Thomas Butler, Viscount Thurles (before 1596 – 1619) was the son and heir apparent of
Walter Butler, 11th Earl of Ormond (1559–1633), whom he predeceased. He lived at the Westgate Castle in
Thurles
Thurles (; ''Durlas Éile'') is a town in County Tipperary, Ireland. It is located in the civil parish of the same name in the barony of Eliogarty and in the ecclesiastical parish of Thurles. The cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Arch ...
, County Tipperary. He was accused of treason but drowned in a shipwreck off the Skerries in the
Irish Sea
The Irish Sea is a body of water that separates the islands of Ireland and Great Britain. It is linked to the Celtic Sea in the south by St George's Channel and to the Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland in the north by the North Ch ...
, before he could be judged. He was the father of the Irish statesman and
Royalist
A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of gove ...
commander
James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde
Lieutenant general, Lieutenant-General James FitzThomas Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond, Knight of the Garter, KG, Privy Council of England, PC (19 October 1610 – 21 July 1688), was an Anglo-Irish statesman and soldier, known as Earl of Ormond fr ...
.
Birth and origins
Thomas was born in 1594, the eldest son of
Walter Butler and his wife Helen Butler. At the time of his birth, his father was a nephew of the ruling earl,
Black Tom, the 10th
earl of Ormond. His father's family, 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 ...
, was
Old English
Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...
and descended from
Theobald Walter, who had been appointed chief butler of Ireland by
King Henry II in 1177.
Thomas's mother was the eldest daughter of
Edmund Butler, 2nd Viscount Mountgarret and his wife Grizel FitzPatrick. Thomas was one of eleven siblings, two brothers and nine sisters,
who are listed in his father's article, but he was the only surviving son.
Marriage and children
Probably in 1608, but surely before 1610, Butler married
Elizabeth Poyntz against his father's wishes. She was the second daughter of Sir John Poyntz (died 1633) of
Iron Acton, Gloucestershire, and his second wife Elizabeth Sydenham (died 1595). His wife's family were English Catholics.
Thomas and Elizabeth had three sons:
#
James (1610–1688), became the 1st Duke of Ormond
# John (died 1636), died unmarried in
Naples
Naples ( ; ; ) is the Regions of Italy, regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 908,082 within the city's administrative limits as of 2025, while its Metropolitan City of N ...
on his travels
#
Richard
Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language">Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'st ...
(1615–1701) of
Kilcash
—and four daughters:
# Helena or Ellen or Eleanor (1612–1682), before 1633 married
Donough MacCarty, 1st Earl of Clancarty
Sir Donough MacCarty, 1st Earl of Clancarty (1594–1665), was an Irish soldier and politician. He succeeded his father as 2nd Viscount Muskerry in 1641. He rebelled against the government and joined the Irish Catholic Confederation, deman ...
# Eleanor or Ellen, in 1634 married Sir Andrew Aylmer (1613–1671),
baronet
A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...
, of
Donadea in the
County of Kildare
# Mary (died 1680), in 1635 married
Sir George Hamilton, 1st Baronet, of Donalong
# Elizabeth (died 1675), married first
James Purcell (1609–1652), Baron of Loughmoe, by whom she had
Nicholas Purcell of Loughmoe (1651–1722); she married secondly John FitzPatrick of Castletown
Viscount Thurles
When Black Tom died on 22 November 1614, Butler's father succeeded as the 11th earl and Butler became
heir apparent
An heir apparent is a person who is first in the order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person. A person who is first in the current order of succession but could be displaced by the birth of a more e ...
with the
courtesy title
A courtesy title is a title that does not have legal significance but is rather used by custom or courtesy, particularly, in the context of nobility, the titles used by children of members of the nobility (cf. substantive title).
In some context ...
of
Viscount Thurles. While the Ormond title was secure, the lands were claimed by
Richard Preston, 1st Earl of Desmond, who had married
Elizabeth, Black Tom's only surviving child.
Death and succession
In 1619 after the beginning of his father's long imprisonment in the
Fleet Prison
Fleet Prison was a notorious London prison by the side of the River Fleet. The prison was built in 1197, was rebuilt several times, and was in use until 1844. It was demolished in 1846.
History
The prison was built in 1197 off what is now ...
in London, Thurles was summoned to England to answer charges of
treason
Treason is the crime of attacking a state (polity), state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to Coup d'état, overthrow its government, spy ...
, specifically, of having garrisoned
Kilkenny
Kilkenny ( , meaning 'church of Cainnech of Aghaboe, Cainnech'). is a city in County Kilkenny, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is located in the South-East Region, Ireland, South-East Region and in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinst ...
. However, on 15 December the ship conveying him was wrecked off
the Skerries, Isle of Anglesey
The Skerries () (), coming from the Old Norse word , are a group of sparsely vegetated rocky islets ( skerries), with a total area of about lying offshore from Carmel Head at the northwest corner of Anglesey, Wales. The islands are important ...
, and he drowned. Like his father, Thurles was a prominent
Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
and it seems likely that his refusal to conform to the established
Anglican
Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...
religion had angered King
James I James I may refer to:
People
*James I of Aragon (1208–1276)
* James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327)
* James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu
* James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347)
*James I of Cyprus (1334� ...
and may have been the true motive for his summons.
Thurles predeceased his father, who would die in 1634. His eldest son James, the future 1st Duke of Ormond, became heir apparent and bearer of the courtesy title Viscount Thurles until he succeeded his grandfather as the 12th Earl of Ormond. Thurles's widow survived him for more than 50 years.
Notes and references
Notes
Citations
Sources
* – (for FitzPatrick)
* – (for Ormond)
* – 1613 to 1641
* – Scotland and Ireland
*
*
* – N to R (for Ormond)
* – 1611 to 1625
* – Canonteign to Cutts (for Clancarty)
* – M to Z
*
* – Viscounts (for Butler, Viscount Mountgarrett)
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thurles, Thomas Butler, Viscount
Thurles, Thomas Butler
Thurles, Thomas Butler
17th-century Irish people
English courtesy viscounts
Butler dynasty
Deaths due to shipwreck at sea
Heirs apparent who never acceded
Thurles, Thomas Butler
Burials at St Michan's Church, Dublin