (N. Harvey & Co., Waterford, Ireland, 1907), Chapter 3, pp.22-23:
  10. ↑ The author refers to them as "younger sons" of great Irish families, but the list also appears to include hereditary lords (eldest sons) of smaller landholdings, such as Geoffrey Fanning.
  11. ↑ Father of Piers Oge Butler of Lismalin
  12. ↑ Possibly referring to James Butler, 10th Baron Dunboyne, whose son Edmond (the next Baron Dunboyne) held lands in Kiltinan ca.1550. See History of Clonmel, p.433:




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