John Butler, 2nd Marquess of Ormonde

Biography

Education

Although the bulk of the Ormonde family estates were held in Ireland, John was educated at Harrow, after which he obtained a M.A. at Oxford.

House of Commons

At the age of 22 he was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for County Kilkenny in 1830, where he sat as a Whig; he held the seat until 1832. He did not contest the seat at the 1832 United Kingdom general election, as the election was called whilst Lord Thurles was travelling in Europe.

Inheritance

Following the death of John's uncle Walter Butler, 1st Marquess of Ormonde in 1820, John's father James succeeded as the 19th Earl of Ormonde and 13th Earl of Ossory, and John assumed the courtesy title Viscount Thurles.

John's father's elevation to the Marquessate of Ormonde in 1825 subsequently resulted in John assuming the courtesy title Earl of Ossory.

Following the death of his father in 1838, John succeeded to the family titles and estates as the 2nd Marquess of Ormonde at the age of 29. Despite holding a Marquessate in the Peerage of Ireland, Ormonde sat in the Parliament of the United Kingdom's House of Lords as Baron Ormonde of Llanthony; as a result of the Acts of Union 1800, Ormonde's Irish peerages did not automatically entitle him to sit in the Lords; however the Barony of Ormonde had been granted within the Peerage of the United Kingdom.

During the Irish Great Famine he was viewed as a generous landlord who reduced, and in some cases cancelled rents payable to his from his tenants. He was invested as a Knight, Order of St Patrick (K.P.) in 1845.

Lord Ormonde later served in the Royal Household as a Lord-in-waiting to Queen Victoria between 1841 and 1852, and again from 1853 to 1854.

Ormonde was also the author of An Autumn in Sicily, Dublin: Hodges and Smith, 1850.

Under the terms of the will of John's great-grandfather, John Wandesford, 1st Earl Wandesford, the Wandesford estates were not to pass to whoever held the Earldom of Ormonde; instead, the will provided that this inheritance should eventually pass to the second surviving son of John's paternal grandmother Anne, the daughter and sole heiress of Lord Wandesford.

The Wandesforde estates comprised the 20,000-acre Castlecomer estate and collieries in County Kilkenny, estates in Yorkshire, and property in counties Clare and Limerick. A detailed account made in 1859 valued their combined annual receipts at about £20,100 gross, yielding approximately £9,800 net before family charges.

Marriage and children

In 1843 Lord Ormonde married Frances Jane Paget, daughter of General Sir Edward Paget and his second wife Lady Harriet Legge. The marriage produced four sons and two daughters:

James Butler, 3rd Marquess of Ormonde (1844–1919), married Lady Elizabeth Harriet Grosvenor, daughter of Hugh Lupus Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster.

Lady Beatrice Frances Elizabeth Butler (1876 - 1952), married Lt-Gen. Sir Reginald Pole-Carew in 1901.

Lady Constance Mary Butler (1879 - 1949)

Lady Mary Butler (1846–1929), married the Hon. William Henry Fitzwilliam.

Marie "Mab" Albreda Blanche Wentworth-FitzWilliam (1879 - 14 April 1963), married Major Harold Maxwell Walker in 1904.

Isabel Elizabeth Mary Wentworth-FitzWilliam (1880 - 1955)

Irene "Ena" Serga Alice Jane Mary Wentworth-FitzWilliam (1883 - 19 Mar 1972)

Lord Hubert Butler (1847–1867).

Arthur Butler, 4th Marquess of Ormonde (1849–1943), married in 1887 to Chicago Heiress Ellen Sprague Stager, daughter of General Anson Stager and had issue.

Lady Evelyn Frances Butler (1887 - 1978), married to Vice-Adm. Hon. Edmund Rupert Drummond

James George Anson Butler, 5th Marquess of Ormonde (1890 - 1949), married The Hon. Sybil Fellowes in 1915.

James Arthur Norman Butler, 6th Marquess of Ormonde (1893 - 1971), married Jesse Carlos Clarke in 1924.

Death

In September 1854 he and his young family were bathing near Loftus Hall when he died suddenly. His nine-year-old son James Edward, Earl of Ossory succeeded him as Marquess of Ormonde. During the minority of the Third Marquess, John's widow Frances administered the family estates; under the terms of John's Will, Frances enjoyed a life annuity of £2,000. Their marriage settlement had also provided for a £10,000 sum to be placed in Trust after John's death, with the income to be paid to all children from the union other than their oldest surviving son in equal shares. Following his death, a magnificent funeral procession was held in the City of Kilkenny, where his remains were transported from Kilkenny Castle to St Canice's Cathedral. His widow Frances later commissioned Edward Richardson to erect a large monument at her husband's tomb within the Cathedral.

Works

Butler, John (1850). Autumn in Sicily. Dublin: Hodges and Smith.