Thomas Butler, Viscount Thurles
Thomas Butler, Viscount Thurles (before 1596 – 1619) was the son and heir apparent of Walter Butler, 11th Earl of Ormond (1559 – 1633), whom he predeceased. He resided at Thurles Castle, Thurles, County Tipperary. He was the father of the Irish statesman and Royalist commander James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde. Birth and origins. Thomas was born the eldest son of Walter Butler and his wife Helen Butler. His father was the 11th Earl of Ormond. His mother was the eldest daughter of Edmund Butler, 2nd Viscount Mountgarret and his wife Grizel FitzPatrick. His father and mother  were cousins. Their common great-grandfather was Piers Butler, 8th Earl of Ormond. Their 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. Marriage and children. Some time before 1610, he married Elizabeth Poyntz against his father's wishes. She was the daughter of Sir John Poyntz (died 1633) of Iron Acton in Gloucestershire and his wife Elizabeth Sydenham. Thomas and Elizabeth had seven children, three sons: —and four daughters: Death and succession. In 1619 after the beginning of his father's long  imprisonment in the Fleet Prison, Thomas was summoned to England to answer charges of treason, specifically, of having garrisoned Kilkenny. However, on 15 December the ship conveying him was wrecked off the coast of the Skerries, Isle of Anglesey and he drowned. Like his father, Thurles was a prominent Catholic and it seems likely that his refusal to conform to the established Anglican religion had angered King James I, and may have been the true motive for his summons. He predeceased his father who would die in 1634. His eldest son James, the future 1st Duke of Ormond, succeeded him  as heir apparent and bearer of the courtesy title Viscount Thurles until he succeeded his grandfather as the 12th Earl of Ormond.