Pierce Butler, Viscount Galmoy

Butler, Pierce, Viscount Galmoy, descended from the 10th Earl of Ormond, was born 21st March 1652. In 1677 he took the degree of LL.D. at Oxford. Under James II . he was Privy-Councillor of Ireland, Lieutenant of the County of Kilkenny, and Colonel of the 2nd Regiment of Irish Horse. He served with distinction at the Boyne and Aughrim, and was one of the signers of the Treaty of Limerick. He might probably have secured his old estates of 10,000 acres in Kilkenny and 5,000 in Wexford, if he had consented to give his allegiance to William III., instead of following Sarsfield to France. On the establishment of the Irish troops in France he was made Colonel of the 2nd Queen's Regiment of Horse. He was at the siege of Roses in 1693, and in 1694 was Brigadier attached to the army of Germany. He served in Italy and other parts of the Continent from 1701 to 1703, sharing all the fortunes of the Irish Brigade. His son fell at Malplaquet, 1709. Viscount Galmoy died at Paris, 18th June 1740, aged 88. O'Callaghan says: "The successive claimants of the title of Galmoy were officers in France down to the Revolution; in whose armies, as well as in others, various gentlemen have honourably represented a name, of which the illustrious General Lafayette is related to have said, in the war for the independence of the United States of America, that 'whenever he wanted anything well done, he got a Butler to do it.'"

Sources

186. Irish Brigades in the Service of France: John C. O'Callaghan. Glasgow, 1870.