James Edward William Theobald Butler, 3rd Marquess of Ormonde, (5 October 1844 – 26 October 1919), styled Earl of Ossory until 1854, was a Conservative Peer, Irish landowner, Yachtsman and member of the
Butler dynasty
Butler () is the name of a noble family whose members were, for several centuries, prominent in the administration of the Lordship of Ireland and the Kingdom of Ireland. They rose to their highest prominence as Dukes of Ormonde. The family ha ...
.
Early Life
James Butler was born at
Kilkenny Castle
Kilkenny Castle ( ) is a castle in Kilkenny, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, built in 1260 in Ireland, 1260 to control a fording-point of the River Nore and the junction of several routeways. It was a symbol of Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland, N ...
on 5 October 1844, the son of
John Butler, 2nd Marquess of Ormonde
John Butler, 2nd Marquess of Ormonde, Order of St. Patrick, KP (24 August 1808 – 25 September 1854) was an Irish politician and peer.
Family
He was the son of James Butler, 1st Marquess of Ormonde and Grace Louisa Staples. He married France ...
and Frances Jane Paget.
From birth until the death of his father in 1854, he was styled as Earl of Ossory, one of his father's
subsidiary title
A subsidiary title is a title of authority or title of honour that is held by a royal or noble person but which is not regularly used to identify that person, due to the concurrent holding of a greater title.
United Kingdom
An example in the Uni ...
s. He was a godson of
Queen Adelaide, in whose household his mother served as a Lady-in-Waiting.
Marriage and Family
On 2 February 1876, he married
Lady Elizabeth Harriet Grosvenor, daughter of
Hugh Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster
Hugh Lupus Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster, (13 October 1825 – 22 December 1899), styled Viscount Belgrave between 1831 and 1845, Earl Grosvenor between 1845 and 1869, and known as The Marquess of Westminster between 1869 and 1874, was an ...
, widely regarded to be the richest peer in England in the second half of the 19th century. The Duke settled £15,000 on Lady Elizabeth upon her marriage, which was increased to £35,000 in 1899 under the terms of his Will.
They had two daughters:
*Lady Beatrice Butler (1876–1952), married with Lt.-Gen.
Sir Reginald Pole-Carew, , had issue.
*
Lady Constance Mary Butler (1879–1949), died unmarried.
As Lord and Lady Ormonde's marriage produced no sons, Lord Ormonde's heir was the eldest of his surviving younger brothers
Lord Arthur Butler. Despite this, Ormonde's daughters Lady Beatrice and Lady Constance were well-provided for financially, having been made the residuary legatees of the estate of their first-cousin twice-removed
George O'Callaghan, 2nd Viscount Lismore - Lord Lismore's mother was a younger sister of
John Butler, 17th Earl of Ormonde. Lismore had reportedly declared his intention to name Lord Ormonde's brother
Lord Arthur Butler as his heir, causing some surprise amongst the family when his Will received that Lady Beatrice and Lady Constance were to inherit his estate.
Following the death of Lord Lismore in 1898 and his widow in 1900, Lady Beatrice and Lady Constance inherited an estate worth an estimated £25,000 annually, as well as
Shanbally Castle
Shanbally Castle was located near Clogheen, County Tipperary, Clogheen, County Tipperary and built for Cornelius O'Callaghan, 1st Viscount Lismore in around 1810. It was the largest house built in Ireland by the noted English architect John Nash (a ...
in County Tipperary, Ireland.
Estates
Ireland
The third was the last Marquess of Ormonde to live at Kilkenny Castle, and lived in a style and on a scale which was typical of a wealthy British Peer. He and his wife hosted visits from the future King and Queen
Prince George, Duke of York and
The Duchess of York in 1899, as well as
King Edward VII
Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910.
The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria and ...
and
Queen Alexandra
Alexandra of Denmark (Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia; 1 December 1844 – 20 November 1925) was List of British royal consorts, queen-consort of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, from 22 Januar ...
at the castle in 1904.
The 1901 Census of Ireland records that the Ormondes' kept a large household at Kilkenny Castle, which included a butler, housekeeper, Cook, three ladies maids, a lodge keeper, two footmen, one "odd man", three housemaids, two dairy maids, one still room maid, one scullery maid, one kitchen maid, a hospital nurse and a professional nurse.
