John Butler, 1st Earl of Gowran

John was born in 1643, probably at Kilkenny Castle, as the sixth child of James Butler and his wife Elizabeth Preston. His father was the 1st Duke of Ormond. His father's family, the Butler dynasty, was Old English and descended from Theobald Walter, who had been appointed Chief Butler of Ireland by King Henry II in 1177.[1] Thomas's mother was a second cousin once removed of his father. She was the heiress of Richard Preston, 1st Earl of Desmond. His parents had married on Christmas Day 1629.[2]

John was one of 10 siblings, but five died in childhood.[4]

On 20 August 1662, during the Irish Parliament (1661–1666), the only one held in the reign of Charles II (1660–1685), he replaced his brother Thomas as the member (MP) for Trinity College as Thomas had been summoned to the House of Lords by a writ of acceleration as Earl of Ossory and could therefore not sit any more in the House of Commons.[11]

He married Lady Anne Chichester, only daughter of Arthur Chichester, 1st Earl of Donegall.[12]

On 13 April 1676 John Butler was created Baron Aghrim, Viscount Clonmore and Earl of Gowran, all in the Peerage of Ireland.

He travelled to Paris for the recovery of his health but died there in August 1677, aged about 34.[13]

He left no issue and his titles died with him.

• Airy, Osmund (1886), "Butler, James, twelfth Earl and first Duke of Ormonde (1610–1688)", in Lee, Sidney (ed.), Dictionary of National Biography, 8, New York: MacMillan and Co., pp. 52–60
• Burke, Bernard (1949), A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire (99th ed.), London: Burke's Peerage Ltd.
• Cokayne, George Edward (1892), The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant, 4 (1st ed.), London: George Bell and Sons – G to K (for Gowran)
• Cokayne, George Edward (1895), The complete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom, extant, extinct, or dormant, 6 (1st ed.), London: George Bell and Sons – N to R (for Ormond)
• Debrett, John (1828), Peerage of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 1 (17th ed.), London: F. C. and J. Rivington - England
• Dunboyne, Patrick Theobald Tower Butler, Baron (1968), Butler Family History (2nd ed.), Kilkenny: Rothe House
• Hamilton, Anthony (1888), Memoirs of Count Grammont, translated by Walpole, Horace, Philadelphia: Gebbie & Co
• House of Commons (1878), "Members of Parliament", Parliamentary Papers, London: H. M. Stationery Office, 62
• Lodge, John (1789), The Peerage of Ireland, 4, Dublin: James Moore – Viscounts (for Mountgarrett)
• Pepys, Samuel (1893), Wheatley, Henry Benjamin (ed.), The Diary of Samuel Pepys, 2, London: George Bell & Sons – 1 April 1661 to 31 December 1661
• Perceval-Maxwell, Michael (2004), "Butler [née Preston] Elizabeth, duchess of Ormond and suo jure Lady Dingwall (1615–1684)", in Matthew, Henry Colin Gray.; Harrison, Brian (eds.), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 9, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 130–131, ISBN 0-19-861359-8 (for his mother)