Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 1 Vol 1.djvu/151

ARKLOW. 129 ARKLOW. [Note. — The existence of the Barony of Arklow as an Irish Peerage involves a wide question. In the elaborate account of the Butler family given (1754 and 1781)) by John Lodge, in his Peerage of Ireland (" Lodge," iv., pp. l-7d), the title of " Baron of Arklow" is not even mentioned. Mr. William Lynch, however (who may be considered as the recognized authority on Fkidai. [NSMTUTCOHS in Ireland), classes it (Lynch, p. 92) as "an anciknt fkudal Baiiony " descending (in accordance with liis views on these " prescriptive or feudal dignities ") to the heir male. He contends (p. 81) that the first holder of this " Barony " was Theobald Valter,(*) the first " Butler " [who was possessed, possibly in 1177, but certainly in 1205, of the Lordship of Arklow], and that from nim it has descended to his heirs male, thereby vesting in each successive Earl of Ormonde of the house of Butler. In support of this assertion he urges (p. 219) that " it continued to bo enjoyed by the heir male of the Butler family, even when, under Hen. Vlll, the heir male had ceased to hold the Earldom," and that it was "sn enjoyed by the successive heirs male who became Earls." He, also, mentions its recognition, under Charles II, "in various Hoya] instruments" (p. 220), and speaks of " the multiplicity of proofs and documents still to be found respecting hia Lord- ship's [Lord Ormonde's] right, as heir male, to the ancient feudal Barony of Arklow " (p. 91). In accordance with this view the holder of this Earldom has very frequently been considered as " B.utnx Akki.ow of AkKLOW " [I.] On the other hand, the claim of the family of Butler to this title (such claim having in June 1.S81 been Specially insisted upon in a circular, issued by Lord James V. ButlerC 1 ) ), has been well discussed by "J. Horace Round, Esq., M.A.," in a most able article printed in "Coll. (ien.," pp. 42-48. Mr. Round very truly observes (1) "that there is not one scrap or tittle of direct evidence to prove that a Baron; of Arklow [1 ] was ever c>., or even that any lineal ancestor of the present Marquess ever utt as Baron Arklow in any Pari of Ireland ; * (2) that when, in 1791, the Ormonde honours were successfully claimed by the heir male of the family, his claim to the Barony of Butler and the Barony of Arklow was disallowed by the Law officers on the ground that he did not produce " any evidence " in support of it. Moreover (3) when the h. male of the house of Butler was, 23 Feb. 1527-8, cr. Earl of Ossory [I.] " to compensate liim for the loss of the Earldom of Ormonde," he was "duly described" as Sir J'iers Bailer, and not as Barm Arklow( c ) which (») In the British Museum is a curious letter from Walter, 12th Earl of Ormonde, the h. male (then imprisoned in the Fleet by James I who had espoused the cause of the h. gen.), to Camden, running thus — " 1 entreated you some fortnight past to do me the favour to make search to see if Tibbot Fit./. Walter was Loud Baiuios of Anci.o ; he went over in King John's time and Henry the Second's tyme. What trolle you shal receave for this busness shal be thankfully requiring [Qy. requited !] by your loving friend, Walter Ormond and Oss." ( b ) His Lordship thus ends his letter—" / may conclude by adopting the distich of the head of the De Couci family (freely Englished) — ' I am no Duke nor Prince, I know, I am son of the twenty fifth Lord of Arklow,' With Lord James Wandcsford Butler's compliments." On this statement Mr. Round very sensibly remarks " Twenty fifth Lord of Arklow ms father indeed was, but in the sense that Ingelram de Ghysnes was hereditary Sire de VOtey J m the sense that John Hampden is described in his epitaph as 24th hereditary Lord of Qrcat Hampden:' A ^y e, , llow ever, in this limited sense one can hardly see how the title of " Lord of Arklow ' can belong to the more recent Earls, to whom that "Lordship " never belonged, inasmuch as " the Lordship of Arklow, co. Wicklow," appears not only, as Mr. Round shews, to have belonged to the Boleyn family, dm •ing their tenure of the Earldom of Urmonde [I.], but to have been completely alimated from the Butler family after the attainder 0 f 1715 In the mid(]le of the lsth cen tury it was settled by Margaret, Bow. viscountess Allen [I.], as a marriage portion (1750) for her da. the Hon. Frances Allen spinster, with John Proby, afterwards Lord Carysfort [I.] See will of the said Viscountess, pr. Nov. 1 758. (°) This i H bom another article by Mr. Round (also in " Coll. Gen.," pp. S4-91) on the Earldoms of Ormond [I.]," see p. 89 thereof.