Charles Butler, 1st Earl of Arran

Lieutenant-General Charles Butler, 1st Earl of Arran (of the second creation), de jure 3rd Duke of Ormonde (1671–1758) was an Irish peer. His uncle Richard was the 1st Earl of Arran of the first creation. The titles were re-created for Charles in 1693. He was the younger son of Thomas Butler 6th Earl of Ossory and Emilia von Nassau. His paternal grandfather was the 1st Duke of Ormonde and his elder brother was the 2nd Duke of Ormonde.

Not to be confused with Richard Butler, 1st Earl of Arran.

Charles Butler
Earl of Arran (Ireland)
Reign	1722–1758
Born	4 September 1671
Died	17 December 1758
Family	Butler dynasty
Spouse(s)	Elizabeth Crew
Father	Thomas Butler, 6th Earl of Ossory
Mother	Emilia von Nassau
Religion	Anglican (Church of Ireland)

Birth and origin

Charles was born on 4 September 1671.[1] He was the second and youngest surviving son of Thomas Butler and his wife Emilia. His father was known as Lord Ossory. He was heir apparent of James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormond but predeceased him and so never became duke. The Butlers were an Old English family. Charles's mother was Dutch. She descended from a cadet branch of the House of Nassau. Both parents were Protestant. They married on 17 November 1659.[2]

Family tree

Charles Butler with wife, parents, and other selected relatives. Thomas Viscount Thurles bef. 1596 – 1619 Elizabeth Pointz 1587–1673 Elizabeth Preston 1615–1684 James 1st Duke 1610–1688 Richard B. of Kilcash 1615–1701 Thomas 6th Earl Ossory 1633–1680 Emilia von Nassau 1635–1688 Richard 1st Earl Arran 1639–1684 Elizabeth Countess of Chesterfield 1640–1665 Walter B. of Garryricken d. 1700 James 2nd Duke Ormond 1665–1745 Charles 1st Earl Arran 1671–1758 Elizabeth Crew d. 1756 Amelia Butler d. 1760 Thomas B. of Garryricken d. 1738 Thomas Butler 1686–1689 John de jure 15th Earl d. 1766 Legend XXX Charles Butler XXX Earls & dukes of Ormond This family tree is partly derived from the condensed Butler family tree pictured in Dunboyne.[3] Also see the lists of siblings in the text.

They had eleven children,[4] but only five seem to be known by name.

Charles listed among his siblings

He appears at the bottom of the list of siblings as the youngest: Elizabeth (died 1717), married William Stanley, 9th Earl of Derby in 1673;[5] Henrietta (died 1724), married Henry de Nassau d'Auverquerque, 1st Earl of Grantham;[6] Amelia (died 1760), inherited from her brother Charles and never married;[7] James (1665–1745), became the 2nd Duke of Ormond and was attainted in 1715; Charles (1671–1758).

Early life

On 8 March 1693, Butler was created Earl of Arran (of the second creation) in the Peerage of Ireland. The following year, on 23 January 1694, he was further created Baron Butler, of Weston in the County of Huntingdon, in the Peerage of England. Arran was a Lord of the Bedchamber to King William III, a Lieutenant-General in the Army, Colonel of the 3rd Troop of Horse Guards, Governor of Dover Castle, and Master-General of the Ordnance from 1712 to 1714.

Elizabeth Butler (Christian Friedrich Zincke)

Marriage

On 3 June 1705 he married Elizabeth Crew, Countess of Arran, daughter of Thomas Crew, 2nd Baron Crew and his second wife, the former Anne Airmine, daughter of Sir William Airmine, 2nd Baronet in Oatlands, at Weybridge in Surrey.[8] The marriage was childless.

Later life

His eldest brother got involved in the Jacobite rising of 1715 and was attainted, whereupon all his honours were assumed to have been forfeit. However, it was later ruled that the attainder, enacted by the Parliament of Great Britain, applied to his British titles (i.e. those in the Peerages of England and Scotland), but not to his Irish titles. Lord Arran therefore de jure succeeded on his brother's death on 5 November 1745 as 3rd Duke of Ormonde in the Peerage of Ireland, but was never aware of doing so. As such, he was the fourth and last member of the Kilcash branch that started with John Butler of Kilcash, the father of the 11th Earl, to succeed to the titles.

Charles Butler, 1st Earl of Arran

In 1721 he was allowed by act of the English Parliament to buy back the family estates that had been forfeited under his brother's attainder.[9]

On 2 January 1722, the Old Pretender (Jacobite "King James III") created Charles Duke of Arran in the Jacobite Peerage of England.[10]

Death and succession

He died at his lodgings at Whitehall on 17 December 1758 and was buried in St. Margaret's Church, Westminster.[11][12]

On his death, the Earldom of Arran, the Barony of Butler (of Weston) and the Jacobite Dukedom of Arran (such as it was) became extinct, along with the Dukedom and Marquessate of Ormonde. The rest of his de jure Irish titles, including the Earldom of Ormonde, passed to his kinsman John Butler, but remained dormant.

