James Butler, 1st Marquess of Ormonde

James Butler, 1st 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
Born	15 July 1774
Died	18 May 1838(1838-05-18) (aged 63)
Political party	Pittite (from 1815) Whigs (1796–1815)[1]
Education	Eton College[1]
Military service
Allegiance	United Kingdom  Kingdom of Ireland
Branch/service	British Army
Years of service	British Army (1790–1802) Militia (1806–1838)
Rank	Colonel
Unit	14th 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 Kilkenny County 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.

Having joined fashionable society in London,^[2] 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[]

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:^[3]

• 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)

See also[]

• Butler dynasty

References[]

• Parliamentary Election Results in Ireland, 1801-1922, edited by B. M. Walker (Royal Irish Academy 1978)
• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Pages ^{[self-published source][better source needed]}
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "K" (part 2)