Sale of Irish Landholdings
Although the paper value of the income from the Ormonde Irish Estates in the 1880's and 90's was approximately £44,000 in the 1880's and 1890's, regular rental arrears arising from Ireland agricultural depression rendered the actual income as closer to £22,000 annually during the later decades of the nineteenth century; records survive of Lady Ormonde startling a guest seated next to her at Castle Ball by commenting that "we are very poor." The Ormonde landed Estates, which had spanned some 27,800 acres in the counties of Tipperary and Kilkenny in the 1880's, were sold in 1903 for £240,000 under the
Wyndham Land Act. The family's Irish landholdings was thereafter reduced to the 95-acre demense of
Kilkenny Castle
Kilkenny Castle ( ) is a castle in Kilkenny, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, built in 1260 in Ireland, 1260 to control a fording-point of the River Nore and the junction of several routeways. It was a symbol of Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland, N ...
, approximately 700 acres at the Dunmore home farm, and some 3,500 acres of mountain forest (largely used for shooting and forestry) at the family's hunting Lodge at
Ballyknockane, Tipperary.
England
The Ormonde's also maintained a London Townhouse in Mayfair; following their marriage they leased No. 5 Upper Brook Street in Mayfair from Lady Ormonde's father from 1877 to 1880. In 1881 they took a lease of 32 Upper Brook St; this house would continue to be their London home 1881 to 1921 (Lady Ormonde continued to lease the property after Lord Ormonde's death in 1919).
Isle of Wright
Ormonde was a keen yachtsman who held a Board of Trade certificate and had belonged to the Royal Yacht Squadron since 1867. At the age of twenty-three he owned the 42-ton schooner ''Koh-i-Noor'', and in 1868 he commissioned the 197-ton schooner ''Mirage'' from Inman's of Lymington, aboard which he voyaged as far north as
Spitsbergen
Spitsbergen (; formerly known as West Spitsbergen; Norwegian language, Norwegian: ''Vest Spitsbergen'' or ''Vestspitsbergen'' , also sometimes spelled Spitzbergen) is the largest and the only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipel ...
. In 1883 he abandoned sails for steam by acquiring a 190-ton screw schooner, also named ''Mirage''.
Lord and Lady Ormonde were prominent in high society yachting circles, through which they came to be on friendly terms with
Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany during the 1890's.
In December 1910 Lord Ormonde leased Solent Lodge, a seaside villa on the Isle of Wright with six reception rooms and eighteen bedrooms. He later purchased the property from
Sir John Whittaker Ellis in mid-1911.
The Villa became the site of the Ormonde's frequent entertainments of royalty, including a visit King
The King and
Queen
Queen most commonly refers to:
* Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom
* Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king
* Queen (band), a British rock band
Queen or QUEEN may also refer to:
Monarchy
* Queen dowager, the widow of a king
* Q ...
in July 1914, and longer visits from the Kaiser's brother
Prince Henry of Prussia during the
Cowes Regatta week in 1913 and 1914. During the First World War Lord Ormonde lent Solent Lodge as a nursing home for wounded soldiers.
Career
A Colonel in the Royal East Kent Mounted Rifles and Commodore of the Royal Yacht Squadron, he was Vice-Admiral of Leinster and a member of the
Privy Council of Ireland
His or Her Majesty's Privy Council in Ireland, commonly called the Privy Council of Ireland, Irish Privy Council, or in earlier centuries the Irish Council, was the institution within the Dublin Castle administration which exercised formal executi ...
. He was awarded the
Order of the Crown of Prussia
The Royal Order of the Crown () was a Prussian order of chivalry. Instituted in 1861 as an honour equal in rank to the Order of the Red Eagle, membership could only be conferred upon commissioned officers (or civilians of approximately equivale ...
(first class). He was invested as a Knight,
Order of St Patrick
The Most Illustrious Order of Saint Patrick is a dormant British order of chivalry associated with Ireland. The Order was created in 1783 by King George III at the request of the then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, George Nugent-Temple-Grenville, ...
in 1888. He held the office of Lord-Lieutenant of County Kilkenny between 1878 and 1919.
