Born about [location unknown]
Ancestors 
Daughter of Edmund Butler
and [mother unknown]
[sibling(s) unknown]
Wife of
Ruaidhrí (O'More) Ua Mórdha
— married
about 1537 in Ireland
Wife of
Maurice Fitzgerald
— married
after 1546 [location unknown]
Descendants 
Mother of
Ruaidhrí Óg (O'More) Ua Mórdha, Calvagh o'More, Thomas Fitzgerald and Mary (Fitzgerald) O'Dempsey
Died
at about age 86
in Ireland
Profile last modified
| Created 12 Jul 2014
This page has been accessed 1,661 times.
Contents |
Biography
Margaret was married twice, first to Rory "Caoch" O'More of County Laois (Leix) and secondly to Sir Maurice Fitzgerald of Lackagh.
Upon his death in 1575, Sir Maurice Fitzgerald recognised 2 of Margaret's living sons ("Kedaghe and Calughe/Calvagh O'More") from her previous marriage, and in his will he bequeathed to them "all my appareile". Calvagh was known for his loyalty to the English Crown and for receiving from Queen Elizabeth in 1574 a land grant in Ballyna, County Kildare.[1]
Besides her 3 known sons with Rory Caoch O'More before he was slain in 1546, Margaret Butler had the following 8 children with Sir Maurice FitzGerald. "All these children are mentioned in their father's will":[2]
- Thomas of Lackagh (d. 20 Jun 1611[3]) + Elizabeth Barnewall (daughter of Mark of Dunbroe, County Dublin, who died 1574). Their son Maurice married Ellen, daughter of James Butler, 2nd/12th Baron Dunboyne (1547-1624).
- James of Kilrush (d. 20 Aug 1602[4]) + a sister of Barnaby Doyne / Dunne (1550-1614) of Mylicke/Milvick[5][6][7]
- Gerald of Corbally, County Longford[8]
- Edward of Mylesse, County Carlow[9]
- Margaret
- Catherine
- Ellis (or Elinor) + Sir Pierce FitzGerald, Knight, of Ballyshannon, who was High Sheriff of County Kildare. Both slain by the O'Byrnes at Ardrie Castle, County Kildare, 17 Mar 1593[10]
- Mary[11]
Note: One of the above daughters (d. 1614) married Sir Terence O'Dempsey,[12] 1st Viscount Clanmaliere (d. Feb 1634).[13][14] and their children included Lewis and Mary.[15][16][17][18][19]
Research Notes on Pedigree
Discrepancy regarding Margaret's father -- this explanation is included here for the benefit of other Wikitree researchers:
- Historical accounts refer to Margaret (born ca.1515) as a granddaughter of Piers Butler, 8th Earl of Ormond. The question is which of Piers' sons was her father: Thomas [legitimate, youngest son, born ca.1505] or Edmund [illegitimate, born ca.1490].
- The Wikipedia biography for her son Rory Oge O'More attributes Margaret as a daughter of Thomas, citing no specific source but most likely based on well-known Peerage guides published during the 1800s.
- However, the highly regarded and well-researched Kildare Archaeological Society Journal addresses this discrepancy openly, and historian Lord Walter FitzGerald (family expert and author of numerous articles about the FitzGeralds and Butlers) clarifies that her father was Edmund Butler.[20][21]
- Not much is known of her uncle Thomas Butler, other than that he was slain in 1532, while still young (20s) and unmarried.[22][23][24]
- Margaret's father Edmund Butler, who studied at Oxford University, was appointed Archbishop of Cashel in 1524 and consecrated in 1527. He was an illegitimate son of Piers Butler, 8th Earl of Ormond and an unknown mother. He died on 5 Mar 1551 and is buried in the cathedral at the Rock of Cashel.
Final Will & Testament
Her will was nuncupative (delivered orally) on her deathbed on 7 Nov 1601 and is preserved among the Prerogative Wills in the Dublin Record Office, indexed under "Butler". Excerpts as follows:[25][26]
- In the name of God, Amen. I, dame Margaret Butler of Lackaghe, widdow, though seke of bodie, yet, God be praised, of perfect witte and memorie do make my laste will and testamente nuncupative.
