Butler, Bartholomew

Tags for two seals [Butler’s seal of office and his personal seal], neither present, but with the lower half of a turned wooden skippet still attached to the smaller tag.

Possibly earliest extant Irish grant of arms.

In the initial letter an image of Butler, wearing a gold crown, with a fur-lined coat beneath a tabard with the quartered arms of England and France, and pointing with a white wand of office towards the depiction of the arms; in the top border the lilies of France flanking a crowned garter encircling a Tudor rose; the top and right margins decorated with carnations, forget-me-nots, pansies, roses, thistles and strawberries; the left margin shows the full achievement of the arms as granted, surmounting a staff resembling a narwhal’s tusk arising from red and blue mantling against a floral background.

Ink and colour on parchment

Nicholas Stanyhurst (d. 1554) was mayor of Dublin (1543), city treasurer, and alderman. The Stanyhursts were a prominent Co. Dublin family from Corduff, a village six miles north of Swords. Their prosperity increased in the 1540s when they were rewarded for their loyalty to the government by substantial grants of confiscated monastic property. Nicholas' son James (1522–1573) was a lawyer, recorder of Dublin, and speaker of the Irish house of commons. James' son, Richard Stanihurst (1547–1618), was a scholar and diplomat. (For more information see auctioneer's catalogue and DIB, 'James Stanyhurst'.)

The office of Ulster King of Arms was instituted in February 1552 and replaced that of Ireland King of Arms which had lapsed on the death of Walter Bellinger in 1487. Butler and his successor, Nicholas Narbon, had been English heralds and continued to be regarded as members of the College of Arms. After Narbon’s resignation in 1588 all connection with the College was severed. (Information taken from auctioneer's catalogue).

Bartholomew Butler was created Ulster King of Arms in 1552. Some of his notes survive in Trinity College Dublin. (For more information see auctioneer's catalogue.)

Physical description: 1 item (1 sheet).