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# A Compendium of Irish Biography/Butler, Richard, Viscount Mountgarret

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​Butler, Richard, Viscount Mountgarret, descended from the 8th Earl of Ormond, was born in 1578, His first wife was Margaret, eldest daughter of Hugh O'Neill; and, taking part with his father-in-law, he particularly distinguished himself by the defence of the castles of Ballyragget and Cullahill. Nevertheless, his estates were confirmed to him both by James I. and Charles I. At the commencement of hostilities in 1641 he appeared inclined to espouse the Government side, and was appointed Governor of Kilkenny. Fearing, however, that the rights and liberties of his Catholic brethren would be still further interfered with, he wrote an explanatory letter to the Earl of Ormond, and took possession of Kilkenny in the name of the Confederates, He endeavoured to protect the lives and property of the Protestants, without relaxing his efforts for the side he had espoused. Early in the war he secured all the towns and forts in Kilkenny, in Waterford, and Tipperary, and marched into Munster and took Knockordan and Mallow, and other strongholds. Unfortunately for the Confederates, Cork objected to his jurisdiction, and insisted upon the appointment of a general of its own. Thus were lost the advantages of undivided and vigorous control of the Confederate armies. On 13th April 1642, he was defeated at the battle of Kilrush, near Athy, by the Earl of Ormond. Soon after, he was chosen President of the Supreme Council of Kilkenny. In 1643 he was at the battle of Ross, and at the capture, by his son Edmund, of the Castle of Borris, in the Queen's County; also at the siege of Ballynakill, a fortress that had held out bravely for eighteen months. Viscount Mountgarret was outlawed by Cromwell, and excepted from pardon for life or estate. He died in 1651, and was interred in St. Canice's, Kilkenny. His son was eventually restored to his estates and honours by Charles II. This branch of the Butlers is now represented by the 13th Viscount Mountgarret.
* ↑ Burke, Sir Bernard: Peerage and Baronetage.
* ↑ Irishmen, Lives of Illustrious and Distinguished, Rev. James Wills, D.D. 6 vols. or 12 parts. Dublin, 1840–'7.
* ↑ Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, Revised and Enlarged by Mervyn Archdall. 7 vols. Dublin, 1789.
# A Compendium of Irish Biography/Butler, Richard (major-general)

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​Butler, Richard, Major-General U.S.A., was born in Ireland. He emigrated to America in 1760, was, in 1777, made Lieutenant-Colonel in the Revolutionary army, and distinguished himself on many occasions. He held the rank of Colonel at the close of the war, and was appointed agent for Indian affairs in Ohio. In 1791 he had risen to be a Major-General, and marched in the expedition of St. Clair against the Indians. He was tomahawked and scalped in an engagement on the 4th November of that year, 1791. Several members of the Butler family, of American birth, have distinguished themselves in the history of the United States.
# A Compendium of Irish Biography/Butler, William

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​Butler, William, a well-known alchemist, the pretended discoverer of the philosopher's stone, and of a powder for bringing the dead to life, was born in Clare about 1534. He died at sea, on his passage to Spain, 29th January 1617.
# A Compendium of Irish Biography/Butler, William Archer

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​Butler, William Archer, Rev., was born near Clonmel about 1814, of Catholic parents. At the age of sixteen he became a Protestant, and entering Trinity College, obtained a scholarship in 1832, and distinguished himself by his learning, and by his poetic contributions to the Dublin University Magazine. As Professor of Moral Philosophy, his lectures were remarkable for their elegance and profound reasoning. The latter part of his life was devoted principally to the duties of his parish of Raymoghy, in Raphoe. He died after a short illness, 5th July 1848. His Letters on Mr. Newman's Theory of Development attracted considerable attention. Sir W. Hamilton thus writes of his Lectures on Ancient Philosophy: "I have seen enough of them to be convinced of their great scientific value, and am much gratified in finding so important a subject treated with so much learning and acuteness."(19)
* ↑ Authors, Dictionary of British and American: S. Austin Allibone. 3 vols. Philadelphia, 1869–'71.
* ↑ Biographical Dictionary, Imperial: Edited by John F. Waller. 3 vols. London, N. D.
* ↑ Dublin University Magazine. Dublin, 1833–'77.
# A Compendium of Irish Biography/Butler, Thomas, Earl of Ossory

