John Butler, 17th Earl of Ormonde


John Butler, 17th Earl of Ormonde, 10th Earl of Ossory was an Irish peer and Member of Parliament. He represented Gowran between 1776 and 1783, and Kilkenny City between 1783 and 1792. In 1791, his right to the peerage was acknowledged in the Irish House of Lords.

Birth and origins

John was born on 10 December 1740, at Garryricken. He was one of the 4 children, and the only son, of Walter Butler and his wife Ellen Morres. His father was the de jure 16th Earl of Ormond. John's mother was a daughter of Nicholas Morres of the Court, County Dublin, granddaughter of Sir John Morres, 7th Baronet Morres of Knockagh.

Conforms and marries a Protestant heiress

On 16 December 1764 he conformed to the established Church of Ireland in a ceremony performed in the church of Golden, County Tipperary. In other words: he became a Protestant.
In February 1769 he married Anne Elizabeth Wandesford, who was also known as Frances Susan Elizabeth. She was a rich heiress being the only child of John Wandesfort the 1st Earl of Wandesford and 5th Viscount Castlecomer. The Wandesfords were Protestants and had supported the Prince of Orange during the Williamite War in Ireland. They owned land and coal mines around Castlecomer in northern County Kilkenny. When the Earl of Wandesford died in 1784, his titles became extinct, but his estates passed to John Butler.
The couple had five children:
  1. Walter, who became the 1st Marquess of Ormonde in the Peerage of Ireland;
  2. James, who also became the 1st Marquess of Ormonde but in the Peerage of the United Kingdom;
  3. Charles Harward, who married firstly Lady Sarah Butler, daughter of Henry Thomas Butler, 2nd Earl of Carrick and, secondly, Lucy French, daughter of Arthur French;
  4. Eleanor, who married Cornelius O’Callaghan, 1st Viscount Lismore in 1808; and
  5. Elizabeth, who married Thomas Kavanagh, The MacMorrough, in 1799.

    Two inheritances

In 1783 his father died in Kilkenny Castle. John inherits Kilkenny and the lands, notably those that his father had inherited from John Butler of Kilcash, the de jure 15th Earl of Ormond, in 1766. In 1784 is father-in-law, the Earl of Wandesford died. His titles became extinct, but John inherits the land and the coal mines.

Earl

In 1791 he claimed the title of Earl of Ormond, which was believed to have become extinct in 1715. The Irish House of Lords accepted this claim and he was restored to become the 17th Earl of Ormonde.

Death and succession

He died on 25 or 30 December 1795 at Kilkenny Castle and was buried in Kilcash. His widow died in Dublin in 1830. He was succeeded by his son Walter, who was made a Marquess in 1816.

Ancestry