James Edward William Theobald Butler, 3rd Marquess of Ormonde, KP, PC (Ire) (5 October 1844 – 26 October 1919), styled Earl of Ossory until 1854, was an Irish nobleman and member of the Butler dynasty.
Family
He was the son of John Butler, 2nd Marquess of Ormonde and Frances Jane Paget. From birth until the death of his father in 1854, he was styled as Earl of Ossory, one of his father's subsidiary titles.
He was the last Marquess of Ormonde to live at Kilkenny Castle. He and his wife entertained King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra at the castle in 1904.
Career
A Colonel in the Royal East Kent Mounted Rifles and Commodore of the Royal Yacht Squadron, he was Vice-Admiral of Leinster and a member of the Privy Council of Ireland. He was awarded the Order of the Crown of Prussia (first class). He was invested as a Knight, Order of St Patrick in 1868. He held the office of Lord-Lieutenant of County Kilkenny between 1878 and 1919.
Marriage and Children
On 2 February 1876, he married Lady Elizabeth Harriet Grosvenor, daughter of Hugh Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster, widely regarded to be the richest peer in England in the second half of the 19th century. The Duke settled £15,000 on Lady Elizabeth upon her marriage. They had two daughters:
Upon his death, the title passed to his brother Lord Arthur Butler due to his lack of a male heir. Elizabeth, Dowager Marchioness of Ormonde, was granted an annuity of £3,000 per year under his will. She had also inherited £35,000 upon the death of her father in 1899. Lord Ormonde's total estate (including entailed property) was valued at approximately £450,000
The 3rd Marquis was a very fine seaman and obtained a Master's Certificate in 1879.
He became the Commodore when the Prince of Wales ascended to the throne as Edward VII. He had been Vice Commodore since 1885.
An Irish landowner and sportsman, he played cricket for the MCC and I Zingari in the 1860s and 70s. He was also the first Patron of the Dublin Swimming Club, and a Master Mariner.
Among his achievements as Commodore were a rigorous insistence on economy in difficult times and the 'freer mingling of Members', encouraged by his purchase of an expanding table for the Members' Dining Room. This Jupe Table (named after the Bond Street upholsterer who patented it in 1835) has an ingenious winding mechanism and a set of wooden leaves that can be inserted or withdrawn to create three differen sizes according to the number of places to be set. At full size the leaves form the pattern of a Union Jack. The table was acquired before the First World War with the help of the Secretary, Mr Pasley, for £67. It is still in use and much admired more than a century later.
His father was also a Squadron member (1841-54) and it was he who brought the first of a series of yachts called Mirage onto the Squadron List.
Commodore of the Royal Yacht Squadron. He is a thoroughly practical yachtsman, and holds a Board of Trade certificate. He has been a member of the Squadron since 1867, and was elected Vice-Commodore in 1885, and Commodore in 1901. At the age of twenty-three thee Marquis was owner of the 42-ton schooner Koh-i-Noor. He built Mirage, 197-ton schooner, at Inman’s of Lymington in 1868. In this vessel he saw many parts of the world, visiting the Arctic, and going as far north as Spitzbergen. In 1883 he abandoned sails for steam, and bought the Mirage, 190-ton screw schooner.
Clubs: Royal Yacht Squadron, Royal Irish, Royal St. George, Imperial German.
Residence: Kilkenny Castle,Ireland.
Vessels: Koh-i-Noor; Mirage