Richard Butler, 1st Earl of Arran

Richard Butler
Earl of Arran
Tenure	1662–1686
Born	15 July 1639
Died	25 January 1686 London
Spouse(s)	Mary Stuart, Dorothy Ferrers
Detail Issue Charlotte & others
Father	James, 1st Duke of Ormond
Mother	Elizabeth Preston

Richard Butler, 1st Earl of Arran (1639–1686) was the fourth son of James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde. He served as Lord Deputy of Ireland from 1682 to 1684 while his father, the Lord Lieutenant, was absent. He sat in the Irish House of Lords as Earl of Arran and in the English one as Baron Butler of Weston. When William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford was accused of treason during the Popish Plot, Arran resisted the anti-Catholic hysteria and voted not guilty.

Birth and origins[]

Richard was born on 15 July 1639,^[1] probably at Kilkenny Castle. He was the fifth son of James Butler and his wife Elizabeth Preston. His father was then the 12th Earl of Ormond but would be elevated to marquess and duke. His father's family, the Butler dynasty, was Old English and descended from Theobald Walter, who had been appointed Chief Butler of Ireland by King Henry II in 1177.^[2] Thomas's mother was a second cousin once removed of his father as she was a granddaughter of Black Tom, the 10th Earl of Ormond. Her father, however, was Scottish, Richard Preston, 1st Earl of Desmond, a favourite of James I. Both his parents were Protestants. They had married on Christmas Day 1629.^[3] They had 10 children, eight sons and two daughters, but five of the sons died in childhood.^[4]

Earl of Arran[]

On 13 May 1662 he was created Baron Butler of Cloughgrennan, Viscount Tullogh and Earl of Arran (having purchased the Aran Islands) in the Peerage of Ireland, with a special remainder to his younger brother John, should his own male line fail.^[12]

Richard Butler, 1st Earl of Arran, attributed to Godfrey Kneller

Marriages and children[]

Arran married twice. Both brides were rich heiresses.^[13] In September 1664 he married Mary Stuart, Baroness Clifton in her own right, daughter of James Stuart, 1st Duke of Richmond and 4th Duke of Lennox.^[14] She died in 1668 childless at the age of 16.^[15][16]

He married secondly Dorothy, daughter of John Ferrers of Tamworth Castle and his wife Anne, daughter of Sir Dudley Carleton.^[17]

Charles and Dorothy had four children:

1. James (1674–1676), died in infancy
2. Thomas (1675–1681), died in infancy
3. Charlotte (1679–1725), his only surviving child and heiress, who married Charles, 4th Baron Cornwallis^[18]
4. Thomas (1681–1685), died in infancy

Career[]

On 27 August 1673, as a reward for his bravery in the sea-fights against the Dutch in the Third Anglo-Dutch War, Lord Arran, as he was now, was created Baron Butler of Weston in the Peerage of England.^[19]

In 1680, when the Catholic nobleman William Howard, 1st Viscount Stafford was tried for high treason in the bogus Popish Plot, Arran was one of 31 peers who voted Stafford not guilty. As the most junior English peer, Arran was the first to cast his vote; his vote of "not guilty" took some courage, given the prevailing hysteria whipped up against anyone who cast doubt on the veracity of the supposed Plot. However, 55 peers voted guilty and Stafford was executed.

Arran was made Lord Deputy of Ireland in April 1682 when his father, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, went to England, and held the post until August 1684 when his father returned.^[20] This honour came to him because his elder brother Ossory, who had been deputy from 1668 to 1669^[21] had died in 1680.^[22]

Death and timeline[]

Arran died of pleurisy in London on 25 January 1686^[23] and was buried in Westminster Abbey.^[24] As he died without surviving male issue, and his brother John had died before him, his titles became extinct. His only daughter, Charlotte, inherited the estate, which she brought her husband when she married Lord Cornwallis in 1699.

However, his three Irish titles would be recreated in 1693 for his nephew Charles Butler, who would be created Baron Butler of Cloughgrenan, Viscount Tullough, and Earl of Arran of the 1693 creation.

Notes, citations, and sources[]

Notes[]

Citations[]

Sources[]

• Airy, Osmund (1886). "Butler, James, twelfth Earl and first Duke of Ormonde (1610–1688)". In Lee, Sidney (ed.). Dictionary of National Biography. 8. New York: MacMillan and Co. pp. 52–60. OCLC 8544105.
• Bagwell, Richard (1916). Ireland under the Stuarts and under the Interregnum. 3. London: Longmans, Green, and Co. OCLC 458582656. – 1660 to 1690
• Burke, Bernard (1949). A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire (99th ed.). London: Burke's Peerage Ltd.
• Chester, Joseph Lemuel (1876). Registers of Westminster Abbey. London: Private Edition. OCLC 1140248. – Marriages, baptisms and burials from about 1660 to 1875
• Cokayne, George Edward (1895). Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, Extant, Extinct, or Dormant. 6 (1st ed.). London: George Bell and Sons. OCLC 1180818801. – N to R (for Ossory under Ormond)
• Cokayne, George Edward (1910). Gibbs, Vicary (ed.). The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant. 1 (2nd ed.). London: St Catherine Press. OCLC 228661424. – Ab-Adam to Basing (for Arran and Hamilton family tree)
• Davies, J. D. (2004). "Butler, Thomas, sixth earl of Ossory (1634–1680)". In Matthew, Henry Colin Gray.; Harrison, Brian (eds.). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 9. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 226–229. ISBN 0-19-861359-8.
• Debrett, John (1828a). Peerage of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. 1 (17th ed.). London: F. C. and J. Rivington. OCLC 54499602. – England
• Debrett, John (1828b). Peerage of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. 2 (17th ed.). London: F. C. and J. Rivington. OCLC 54499602. – Scotland and Ireland
• Dunboyne, Patrick Theobald Tower Butler, Baron (1968). Butler Family History (2nd ed.). Kilkenny: Rothe House.
• Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I., eds. (1986). Handbook of British Chronology. Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks, No. 2 (3rd ed.). London: Offices of the Royal Historical Society. ISBN 0-86193-106-8. (for timeline)
• Hamilton, Anthony (1888). Memoirs of Count Grammont. Translated by Walpole, Horace. Philadelphia: Gebbie & Co. OCLC 1048777116.
• Lodge, John (1789). Archdall, Mervyn (ed.). The Peerage of Ireland or, A Genealogical History of the Present Nobility of that Kingdom. 4. Dublin: James Moore. OCLC 264906028. – Viscounts (for Butler, Viscount Mountgarrett)
• Murtagh, Harman (2004). "Butler, Richard, first earl of Arran (1639–1686)". In Matthew, Henry Colin Gray.; Harrison, Brian (eds.). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 9. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 197–198. ISBN 0-19-861359-8.
• Pepys, Samuel (1893). Wheatley, Henry Benjamin (ed.). The Diary of Samuel Pepys. 2. London: George Bell & Sons. OCLC 503692830. – 1 April 1661 to 31 December 1662
• Perceval-Maxwell, Michael (2004). "Butler [née Preston] Elizabeth, duchess of Ormond and suo jure Lady Dingwall (1615–1684)". In Matthew, Henry Colin Gray.; Harrison, Brian (eds.). Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 9. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 130–131. ISBN 0-19-861359-8.

External links[]

• http://www.pepysdiary.com/p/5826.php