Earl Thomas Butler

  General Notes:

Thomas Butler was known as 7th Earl of Ormond or "The Wood Earl".

In 1509 Thomas became Queen Catherine of Aragon’s Lord Chamberlain and served her in this post for three years until 1512. He died in 1515 leaving his English estates (72 manors) to his two daughters, Margaret and Anne.

The Church was Thomas Butler was buried was reputed to have been built on the site of Becket’s birthplace by one of the archbishop’s sisters. The Butlers claimed descent from another of Becket’s sisters, who had married an Irish gentleman. They were proud of this illustrious ancestor, with the 7th Earl bequeathing his soul to the “glorious martyr Saint Thomas” in his will. He also possessed a treasured family heirloom – a white ivory horn, garnished with gold, and which was claimed to have been the cup from which Becket drank.

The 7th Earl bequeathed the horn to his grandson, Sir Thomas Boleyn, instructing him to pass it on to his own male heirs.

  Noted events in his life were:

• Marriage: to Anne Hankford, July 1445, Gowran, Kilkenny, Ireland.

• Marriage: to Lora Berkeley, November 1496, London, Middlesex.

Thomas married Anne Hankford, daughter of Sir Richard Hankford and Anne De Montagu, in July 1445 in Gowran, Kilkenny, Ireland. (Anne Hankford was born in 1430 in Salisbury, Wiltshire and died on 13 August 1485 in London, Middlesex.)