Thomas Butler, Viscount Thurles (before 1596 – 15 December 1619) was the son of Walter Butler, 11th Earl of Ormond and the Honorable Helen Butler

Helen Butler

Helen Butler , also known as the Honorable Helen Butler, was the daughter of Edmund Butler, 2nd Viscount Mountgarret and Grizel FitzPatrick. She married her second cousin Walter Butler, 11th Earl of Ormond...

. He resided at Thurles Castle, Thurles

Thurles

Thurles is a town situated in North Tipperary, Ireland. It is a civil parish in the historical barony of Eliogarty and is also an ecclesiastical parish in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly...

, County Tipperary

North Tipperary

North Tipperary is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Mid-West Region and is also located in the province of Munster. It is named after the town of Tipperary and consists of 48% of the land area of the traditional county of Tipperary. The county was established in 1898 and has had a county...

. He was the father of the noted Anglo-Irish

Anglo-Irish

Anglo-Irish was a term used primarily in the 19th and early 20th centuries to identify a privileged social class in Ireland, whose members were the descendants and successors of the Protestant Ascendancy, mostly belonging to the Church of Ireland, which was the established church of Ireland until...

 statesman and Royalist

Royalist

A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of government, but not necessarily a particular monarch...

 commander James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde

James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde

James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde PC was an Irish statesman and soldier. He was the second of the Kilcash branch of the family to inherit the earldom. He was the friend of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, who appointeed him commander of the Cavalier forces in Ireland. From 1641 to 1647, he...

.

Marriage and early death

Sometime before 1610, he married Elizabeth Poyntz against his father's wishes. She was the daughter of Sir John Poyntz of Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....

 and Elizabeth Sydenham.

In 1619 at the beginning of his father's long imprisonment in the Fleet Prison

Fleet Prison

Fleet Prison was a notorious London prison by the side of the Fleet River in London. The prison was built in 1197 and was in use until 1844. It was demolished in 1846.- History :...

, Thomas was summoned to England to answer charges of treason

Treason

In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...

, specifically, of having garrisoned Kilkenny

Kilkenny

Kilkenny is a city and is the county town of the eponymous County Kilkenny in Ireland. It is situated on both banks of the River Nore in the province of Leinster, in the south-east of Ireland...

. However, the ship conveying him was wrecked off the coast of The Skerries, Isle of Anglesey and he was drowned. Like his father, Viscount Thurles was a prominent Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 and it seems likely that his refusal to conform to the established Anglican religion had angered King James I

James I of England

James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...

, and may have been the true motive for his summons.

Issue

His children by Elizabeth Poyntz were:

• James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde
  James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde
  James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde PC was an Irish statesman and soldier. He was the second of the Kilcash branch of the family to inherit the earldom. He was the friend of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford, who appointeed him commander of the Cavalier forces in Ireland. From 1641 to 1647, he...
  
   (1610–1688). With his father drowned and his grandfather in prison, James was made a royal ward and, unlike his parents or siblings, was brought up in the Protestant religion.
• John Butler who died unmarried at Naples, on his travels, in 1636.
• Richard Butler of Kilcash
  Richard Butler of Kilcash
  Richard Butler of Kilcash was the second son of Thomas Butler, Viscount Thurles and the grandson of Walter Butler of Kilcash who inherited the earldom of Ormond from his uncle. While his father resided at Thurles Castle, Thurles, County Tipperary, Richard occupied the family estate of Kilcash...
  
   (b. 1615 - d. 1701) had a confirmation (by virtue of the commission of grace) 24 June 1639, of the lands of Kilcash, Garryricken and many others in the counties of Tipperary and Kilkenny; with a limitation thereof to his heirs male; remainder to the respective heirs male of Walter Earl of Ormond.
• Ellen (Eleanor) Butler (died April 1682), married to Donough MacCarty, 1st Earl of Clancarty, was buried in the Chancel of St. Michan's church.
• Elizabeth Butler. She first married James Purcell, titular Baron of Loughmoe, by whom she had one son Nicholas and two daughters; Catharine and Mary.