His claim to the Barony of Butler (of Moore Park) and the Lordship of Dingwall (both attainted along with the English Dukedom of Ormonde) passed to his niece, Lady Frances Elliot, eldest daughter of the 1st Earl of Grantham and Arran's sister, the former Lady Henrietta Butler, and eventually passed to the Earls Cowper (descendants of Lord Grantham's youngest daughter), the attainder finally being reversed in 1871 in favour of the 7th Earl.

Horace Walpole called him "an inoffensive old man, last of the illustrious house of Ormonde, and much respected by the Jacobites".

References

1. Cokayne 1910, p. 226, line 10: "was b. 4 Sep 1671."
2. Lodge 1789, p. 59, line 27: "He married 17 November 1659, N.S. the Lady Amelia Nassau, eldest daughter of Louis, Lord of Beverwaert ..."
3. Dunboyne 1968, pp. 16–17: "Butler Family Tree condensed"
4. Davies 2004, p. 226, right column: "The marriage produced eleven children ..."
5. Debrett 1816, p. 130, line 22: "William-Richard-George, 9th earl, lord-lieutenant of Lancashire, May 11, 1676, m. Elizabeth Butler, daughter of Thomas, Earl of Ossory, and sister of James, duke of Ormond ..."
6. Burke 1949, p. 1540, right column, line 28: "Henrietta, m. 12 Jan. 1697, D'Auverquerque, Earl of Grantham, and d. 11 Oct. 1724 ..."
7. Dunboyne 1968, p. 18: "While the 2nd Duke was in exile, his estates were bought in 1721 by his brother, the Earl of Arran, and settled first on their sister, Lady Amelia Butler, who inherited them when, in the words of Walpole 'a young heiress of 99'— she died two months short of her centenary — and secondly on John Butler of Kilcash, the representative of Richard, younger brother of the 1st Duke."
8. Cokayne 1910, p. 226, line 29: "He m., ... 3 June 1705 at Oatlands, Weybridge, Surrey, Elizabeth, 4th da. and coh. of Thomas (CREW), 2nd LORD CREW OF STENE ..."
9. Cokayne 1910, p. 226, line 20: "By Act of Parl. [E.] 1721 he was enabled to repurchase the family estates (forfeited by the attainder of his br., the duke of Ormonde, in 1715), which were thus preserved in the family."
10. Ruvigny 1904, p. 14, line 2: "On the 2nd of January 1722 he was as 'Charles Butler' created by James III and VIII DUKE OF [?ARRAN {E} with remainder to the heirs of male of his body ..."]
11. Cokayne 1910, p. 226, line 35: "He d. s.p., in his 88th year, at his lodgings next the Tilt yard, Whitehall, 17 and was bur. 23 Dec. 1758, at St. Margarets, Westm. ..."
12. Walcott 1847, p. 47: "1758 Dec. 17. Earl of Arran"

• Burke, Bernard (1949), A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire (99th ed.), London: Burke's Peerage Ltd.
• 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 - Ab-Adam to Basing (for Arran)
• 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 (1816), Peerage of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 1 (10th ed.), London: F. C. and J. Rivington - England (for his sister Elizabeth, cited here because the corresponding page is missing in the 1828 edition.)
• Dunboyne, Patrick Theobald Tower Butler, Baron (1968), Butler Family History (2nd ed.), Kilkenny: Rothe House
• Lodge, John (1789), The Peerage of Ireland, 4, Dublin: James Moore – Viscounts (for Ossory under Butler, Viscount Mountgarrett)
• Ruvigny, Melville Henry, Marquis de (1904), Jacobite Peerage Baronetage Knightage and Grants of Honour, Edinburgh: T C & E C Jack
• Walcott, Rev. MacKenzie Edward Charles (1847), The History of the Parish Church of Saint Margaret, in Westminster, London: W. Blanchard & Sons

External links

• Genealogy of Lt.-Gen. Charles Butler, 1st Earl of Arran on the Peerage website

Military offices
Preceded by John Coy	Colonel of The Earl of Arran's Regiment of Horse 1697–1703	Succeeded by William Cadogan
Preceded by The Earl Rivers	Captain and Colonel of the 3rd Troop of Horse Guards 1703–1715	Succeeded by George Cholmondeley
Academic offices
Preceded by The Duke of Ormonde	Chancellor of the University of Oxford 1715–1759	Succeeded by The Earl of Westmorland
Peerage of England
New creation	Baron Butler 1694–1758	Extinct
Peerage of Ireland
Preceded by James Butler	Duke of Ormonde (de jure) 1745–1758	Extinct
	Earl of Ormonde (de jure) 1745–1758	Succeeded by John Butler
New creation	Earl of Arran 1693–1758	Extinct