- First, I bequiethe my soule to God, and my bodie to be buried in the Cathedral Church of Kildare.
- I leave and bequiethe all and singular my goods and chattels moveable and unmoveable whatsoever to my naturall and legitimate sonnes Calloughe O'Moore of Balina and Thomas fitz Maurice FitzGerald of Lackaghe.
In November 1583, two of Margaret's daughters -- Margaret and Katherin (Catherine) -- had complained against their said mother, Dame Margaret Butler, wife of Sir Morice FitzGerald of Lackagh, that she had turned them out of doors and refused them preferment or maintenance. The executors of Sir Maurice's will (1575) were asked their opinion, and they said Sir Maurice would want his daughters to be "preferred", and thus the court ordered the Lady of Lackagh to pay her daughters 400 pounds apiece.[27]
Sources
"The Hierarchy of the Catholic Church" -- for additional sources regarding her father Edmund's pedigree as son of Pierce Butler and his position as Archbishop of Cashel:
- ↑ Kildare Archaelogical Society Journal, Vol. 6, p.36:
- ↑ Journal of the County Kildare Archeological Society:
- ↑ Principal Gentry of County Kildare in 1600:
- ↑ Principal Gentry of County Kildare in 1600:
- ↑ Barnaby Doyne's maternal uncle was the same Sir Pierce FitzGerald (mentioned in biography above) who married James' sister Ellis/Elinor. These 2 FitzGerald branches were distant cousins, both descended from Maurice, 4th Earl of Kildare.
- ↑ In Sir Maurice's will of 1575 is included the following item: "I bequiet [bequeath] to my second son James fitzGerald (of Kilrush), and his heyres male lawful of his bodie begottin, the towne, lands, tenements and hereditaments of Donmorughell."
- County Kildare Archeological Society, Vol. 7
- ↑ Among James' children were Richard FitzGerald of Booleybegg, mentioned here in a land transaction with his 1st cousin Sir James FitzGerald, who was the son of his murdered (1593) aunt and uncle Elinor/Ellis Fitzgerald and Sir Pierce FitzGerald:
- ↑ This was not the same Gerald fitz Maurice FitzGerald ("Captain Garret"), of Duneany, a branch of the House of Lackagh, hanged on 13 Dec 1581 as punishment for fighting on behalf of James Eustace, 3rd Viscount Baltinglass, against the English Crown towards the end of the Desmond Rebellions. Researcher Walter FitzGerald explains Captain Garret's specific Lackagh lineage in another volume of the Journal.
- Fitzgerald, Walter. "Baltinglass Abbey, Its Possessions, and their Post-Reformation Proprietors", Journal of the County Kildare Archaeological Society, Vol. V, 1906, p.395:
- ↑ In 1587, Queen Elizabeth grants "to Edward FitzGerald [younger brother of Sir Thomas of Lackagh] the manor of Kildrought, Kilmacredock, and the said water mill, as well as the castle, and all messuages, lands, and tenements, as well temporal as spiritual, to hold to him, his heirs, and assigns for ever":
- ↑ See profile of Felim O'Byrne for more context about the 1593 murder.
- ↑ Possibly the same Mary FitzGerald of Lackagh who married Thomas Cantwell, an ally and confident of Thomas Butler, 10th Earl of Ormond, although it appears more likely that this Mary married Sir Terence O'Dempsey. See footnotes below for details.