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​Butler, Thomas, Earl of Ossory, son of preceding, was born in Kilkenny Castle, 9th July 1634. In 1647 he quitted Ireland with his father, and passed on eventually to France, where he perfected himself in the accomplishments necessary to a youth of his expectations. In 1653 he accompanied his mother to Ireland. In March 1655, being in London, he was lodged in the Tower; whence he was, after a short imprisonment, released on account of ill health, and permitted to retire to the Continent—"not daring," as his biographer says, "to come near the King as long as Cromwell lived, for fear it should be a pretence for taking away from the Duchess the tenancy of her own estate." In November 1659, he married Emelia Beverweert, daughter of a leading Dutch statesman, a natural son of the Prince of Orange. After the Restoration he was appointed to several commands in the army, and was in 1665 made Lieutenant-General in Ireland. Next year he was sworn on the English Privy Council, and took his seat in Parliament as Lord Butler of Moor-Park. In 1672, visiting the court of France as envoy extraordinary, he was pressed by Louis to enter his service, and at parting was presented with a valuable jewel. In 1673, as Admiral of the Blue, he distinguished himself in an engagement with Van Tromp; and the same year planned a descent on Helvoetsluys, which Charles II. would not permit him to ​carry into execution. In the ensuing years he occupied several important offices of trust. Five years afterwards (1678) he commanded the British troops in the service of the Prince of Orange, and at the battle of Mons contributed not a little to the defeat of Marshal Luxembourg. He died 1680, aged 46, "to the universal regret of this nation and the general grief of a great part of Europe." His father was thereafter accustomed to say that "he would not exchange his dead son for any living son in Christendom." Mr. Wills writes: "In an age degraded by the vices of Buckingham and Rochester, he ran the race of Sidney, without the reward of royal favour which valour and virtue could win in better times." His body, after resting for a time in "Westminster Abbey, was removed to Kilkenny. There is a long disquisition upon his character in Carte's 8th Book.
* ↑ Irishmen, Lives of Illustrious and Distinguished, Rev. James Wills, D.D. 6 vols. or 12 parts. Dublin, 1840–'7.
* ↑ Ormond, Duke of. Life 1610–'88: Thomas A. Carte, M. A. 6 vols. Oxford, 1851.
# A Compendium of Irish Biography/Butler, Walter

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​Butler, Walter, was a scion of the family of Ormond, who, with his brother James, emigrated to Germany early in the 17th century, and entered the Imperial service. Both obtained command of regiments, and served with distinction under Tilly and Wallenstein in many of the actions of the Thirty Years' War. When it became evident to Walter that Wallenstein was turning traitor to the Emperor, and going over to the enemy, he conspired with several other officers, and caused the assassination of that great commander, at Egra, on 25th February 1634. For this crime he was created a Count of the Empire, and large estates in Bohemia, still held by his descendants, were settled on him. Mr. F. Prendergast, who gives an exhaustive account of the transaction, thus apologises for him: "This deed of Walter Butler may have prevented a train of consequences the most momentous; and if the manner of executing it forbids us to call the act, with Carve, heroic, the circumstances, as now stated, will, I trust, go far to relieve Butler's character from the infamy which has hitherto rested upon it, and to exhibit him in the light of an officer impelled by a stern sense of duty, in a critical hour, to use the best and only means remaining to him to protect his sovereign's crown." He died in Wirtemberg shortly after the battle of Nordlingen, at which he distinguished himself, in September 1634, and was buried with great pomp at Prague. He or his brother left a bequest to found a college of Irish Franciscans in that city.(1852)
* ↑ Archaeological and Historical Association of Ireland, Journal. Dublin, 1853–'77.
* ↑ Biographical Dictionary, Imperial: Edited by John F. Waller. 3 vols. London, N. D.
# A Compendium of Irish Biography/Butler, Walter, 11th Earl of Ormond

