James Butler, 1st Marquess of Ormonde

James Wandesford Butler, 1st Marquess of Ormonde, was an Irish nobleman and politician. He was the second son of John Butler, 17th Earl of Ormonde, and his wife Frances Susan Elizabeth Wandesford. He was born at Kilkenny Castle on 15 July 1774.
Butler was a Member of Parliament for Kilkenny City in the Irish House of Commons in 1796 and served then for County Kilkenny until the Act of Union in 1801. He sat subsequently for the Irish county constituency of County Kilkenny and was member of the UK House of Commons from 1801, until he succeeded to the peerage, as 19th Earl of Ormonde, in 1820, on the death of his elder brother, Walter, the 18th Earl and 1st Marquess of Ormonde in the Irish peerage. He was a well-known advocate for the Irish people with his first speech at Westminster condemning the Irish Window tax and defending the right of Irish landowners.
Following his brother's death, James inherited some £450,000 in debts. As a result, The Ormonde Estates in Derbyshire were sold at auction on Thursday 27 November 1824. The Sutton Hall Estate, including the Manor House, some 5,500 acres of land, generated some £5,800 in rents alone, and was sold for £216,000 to the Manchester Spinner John Arkwright Esq. The Chilcote Estate, comprising 1,320 acres generating £2,200 annually, was sold to a Mr Robinson of Kingston, Surrey, for £87,000. The adjacent Cottage Park Farm, comprising 281 acres, was sold to a solicitor, Mr Cookney of Holborn. The sales generated £450,000.
Having joined the fashionable society in London, he became a companion of the Prince Regent. Subsequently, at the Prince's coronation as George IV, he was created a Peer of the United Kingdom, as Baron Ormonde, of Llanthony, in the county of Monmouth and in 1825, Marquess of Ormonde.

Marriage and children

He married Grace Louisa Staples, daughter of Rt. Hon. John Staples and Hon. Henrietta Molesworth on 12 October 1807. They had five sons and five daughters:

John Butler, 2nd Marquess of Ormonde, who married Frances Jane, daughter of Gen. Hon. Sir Edward Paget
Lord Walter Wandesford Butler, Army officer
Captain Lord James Wandesford Butler, who married Lady Rachel Evelyn Russell, daughter of the 6th Duke of Bedford
Louisa Grace Butler, married Thomas Fortescue, 1st Baron Clermont
Lord Richard Molesworth Butler
Lieut Lord Charles Wandesford Butler
Lady Harriet Eleanor Butler, married Robert Fowler, 1st son of Rt Rev Robert Fowler, Bishop of Ossory, Ferns and Leighlin
Anne Butler, married John Wynne, of Hazlewood House, Sligo
Lady Elizabeth Butler
Lady Mary Charlotte Butler

In 1827, the London residence of Lord and Lady Ormonde was recorded as being 14 Weymouth Street, Westminster.

Elevation to marquessate

Lord Ormonde's grandson, James Butler, 3rd Marquess of Ormonde, is recorded as having written to the then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Benjamin Disraeli, regarding the restoration of the dukedom of Ormonde in October 1868. Ormonde claimed that his grandfather, the 19th Earl of Ormond, had been advised by Lord Liverpool to apply for the restoration of the dukedom, and that Lord Liverpool had advised him that in order to achieve this, he would first need to apply to be elevated from the rank of Earl to Marquess. An application was duly made, and James, 19th Earl of Ormond, was granted the title Marquess of Ormonde in 1825. The 3rd Marquess believed that Lord Liverpool's loss of the Office of Prime Minister in 1827 frustrated this plan, and the 1st Marquess took no further action towards applying for the restoration of the dukedom.