- ↑ Sheriff of Queen's County in 1593. Knighted on 22 May 1599 at Kiltenan, Ireland:
- ↑ Journal of the County Kildare Archeological Society, p. 253:
- ↑ Terence, born in 1559 (age 19 in 1578), obtained livery of his uncle's estates in 1581. His uncle was Owny mac Hugh O'Dempsey of Ballybrittas, and in 1563 had surrendered his lands to the English Crown ("Surrender and Re-Grant"). Owny died in 1576 and his lands went to his brother Dermot's son Terence (Tirlagh), then still a minor. Terence was knighted in 1599 and married to Mary, daughter of Sir Maurice of Lackagh. In 1631, Sir Terence was created Barons of Philipstown and Viscount of Clanmaliere in reward for his services to the Crown. He died ca. 1639:
- ↑ June 1582: Terence had a brother "Leysagh McDermot Owre O'Dempsey" for whom he posted bail in the amount of 500 pounds at the request of Colonel William Collyer. See entry #170 in the Calendar of Council Book, 1581-86:
- ↑ Walter FitzGerald, in the Journal of the Co. Kildare Archaeological Society, speculates that Mary was the daughter who married O'Dempsey "as far as I can judge", without clarifying his reasons:
- ↑ This account refers to an Elizabethan Fiant No. 3905 in mentioning a wife (Mary) and implying that Terence married young:
- ↑ This account references the handwriting of Sir Robert Cecil clarifying that Mary was indeed the wife of Sir Terence O'Dempsey:
- ↑ Lewis O'Dempsey was their son and became 2nd Viscount Clanmaliere. Lewis was attainted for his role in the Irish Rebellion of 1641, and his son Maximilian became the 3rd and final Viscount, as he died without issue:
- ↑ Kildare Archaeological Society Journal:
- ↑ In the words of Lord Walter FitzGerald:
- Sir Maurice's wife is [in an earlier issue of this Journal] given as being the daughter of Thomas Butler, 3rd son of Piers, 8th Earl of Ormond ... This is not correct ... She was the daughter of Edmond Butler, Archbishop of Cashel, an illegitimate son of [the same] Pierce, 8th Earl of Ormonde. Before marrying Sir Maurice, she had been the wife of Rory "caech" (i.e., the one-eyed) mac Connell O'More, Chief of Leix. What had not been ascertained before is that she died in the month of November 1601. This is proved by her will, which was delivered by word of mouth on 7 Nov 1601, when on her deathbed. See p.188:
- ↑ This was a "family murder", which seems to have been the norm in 1500s Ireland. The reputed slayer of Thomas Butler was his brother-in-law Diarmaid Gilla Patraic (Dermot FitzPatrick), brother of Barnaby FitzPatrick, who was newly married to Thomas' elder sister Margaret Butler. There are generally 2 explanations for the murder: 1) self-defense, because the Butlers were supposedly plotting to attack Upper Ossory, until they were stopped by Dermot and his allies, the Earl of Kildare's men; or 2) Dermot's discontent that his family was acquiescing to pressure from the Tudor monarchs ("Surrender and Re-Grant"), which his brother Barnaby officially did in 1537, later becoming 1st Baron of Upper Ossory and sending his son (also Barnaby) to study in London as a show of loyalty to the Crown.
- ↑ According to Richard Bagwell in Ireland Under the Tudors (London, 1885), p.160:
- "It was believed that the recent murder of [the 8th Earl of Ormond &] Ossory’s son Thomas [Butler] by Dermot Fitzpatrick was not altogether the work of Irishry. [The Earl of] Kildare and his sons and brothers provoked attacks on every side."
- ↑ Margaret herself married, ca. 1537, the very same Rory O'More whom Bagwell (Ireland Under the Tudors, p.225) implies had murdered her uncle Thomas Butler in 1532:
- " Connell O’More, chief of Leix, died in 1537, and the inevitable dispute followed between the tanist, his brother Peter, and his sons, Lysaght, Kedagh, and Rory ... The young O’Mores ... had all taken part in the murder of [the Earl of] Ormonde’s son Thomas five years before."
- ↑ Kildare Archaeological Society Journal:
- ↑ "Dame Margaret Butler of Lackagh" is entry #239 in The Testamentary Records of the Butler Families in Ireland (genealogical abstracts), edited by the Rev. Wallace Clare:
- ↑ Calendar of the Irish Council Book, 1581-1586, edited by John P. Prendergast and David B. Quinn, Published by The Irish Manuscripts Commission Ltd., p.152, item 255:
Acknowledgements
- Butler-6415 was created by David McKnight through the import of HannaHulingAbbieChace1769.ged on Jul 11, 2014.
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