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​Butler, Walter, 11th Earl of Ormond, Earl of Ossory, eldest son of Sir John Butler; nephew of preceding; grandson of the 9th Earl; succeeded on the 10th Earl's death in 1614. He was born in 1569. His right to the estates was traversed by Sir R. Preston, Baron Dingwall, afterwards Earl of Desmond, a favourite of King James I., who claimed them through his wife Elizabeth, sole daughter of the late Earl. Carte cites the documents upon which these claims were founded, and then proceeds: "Nothing is clearer than that according to these feoffments all the estate of Earl Thomas (except what he had given to his daughter at her marriage) ought to have descended immediately to Sir Walter Butler, Earl of Ormond. But King James interposed so warmly in the case, and wrote such a number of pressing letters to the Deputies and Council of Ireland … requiring them to stand by the Earl of Desmond, that the Earl of Ormond could never get into possession. Vast sums were spent in law; but the power of the Crown still prevented a decision. At last King James took upon himself to make an award, which Walter, Earl of Ormond conceiving to be unjust, refused to submit to, and was by the King's order taken up and committed to the Fleet prison. He remained in that prison for eight years before the death of King James, who, during that duress, seized on the liberties of the county palatine of Tipperary, and persecuted him in all the ways he could contrive, to the inconceivable detriment of the family." Recovering his liberty in 1625, he lived for a time in London, and then removing to Ireland, died at Carrick, 24th February 1632, aged about 63, and was buried at St. Canice's. In his youth he had distinguished himself in the Irish wars. A devout Catholic, he was styled "Walter of the Beads and Rosaries." He married a daughter of Viscount Mountgarret, and by her had two sons and nine daughters. His second son died young and without issue. His eldest son, Thomas Butler, Viscount Thurles, father of the 12th Earl, was drowned off Skerries, near Holyhead, on a voyage to England, 15th December 1619.
* ↑ Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, Revised and Enlarged by Mervyn Archdall. 7 vols. Dublin, 1789.
* ↑ Ormond, Duke of. Life 1610–'88: Thomas A. Carte, M. A. 6 vols. Oxford, 1851.
# A Compendium of Irish Biography/Butler, Thomas, 7th Earl of Ormond

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​Butler, Thomas, 7th Earl of Ormond, succeeded his brother in 1478. He also had been attainted by Edward IV. and the attainder was revoked, as in the case of his predecessor. By Henry VII. he was made a Privy-Councillor, and was in 1492 and 1497 sent on diplomatic missions to France. He was reputed one of the richest British subjects. He died in London, 3rd August 1515. His daughter Margaret married Sir William Boleyn, and was mother of Anne Boleyn.
# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Deroches, Madeleine Revuo

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DEROCHES, MADELEINE REVUO,
And her daughter Catharine, were famed among the French literati for wit and sparkling vivacity of mind. Their names cannot be separated, for, like twin stars, they illuminated the literary sky. The greatest minds of France sought and enjoyed their conversation: Marley, Scaliger, Rapin, and Pasquier, considered it more improving than that of their male friends, and Pasquier ​published a collection of poems, with the curious title "Fleas of Miss Deroches," (1582.) They were inseparable in death as during their life. They always expressed a wish that they migth die at the same time; and Providence granted it. They died on the same day at Poictiers, victims of the plague, which prevailed there at that time. Their works were published, in two volumes, in the year 1604.
# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Descartes, Catharine

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DESCARTES, CATHARINE,
Daughter of a counsellor of the Parliament of Brittany, and niece of the celebrated philosopher of that name, was, from her learning and talents, so worthy of her origin, that it was said, "The mind of the great Descartes had fallen on a distaff." Her most considerable work was an account of the death of her uncle, in prose and verse. She led a very quiet life in Brittany, and died, in 1706, of a disease brought on by hard study. She was born at Rennes, in 1635.
# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Desmoulins, Lucille

