James Butler (abt. 1498 - 1533)

Born about 1498 in Dunboyne, County Meath, Ireland

Ancestors

Husband of Joan Butler — married before 6 May 1519 (to after 1529) in Ireland

Descendants

Died 8 Jan 1533 at about age 35 in Dunboyne, County Meath, Ireland

James Butler was a member of the aristocracy in British Isles.

Biography

James Butler succeeded his father in 1508 and became 10th Baron Dunboyne.

James married Joan Butler, daughter of Piers Butler, 8th Earl of Ormonde and Lady Margaret FitzGerald, before 6 May 1519.^[1]

Children of James Butler, 10th Baron Dunboyne and Lady Joan Butler:

1. Joan Butler d. a Sep 1585
2. Ellen Butler
3. Edmund Butler, 1st/11th Baron Dunboyne d. May 1567
4. Pierce Butler b. c 1521, d. 1577
5. Thomas Butler d. 1571
6. unnamed daughter, b. ca.1522^[2]
7. possibly Catherine, who married James Tobin of the Compsey, and their daughter Margaret Tobin married James Butler of Duiske (younger brother of Thomas, 10th Earl of Ormond.^[3][4]

From The Butlers of County Clare by Sir Henry Blackall:^[5][6]

• Inquisition taken at Dunboyne on Thursday next after the Feast of St. Martinmas 1536, found that James Butler, late Baron of Dunboyne, died on the 8th January in the 25th year of Hen. VIII 1533 seized of estates in the counties of Meath, Tipperary and Kilkenny; that Edmond was his eldest, Peter his second and Thomas his third son, and that at the taking of the Inquisition they were all minors.

• Inquisition taken at Clonmel on 24 Aug 1536 found that on 5 Aug 1524 James Butler, Baron of Dunboyne, executed a settlement whereby his second son, Peter [Piers] was to inherit at his death the lands of Drangan, Grellagh, Magowry, Clonyn, Liskevine, Parkestown and Ballygallward near the Abbey of Holy Cross, and his third son, Thomas, the manor of Boytonrath and lands in Cashel.

From the Dictionary of Irish Biography entry for James Butler, 10th Baron Dunboyne:^[7]

• James Butler [10th Baron of 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 Piers tried to assert his authority. Dunboyne was involved in several attempts to secure the peace with his cousins of Cahir; but when all efforts failed, he defeated them in pitched battle (1526).

• Relations between James [Dunboyne] and Piers [Ormond] worsened again in the late 1520s, perhaps over a royal grant of the manor of Lisronagh [between Fethard and Clonmel], and Dunboyne returned to supporting the Earl of Desmond against Piers and King Henry VIII. He returned to obedience in June 1530, when he swore an oath of allegiance to the King at Waterford. His career serves to highlight the independent nature of most of the Anglo-Irish nobility in the first half of the 16th century.

• 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.

• Throughout his life Dunboyne played an important role in the reestablishment of comital authority within the Ormond lordship. His place as an important member of the second rank of Irish nobility was posthumously recognised by the crown in 1541, when his son Edmund was formally recognised as 1st Baron of Dunboyne [the Dunboynes of previous centuries were more accurately "Lords" until 1541]

The Lands of Grallagh

The lands of Grallagh came to the Butlers by conveyance dated 21 and 28 September, 1432, from Thomas Barret, vicar of Fethard, to Edmond, son of James le Botiller. On 5 August, 1524, these lands were settled by Edmond's grandson James, 10th Lord Dunboyne on James' younger son Peter (Piers). On the latter's death Grallagh passed to his son James, whose son, Edmond Butler of Boytonrath, by conveyance dated 5 October, 1592, granted all his "rights, titles and interest in the lands of Grallagh to [his 1st cousin once removed] James Butler, [2nd/12th] Baron of Dunboyne." The castle later became the seat of Lord Dunboyne's fifth son, James Butler, described as "a man of great power, means and alliance, being married to Lady Ellen Butler." She was a daughter of Walter "of the Rosaries", 11th Earl of Ormonde. The keep of Grallagh Castle still stands [1952]. A stone staircase provides ascent to the summit. It is situated in the parish of Graystown, and barony of Middlethird, County Tipperary.^[8]

Origins of the Dunboyne Title

From Cokayne's Peerage, 2nd Edition:^[9]

• "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

1. ↑ James and Joan were 2nd cousins via their common great-grandparents Edmund MacRichard Butler and his wife Katharine O'Carroll. "The MacRichard" had been a staunch ally of John, 6th Earl of Ormond, during wars against the Desmonds in the 1460s.
2. ↑ Cokayne's Peerage records that an unnamed daughter of the Baron of Dunboyne married Piers Butler, next brother to Thomas Butler, 1st Baron Cahir, and they were the parents of Theobald Butler, who inherited the title after Thomas' son died without issue.
   • Cokayne's Peerage entry for Theobald Butler, created Baron of Cahir in 1583:
     • Cokayne, George Edward and Vicary Gibbs ed., Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Vol. II: Bass - Canning, 2nd edition (London, 1912), p.466:
       • https://archive.org/details/completepeerageo02coka/page/466/mode/2up
3. ↑ Arthur Collins, Peerage of England (F.C. and J. Rivington, 1812), Vol.9, p.101:
   • https://books.google.es/books?id=ak45AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA101&dq=%22james+tobin%22+peerage&hl=es&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi8_8Cps5zpAhVIzIUKHQ1mClgQ6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q=%22james%20tobin%22%20peerage&f=false
4. ↑ Family connections to explore: James Tobin of the Compsey was the possible son or grandson of Thomas Tobin, Lord of Compsey
5. ↑ Sir Henry Blackall, "The Butlers of County Clare" (first published in the North Munster Antiquarian Journal, 1952), Appendix III: Fiants, Commissions & Queen’s Letters:
   • http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/genealogy/butlers/appendix3.htm
6. ↑ Blackall references the Calendar of Patent Rolls for Ireland, Henry VIII-Elizabeth, Vol.1
7. ↑ Dictionary of Irish Biography:
   • https://www.dib.ie/biography/butler-james-a1255
8. ↑ Blackall, "The Butlers of County Clare", chapter titled "Seats" [of the Butler family]:
   • http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclare/genealogy/butlers/seats.htm
9. ↑ 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

• http://www.thepeerage.com/p22951.htm#i229507
• Wikipedia: Barons of Dunboyne