Edmund Butler (1595 - 1640)

Born 1595 in Ireland

Ancestors

Descendants

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Biography

Edmund Butler, 3rd/13th Baron Dunboyne was the son of John Butler and Joan FitzPatrick. His maternal grandfather was Florence FitzPatrick, 3rd Baron of Upper Ossory (ca. 1536-1619).

Edmund lost both his parents young; his mother Joan died before 1597 and his father in 1602, murdered by Richard Grace^[1] "as a result of a longstanding feud between the Graces and John Butler's mother's family, the Fitzpatricks, which had been going on since the 1570s."^[2]

The orphaned Edmund became the ward of his paternal grandfather James Butler, 2nd/12th Baron Dunboyne, who lived until 1625.

From his Wikipedia profile:

• Edmond Butler, 3rd/13th Baron Dunboyne (1595–1640) was an Anglo-Irish nobleman of the early 17th century. His short life was full of violence and legal disputes. His father was murdered when Edmond was a small child, and Edmond as an adult was forced to defend a lengthy lawsuit brought by an uncle Pierce Butler (died 1626) who sought to disinherit him.

• In 1627 Edmund killed his distant cousin James Prendergast^[3] in a quarrel over a disputed inheritance. The murder took place in Cahir Castle, which belonged to Edmund Butler's father-in-law, Thomas Butler, 2nd Baron of Cahir, who had died the previous year. For this crime Edmund was tried by his peers for manslaughter but was acquitted.^[4][5]

1632: Lord Dunboyne was a pallbearer at the funeral of Eleanor, Countess of Ormond, who died 28th January, 1631, held in Kilkenny Castle on 27 March 1632. Eleanor was wife of the still-living Walter Butler, 11th Earl of Ormond.^[6]

Baltinglass Abbey was occupied for nearly 400 years until it was shut down by the 1536 Dissolution of the Monasteries and granted to Thomas FitzEustace, 1st Viscount Baltinglass. A century later it was granted to FitzEustace's direct descendant, Edmond Butler, 3rd/13th Baron Dunboyne. ^[7]

Lord Dunboyne sat in the House of Lords in the Irish Parliaments of 1634, 1639 and 1640. He died on 17 March 1640 at his home, Kiltinan Castle, and was buried in the nearby town of Fethard.

Marriage & Children

Edmund married 1) Margaret Butler (ca.1602-1632),^[8] daughter of Thomas Butler, 2nd Baron Cahir, and Ellice Fitzgerald.^[9] Their children included:

• James 4th/14th Baron Dunboyne, who married Ellen Butler, daughter of Pierce Butler, 1st Viscount of Ikerrin and Lady Helen Butler

• Thomas, who fought in the Irish Rebellion of 1641

• Ellen, who married her brother-in-law James Butler^[10] (grandson of Walter, 11th Earl of Ormond). Ellen and James were the mother of Pierce, 2nd Viscount Ikerrin (1637-1686)^[11]

• Eleanor, who married her 2nd cousin Edmond Butler,^[12] and was the mother of Pierce, 4th Baron Cahir

• John, Edmund, Richard and Margaret, all of whom died young

Edmund's funeral entry (see image), signed by his son James, indicates "5 sonnes and 5 daughters" from this first marriage, in the following order:

• Sons: James, Thomas, John, Edmund, Richard.
• Daughters: Ellen, Ellinor, Margaret, Ellin, Joan (d. unmarried).

Edmund married 2) Ellen FitzGerald, with no known issue. Funeral Entries (see image) calls her "Lady Ellin, one of the daughters of Gerrott fitz Gerrold, sometime Earle of Desmond". This means Ellen would have been 15 years older than Edmund, and beyond child-bearing age.^[13]

Origins of the Dunboyne Title

From Cokayne's Peerage, 2nd Edition:^[14]

• "The Lordship of Dunboyne, anciently held by the family of Le Petit, was acquired in marriage with the heiress thereof by Sir Thomas Butler, who was slain 1329. His descendants, feudal Barons thereof, were frequently summuned to the Irish Parliament, the 9th in descent from him being Edmund, who was created a Lord of Parliament in 1541."