Lord Ormonde visited South Africa in 1903. In addition to the Royal Yacht Squadron, he was a member of the Royal Irish Yacht Club, the Royal St. George Yacht Club and the Imperial German Yacht Club.
Attempt to Restore Dukedom
Lord Ormonde is recorded as having written to the then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom,
Benjamin Disraeli
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield (21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881) was a British statesman, Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician and writer who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a ...
, regarding the restoration of the Dukedom of Ormonde in October 1868. Ormonde claimed that his grandfather,
James Butler, 1st Marquess of Ormonde (then 19th Earl of Ormond) had been advised by Lord Liverpool to apply for the restoration of the Dukedom, and that Lord Liverpool had advised him that in order to achieve this, he would first need to apply to be elevated from the rank of Earl to Marquess. An application was duly made, and James, 19th Earl of Ormond was granted the title Marquess of Ormonde. The 3rd Marquess believed that Lord Liverpool's loss of the Office of Prime Minister in 1827 frustrated this plan, and the 1st Marquess took no further action towards applying for the restoration of the Dukedom. The 3rd Marquess also alleged in his letter to Prime Minister Disraeli that his father,
John Butler, 2nd Marquess of Ormonde
John Butler, 2nd Marquess of Ormonde, Order of St. Patrick, KP (24 August 1808 – 25 September 1854) was an Irish politician and peer.
Family
He was the son of James Butler, 1st Marquess of Ormonde and Grace Louisa Staples. He married France ...
had resolved not to pursue the restoration of the Dukedom of Ormonde unless another peer was also elevated to a Dukedom during his lifetime. Disraeli responded to the 3rd Marquess' letter on 27 October 1868, and expressed his sympathy with Lord Ormonde's desire to restore "the title of an illustrious ancestor". However, in his letter Disraeli implied that the political climate of the time did not render the creation, or restoration, of the Dukedom of Ormonde to be appropriate, noting that "the condition of the party
he Conservative Partyis now critical".
Succession
Butler died at Kilkenny Castle on 26 October 1919. Upon his death, the family titles passed to his brother
Lord Arthur Butler due to his lack of a male heir. His widow Elizabeth, Dowager Marchioness of Ormonde, and his brother Lord Arthur were granted life annuities of £3,000 each under his will, whilst his youngest surviving brother
Lord Theobald Butler
Lord Theobald Butler (24 August 1852 – 16 June 1929) was a British clergyman who was the youngest son of John Butler, 2nd Marquess of Ormonde and his wife, Frances Jane Paget. At the time of his birth, he was the fourth son of Lord and Lady Ormon ...
received a smaller annuity of £275. Lady Ormonde also inherited their Villa, ''Solent Lodge'' on the Isle of Wright, which became her primary residence during her widowhood. Lord Ormonde's total estate (including entailed property) was valued at approximately £450,000.
Although his brother Lord Arthur was the heir to Ormonde's titles and hereditary honours, Lord Arthur seems to have requested that his older brother alter his will in favor of Lord Arthur's sons. Records survive of a letter written by Lord Ormonde to his nephew
Capt. George Butler dated 27 June 1916 outlining changes to his will which "your father has asked me to alter." These changes postponed Lord Arthur's entitlement to the use of and income from property held in the Ormonde Settled Estates Trust in favor of George, George's sons (at the time George's wife Sybil was pregnant with their only son, Anthony Butler) and George's brother Arthur and his male issue. The purpose of the letter was to inform George of the changes Ormonde had made to his Will to effect this, and request that George not undertake any changes to the family's Irish homes, Kilkenny Castle and Ballyknockane Lodge, and that George ensure that his own mother would have use of the family jewels during the lifetime of Lord Arthur.
[National Library of Ireland, "The Ormonde Papers" Collection List No. 176, Item MS 48,377/9, https://www.nli.ie/pdfs/mss%20lists/176_Ormond%20Papers%20(Additional)%20Collection%20List.pdf]
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ormonde, James Butler, 3rd Marquess of
1844 births
1919 deaths
Knights of St Patrick
Lord-lieutenants of Kilkenny
James
Members of the Privy Council of Ireland
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