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DESMOULINS, LUCILLE,
Was born in Paris, in 1771. Her father was a clerk of the finances, and her mother one of the most beautiful women of the age. Lucille, whose maiden name was Duplessis, was carefully educated. She formed an attachment, when very young, to Camille Desmoulins, a young man of great talent, who became one of the first leaders and victims of the revolution. They were married in 1790. Camille Desmoulins, after having made himself conspicuous by his speeches in favour of the death of Louis the Sixteenth, was appointed a member of the Convention, and for some time was very much followed. But as his feelings gradually changed from hatred against the aristocrats to pity for the innocent victims of the people's fury, he lost his popularity, was denounced, and imprisoned. Lucille exerted herself to the utmost to save him, and wandered continually around his prison, trying to rouse the people in his favour; but in vain. He was guillotined, and she was tried and condemned for having endeavoured to rescue him. She was calm, and even cheerful, during her hasty trial; and dressing herself with the greatest care, she entered the fatal cart, and, in the full bloom of her youth and beauty, ascended the scaffold with the most perfect serenity. She was executed in 1794, at the age of twenty-three.
# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Devonshire, Duchess of, Georgiana Cavendish

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DEVONSHIRE, DUCHESS OF, GEORGIANA CAVENDISH.
A lady as remarkable for her talents as her beauty, was the eldest daughter of Earl Spenser, and was born in 1757. In her seventeenth year, she married the Duke of Devonshire, a distinguished nobleman. The beautiful Duchess, in the bloom of youth, became not only the leader of female fashions, and the star of the aristocratic world, but she also aspired to political influence. In 1780, she became the zealous partizan of Mr. Fox, and canvassed successfully for votes in his favour. The story of the butcher selling her his vote for a kiss, is well known. Among a variety of other jeux d'esprits which appeared on that occasion, was the following:—
"Array'd in matchless beauty, Devon's fair. In Fox's favour takes a zealous part; But oh! where'er the pilferer comes, beware— She supplicates a vote, and steals a heart."
The Duchess was benevolent, as well as patriotic, and few ladies in her high station have left such an impression of the kindly feelings of the heart on the public mind.
An anecdote is related of her by Gibbon, the celebrated historian, who became acquainted with her while she passed through Switzerland, during her travels abroad. The Duchess returned to London; it was in the year 1793, when England was at war with France. The patriotism of the Duchess now displayed a truly feminine character; she took an anxious interest in the health and comfort of the protecting armies; and when, late in the autumn. Gibbon revisited England, and renewed his acquaintance with the Duchess of Devonshire, he found her "making flannel waistcoats for the soldiers." This was more lady-like than canvassing for votes.
The Duchess had three children, two daughters and a son, and seems to have been a careful and loving mother, as she was an excellent wife. She died, after a short illness, on the 30th. of March, ​1806, in the forty-ninth year of her age. She possessed a highly cultivated taste for poetry and the fine arts, and was liberal in her encouragements of talents and genius. She wrote many poems, but only a few pieces have been published. These are spirited and elegant, and show a mind filled with enthusiasm for the true and the good.
# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Desmond, Countess of, Catharine Fitzgerald

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DESMOND, COUNTESS OF, CATHARINE FITZGERALD,
Who attained the age of one hundred and forty-five years, was a daughter of the house of Drumana, in the county of Waterford, Ireland, and second wife of James, twelfth Earl of Desmond, to whom she was married in the reign of Edward the Fourth, (1461,) and being on that occasion presented at court, she danced with the Duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard the Third. The beauty and vivacity of Lady Desmond rendered her an object of attraction to a very advanced age, and she had passed her hundredth year before she could refrain from dancing, or mingling in gay assemblies. She resided at Inchiquin, in Munster, and held her jointure as dowager from many successive Earls of Desmond, till the family being by an attainder deprived of their estate, she was reduced to poverty. Although then one hundred and forty, she went to London, laid her case before James the First, and obtained relief. Sir Walter Raleigh was well acquainted with this lady, and mentions her as a prodigy. Lord Bacon informs us that she had three new sets of natural teeth. It is uncertain in what year she died, but she was not living in 1617, when Sir Walter Raleigh published his history.
# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Dekken, Agathe

