3048480 - Davis Moebus Tree

According to John O'Hart (Irish Pedigrees, p. 242) "The ancestors of the Butlers came from Normandy to England with William the Conqueror. Their original name was Fitz-Walter, from Walter one of their ancestors; and Theobald Fitz-Walter came to Ireland with Henry the Second in 1172 and had the office of Chief Butler of Ireland conferred on him, the duty attached to which was to attend at the coronation of the kings of England, and present them with the first cup of wine. From the office of Butlership of Ireland they took the name of "Butler."

In the reign of Edward the Third, Tipperary was formed into the "county palatine of Ormond" under the Butlers, who thus became so powerful that different branches of them furnished many of the most distinguished families in Ireland. "The Palatine possesssed such royal privileges that he ruled in his Palatinate almost as a king. The Butlers were earls, marquises and dukes of Ormond, and also had the following titles in Tipperary: earls of Carrick, earls of Glengall, viscounts of Thurles, viscounts of Skerrin and barons of Cahir." "In the reign of Henry VIII, they gained possession of a great part of Carlow" (p. 294). "The county Kilkenny became possessed mostly by the Butlers, earls of Ormond" (p. 304). They were called earls of Ossory, and Gowvan, viscounts of Galway, and various other titles derived from their extensive estates." (305 p.) Their war-cry was Butler Aboo! the word Aboo is the old Celtic for Victory (p. 348).

The word Ormond is said to mean in Irish East Munster. According to "The Norman People"--a London volume of 1874 (p. 182) the Ormond family, through the Irish chief butler, is traceable to a Walter who came over with the Conqueror, and in 1086 was owner of estates in Lailand, Lancashire. This Walter came from Glanville near Caen. His arms were a chief indented.

It is an inveterate tradition in diverse families of American Butlers that they are descended from collateral branches of the family of James Butler, the Duke of Ormond (1610--1688.) Thus, Dr. Geo. H. Butler of N. Y., writes regarding his ancestor Thomas Butler born about 1674. "Although it has never been questioned, and there is no doubt of its truth, yet in the absence of the exact date of his birth and of parish records, positive proof of his descent from the house of Ormond,...|||

 

FROM: The Family of Rev John Butler
page 5

ORIGIN OF THE NAME.

ALTHOUGH the English generation of Rev. John Butler has not been traced, the following mention of the origin of the name of Butler by the present Marquise de Fontenoy, to be found in a magazine "The House Beautiful," Chicago, February 1907, is thought to be of interest.

"Theobald Walter, Lord Ormonde, of Kilkenny Castle, Ireland, a brother of Hubert Walter, Archbishop of Canterbury, in the time of Richard Coeur de Lion, first assumed the surname of Butler after being invested with the hereditary dignity of Chief Butler of Ireland by King Henry II."

Respecting the antiquity of the name, the following bit of historical romance is cherished as being worth preserving.

"The two leading Anglo-Irish families in Ireland have long been the Fitz-Geralds and the Butlers. From being comrades in arms of the invading Strongbow, they became by degrees rival barons, and fierce contestants for the vice-sovereignty of their adopted country. In the Wars of the Roses, the Butlers sided with the white rose of Lancaster, and the Fitz-Geralds with the red rose of York. Factions gathered around the two great houses, and the bitter feud brought forth death and bloodshed from as early as 1250 down to the Williamite Wars. The Butlers, whose chief had attained the dignity of Earl of Ormonde, succeeded in crushing the power of the elder branch of the Fitz-Geralds, Earls of Desmond. It is told of a warlike Desmond that, while he was being borne prisoner on the locked shields of his feudal foe's clansmen, the Butlers taunted him with the bitter words: 'Where is now the