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James Butler, 1st Marquess of Ormonde

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The Most Honorable
The Marquess of Ormonde
Member of Parliament
for County Kilkenny
In office
1801–1820
Member of Parliament
for County Kilkenny
In office
1796–1801
Member of Parliament
for Kilkenny City
In office
1796–1796
Personal details
Born15 July 1774
Died18 May 1838(1838-05-18) (aged 63)
Political partyPittite (from 1815)
Whigs (1796–1815)[1]
EducationEton College[1]
Military service
Allegiance United Kingdom
 Kingdom of Ireland
Branch/serviceBritish Army
Years of serviceBritish Army (1790–1802)
Militia (1806–1838)
RankColonel
Unit14th Dragoons
(1790–1802)[1]
KilKenny Militia
(1806–1838)[1]

James Wandesford Butler, 1st Marquess of Ormonde, KP (15 July 1774 – 18 May 1838) was an Irish nobleman and politician. He was the second son of John Butler, 17th Earl of Ormonde and Frances Susan Elizabeth Wandesford. He was born at Kilkenny castle on 15 July 1774.

Butler was a Member of Parliament (MP) for Kilkenny City in the Irish House of Commons in 1796 (he never took his seat and resigned after 3 months) and served then for County Kilkenny until the Act of Union in 1801. He sat subsequently for the Irish county constituency of County Kilkenny and was member of the UK House of Commons from 1801, until he succeeded to the peerage, as 19th Earl of Ormonde, in 1820, on the death of his elder brother, Walter, the 18th Earl and 1st Marquess of Ormonde in the Irish peerage (the latter title becoming extinct upon his death). He was a well-known advocate for the Irish people with his first speech at Westminster condemning the Irish Window tax and defending the right of Irish landowners.

Following his brother's death, James inherited some £450,000 in debts. As a result, The Ormonde Estates in Derbyshire were sold at auction on Thursday 27 November 1824. The Sutton Hall Estate, including the Manor House, some 5,500 acres of land (which included coal mines), generated some £5,800 in rents alone, and was sold for £216,000 to the Manchester Spinner John Arkwright Esq. The Chilcote Estate, comprising 1,320 acres generating £2,200 annually, was sold to a Mr Robinson of Kingston, Surrey, for £87,000. The adjacent Cottage Park Farm, comprising 281 acres, was sold to a solicitor, Mr Cookney of Holborn (acting on behalf the brewer H. Worthington Esq). The sales generated £450,000.[2]

Having joined the fashionable society in London,[3] he became a companion of the Prince Regent. Subsequently, at the Prince's coronation as George IV, he was created a Peer of the United Kingdom, as Baron Ormonde, of Llanthony, in the county of Monmouth and in 1825, Marquess of Ormonde.

Marriage and children

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He married Grace Louisa Staples, daughter of Rt. Hon. John Staples and Hon. Henrietta Molesworth (daughter of Richard Molesworth, 3rd Viscount Molesworth), on 12 October 1807. They had five sons and five daughters:[4]

  • John Butler, 2nd Marquess of Ormonde (1808–1854), who married Frances Jane (d. 26 Aug. 1903), daughter of Gen. Hon. Sir Edward Paget, GCB
  • Lord Walter Wandesford Butler (1814–1861), Army officer
  • Captain Lord James Wandesford Butler (1815–1893), who married Lady Rachel Evelyn Russell, daughter of the 6th Duke of Bedford
  • Louisa Grace Butler (1816–1896), married Thomas Fortescue, 1st Baron Clermont
  • Lord Richard Molesworth Butler (1818–1838)
  • Lieut Lord Charles Wandesford Butler (1820–1857)
  • Lady Harriet Eleanor Butler (died 28 Sept 1885), married Robert Fowler, 1st son of Rt Rev Robert Fowler DD, Bishop of Ossory, Ferns and Leighlin
  • Anne Butler (died 1849), married John Wynne, of Hazlewood House, Sligo
  • Lady Elizabeth Butler (died 1892)
  • Lady Mary Charlotte Butler (died 1840)

In 1827, the London residence of Lord and Lady Ormonde was recorded as being 14 Weymouth Street, Westminster.[5]

Elevation to Marquessate

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Lord Ormonde's grandson, James Butler, 3rd Marquess of Ormonde is recorded as having written to the then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Benjamin Disraeli, regarding the restoration of the Dukedom of Ormonde in October 1868. Ormonde claimed that his grandfather, the 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 in 1825. 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.[6]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d BUTLER, Hon. James Wandesford (1774–1838), of Kilkenny Castle, co. Kilkenny, Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1820-1832, ed. D.R. Fisher, 2009, Available from Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ Leicester Chronicle, ‘Sale of the Ormonde Estates’, Sat 27 November 1824, page 4.
  3. ^ "History of Kilkenny Castle". Archived from the original on 2 March 2010. Retrieved 11 August 2010.
  4. ^ Burke's Peerage 61st Edition. London: Harrison and Sons. 1899. p. 1269.
  5. ^ The Morning Post, Monday 18 June 1827, page 2.
  6. ^ Disraeli, B., Gunn, J. A. W., Wiebe, M. G. (1982). Benjamin Disraeli Letters. United Kingdom: University of Toronto Press, p. 388
Parliament of Ireland
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Kilkenny City
1796
With: James Wemys 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for County Kilkenny
1796–1801
With: William Brabazon Ponsonby 		Parliament of Ireland abolished
Parliament of the United Kingdom
New constituency Member of Parliament for County Kilkenny
1801–1820
With: William Ponsonby 1801–1806
Hon. George Ponsonby 1806
Hon. Frederick Ponsonby 1806–1820 		Succeeded by
Honorary titles
New title Lord Lieutenant of Kilkenny
1831–1838 		Succeeded by
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation Baron Ormonde
1821–1838 		Succeeded by
Peerage of Ireland
New creation Marquess of Ormonde
1825–1838 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Earl of Ormonde
Earl of Ossory
1820–1838
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