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DEKKEN, AGATHE,
A Dutch authoress, born in the village of Arastelveen, near Amsterdam, on the 10th. of December, 1741. When three years old she lost her parents, and being very poor, was placed in the Amsterdam orphan asylum. Her natural abilities and industry soon distinguished her from her companions, and her early and successful efforts in poetry, procured the protection and assistance of the "Diligentiae Omnia" society. When she left the asylum, she accepted a place as companion to Miss Maria Borsh, a young lady who was herself a poetess. She lived with Miss Borsh till 1773. After the death of her friend and benefactress. Miss Dekken published a collection of poems, the result of their joint labours. She then went to Jive with another friend, Elizabeth Beeker, the widow of a clergyman. Their united labours produced the first Dutch domestic novel, and they became thus the founders of a new school of novel writers. Shortly afterwards they published the "Wanderlengen door Bougogne," (1779.) In 1787 she removed to Paris, and had subsequently, during the reign of terror, some very narrow escapes from the guillotine. In 1790 she returned to Holland, when the dishonesty of a friend deprived her of her little property. She had now again to resort to her pen as a means of subsistence. She translated therefore several English novels, and published a collection of poems, which contains some patriotic and religious pieces, which are to this day esteemed master-pieces of Dutch poetry. She died on the 15th. of November, 1807.
# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Dervorgille, Lady

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DERVORGILLE, LADY,
Was the widow of John de Baliol, of Barnard Castle, in the county of Durham, a man of opulence and power in the thirteenth century, on whom devolved the duty of carrying on her husband's design of founding the college called Baliol College, in Oxford, Her husband left no written deed for the purpose; but his widow, in the most honourable and liberal manner, fulfilled his desire.
# A Cyclopaedia of Female Biography/Deyster, Anna

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DEYSTER, ANNA,
The daughter of Louis Deyster, a Flemish painter, was born at Bruges in 1696. She excelled in landscapes, and imitated her father's works so well, that few of the best judges could distinguish the copies from the originals. She died in poverty, because, abandoning painting, she devoted her time to constructing organs and harpsichords, and was not successful. The date of her death is 1746.
# 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Niort

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​NIORT, a city of western France, chief town of the department of Deux-Sèvres, 42 m. E.N.E. of La Rochelle on the railway to Saumur. Pop. (1906) 20,538. Niort is situated on the left bank of the Sèvre Niortaise, partly in the valley and partly on the slopes of the enclosing hills. The tower of the church of Notre-Dame (15th and 16th centuries) has a spire 246 ft. high, with bell-turrets adorned with statues of the evangelists, and at the base a richly decorated dais in the Renaissance style; and the north doorway shows a balustrade, of which the balusters form the inscription O Mater Dei, memento mei St André, with a fine window in the apse, and St Hilaire, which contains some beautiful frescoes, both date from the 19th century. Of the old castle, whose site is partly occupied by the prefecture, there remains the donjon—two large square towers united by a central building, flanked by turrets, built, it is said, by Henry II. of England or Richard Cœur de Lion. The platform on the top affords a fine view of the public garden (one of the most picturesque in France) and the valley of the Sèvre. The old town-hall, Renaissance in style, is wrongly known as the Aliénor palace, after Eleanor of Guienne; it contains a collection of antiquities. The house is still shown in which Madame de Maintenon is erroneously stated to have been born. Near Niort are the fine feudal ruins of the fortress of Coudray-Salbart.
Niort is the seat of a prefect and a court of assizes, and has tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a board of trade-arbitration, lycées for both sexes, a school of drawing, a chamber of commerce and a branch of the Bank of France. Tanning, currying, shammy-dressing, glove-making and the manufacture of brushes and boots and shoes are the staple industries.
Up to the 7th century the Niort plain formed part of the Gulf of Poitou; and the mouth of the Sèvre lay at the foot of the hills now occupied by the town which grew up round the castle erected by Henry Plantagenet in 1155. The place was captured by Louis VIII. in 1224. By the peace of Brétigny it was ceded to the English; but its inhabitants revolted against the Black Prince, and most of them were massacred when his troops recovered the town by assault. In 1373 Duguesclin regained ​possession of the town for the French. Protestantism made numerous proselytes at Niort, and Gaspard de Coligny made himself master of the town, which successfully resisted the Catholic forces after the Battle of Jarnac, but surrendered without striking a blow after that of Moncontour. Henry IV. rescued it from the League. It suffered severely by the revocation of the edict of Nantes.