• From here, Cokayne quotes historian Lynch, p.145:
  • "William Butler, Baron of Dunboyne, was attainted, and the Crown, in 1460, granted the Barony to Rowland FitzEustace, etc. Edmond Butler, however, the next heir male in remainder after the forfeiture, obtained the Barony of Dunboyne from the King, and a statute was passed in 1472 for repealing all laws against him. In all the royal instruments he is called Lord and Baron of Dunboyne, yet his [great-]grandson, Sir Edmund Butler, sued out and obtained a patent from Henry VIII regranting and confirming this Barony to him and his heirs male for ever."

Sources

• Information on his 10 children (first wife) and place of death and burial comes from "Funeral Entries Vol.9", published online by the National Library of Ireland:
  • http://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000529250#page/93/mode/1up
• Pedigree of Butler, Barons Dunboyne, and of Grellagh and of Clare in Co. Tipperary and of Killoskehan, and of Wilford, and of Park, 1541 - 1817. GO MS 170. Ireland. Genealogical Office. Registered Pedigrees Vol. 16, [between ca. 1816 and 1817]. pp. 300-308 (Image 131. Genealogical Office. The National Archives of Ireland
• http://www.thepeerage.com/p19011.htm#i190109
• Wikipedia: Barons of Dunboyne

• 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. ↑ Richard was possibly the son of Oliver Grace MP.
2. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barnaby_Fitzpatrick#Family
3. ↑ James was the son of Thomas Prendergast and Eleanor Butler, sister of Walter, 11th Earl of Ormond.
4. ↑ Wikipedia
5. ↑ Context about the murder: The title "Baron of Cahir" had 2 creations. James Prendergast's great-grandfather was of the first creation, Thomas Butler, 1st Baron of Cahir. When Thomas' son (James' great uncle) died without issue, the title, and Cahir Castle, went to Thomas' nephew Theobald Butler. His granddaughter became the wife of Edmund Butler, 3rd/13th Baron of Dunboyne.
6. ↑ Sir Henry Blackall, The Butlers of County Clare, first published in the North Munster Antiquarian Journal, 1952:
   • http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/genealogy/butlers/appendix6.htm#166
7. ↑
   • Monastic Ireland
   • Baltinglass Monastery
   • Irish Antiquities: Baltinglass Cisternian Abbey
8. ↑ Margaret's funeral entry, including family information, appears in "Funeral Entries, Vol.17", p.61:
   • http://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000529291#page/48/mode/1up
9. ↑ Ellice was daughter of Sir John "7th Lord Decies" FitzGerald and Ellen FitzGibbon
10. ↑ "Funeral Entries" (see image) calls him James Butler of Fennure, Co. Tipperary; says they had 3 sons together before James' death; and calls her next husband Gerald Grace of Ballylinsy, Co. Kilkenny.
11. ↑ James Butler died in 1538 and it appears Ellen married a 2nd time, briefly, to Gerald Grace (d.1642), grandson of Oliver Grace MP (1530-1586). Ellen & Gerald had 2 sons: John, who died without issue, and William (d.1661), ancestor of the old Catholic family of the Graces of Gracefield.
    • Rev. William Carrigan, The history and antiquities of the diocese of Ossory (1905), Vol.4, p.271:
      • https://archive.org/details/historyantiquiti04carr/page/545/mode/2up
12. ↑ Edmond Butler was the son of Thomas Butler, 3rd Baron Cahir, who in turn was the grandson of Theobald, 1st Baron Cahir. Theobald was the common great-grandfather of Eleanor and Edmond.
13. ↑ "Funeral Entries" (see 2nd image) records that Ellin was twice widowed before her 3rd marriage ca.1535: 1) Daniel O'Connor Sligo and 2) Sir Robert Cressy, Knight.
14. ↑ Cokayne, George Edward and Vicary Gibbs ed. Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Vol. IV: Dacre - Dysart, 2nd edition. (London, 1916), p.516, footnote (c):
    • https://archive.org/details/completepeerageo04coka/page/516/mode/2up