Soldier In 1790 Butler enlisted as a
Cornet in the
14th King's Hussars Regiment. He retired from his regiment with the rank of
Major in 1802. He later served as a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Kilkenny
Militia from 1806 until his death, and was promoted to Colonel in 1820.
House of Commons He served a
Member of Parliament for
Kilkenny City in the
Irish House of Commons in 1796 (he never took his seat and resigned after 3 months) 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, sitting as a
Whig. Butler also served as
Mayor of Kilkenny from 1808–09 and 1814-15.
Earl of Ormonde The death of his older brother
Walter Butler, 1st Marquess of Ormonde in 1820 resulted in his succession as 19th
Earl of Ormonde. As a peer he was a Moderate
Tory, and voted in support of the
Reform Bill during the early 1830s. Despite the disposal of the family's extensive estates in England, upon his elder brother's death James become one of the largest landowners in Ireland, and enjoyed an annual income of over £20,000 from his Irish estates. 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.
Marquess of Ormonde In 1825 the
Marquessate of Ormonde was recreated for James; the previous creation of the title had become extinct upon the death of his elder brother. As the Marquessate was created in the
Peerage of Ireland, he continued to sit in the United Kingdom House of Lords as
Baron Ormonde. He served as
Lord Lieutenant of County Kilkenny from 1831 until 1838, and was a Militia
Aide-de-camp to
King William IV from 1830 to 1837, and
Queen Victoria from 1837 until his death.
Attempts to restore Dukedom 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. In the letter, the Third Marquess claimed that in 1825 his grandfather James Butler, 19th Earl of Ormonde had been advised by Prime Minister
Lord Liverpool to apply for the restoration of the Dukedom of Ormonde, with the caveat that 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. ==Marriage and children==