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Major Pierce Butler was the first ancestry to America. He came from Ireland and was a descendant of Ormond, the celebrated Jacobin Duke. The family seat was in Ballintemple (Carlow), Ireland. This is where Richard Butler was born in 1704, a son of James Butler and his wife, Eleanor (Loftus) Butler. Richard died 25 December 1771. His son was Pierce Butler, born 11 July 1744 in Carlow, died 15 February 1822 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, buried in the Christ Church Yard in Philadelphia.
Pierce Butler (above) came to America as an officer in the British Army, but resigned his commission to marry Mary Middleton of Charleston on 10 January 1771. Polly, as she was called, was a daughter of Thomas Middleton and his wife, Mary (Bull) Middleton of Charleston. Pierce established large plantations along the Charleston coast in South Carolina. His thousands of acres established and supported a rich economy of rice and cotton along the coast. During the Revolutionary War when Charleston was captured by the Brish, he literally escaped into North Carolina barefooted. His daughter married Dr. Mease of Philadelphia and thus extended the Butler fortunes into that State. It was his grandchildren by her who adopted his name. Major Butler inherited his South Carolina plantations and slaves through his wife, Mary Middleton, daughter of Thomas Middleton. She willed her holdings to four of her granddaughters, viz: Sarah Middleton Guerard, wife of South Carolina Governor Benjamin Gerard; Mary Middleton Butler, wife of Major Pierce Butler; Mary Izard Breton, wife of Miles Brewton; and Elizabeth Izard Blake, wife of Daniel Blake.
Children of Pierce (1744-1771) and Polly were:
- Thomas Butler.
- Harriet Percy Butler.
- Sarah Butler.
- Frances Butler.
- Anna Eliza Butler.
- Pierce Butler 1807-8/15/1867), see below. Major Pierce Butler inherited these lands from his grandfather (Pierce Butler who married Mary Middleton). His grandmother's family had many slaves, and this assisted Pierce Butler in his start. This plantation house still stands. It is located on the Altamaha River Estuary, and faces Hwy 17 North into Darien (on the left). Pierce married Fannie Kemble, an actress, who wrote a derogatory book criticizing plantation life. She hated being the wife of a planter. During the war, the family left the plantation, and Pierce and his daughter, Frances, returned in 1866.Pierce died in 1867, shortly after the War Between the States. He purchased from John and Frances Graham of Savannah for 6,000 pounds, Hampton Plantation which was located on the North end of St. Simon's Island, which he had as early as 1774. Cotton and rice was grown on his plantations, and he had many slaves. Butler's Island, Georgia, surrounded by the Chamney and Altmaha Rivers, was designed to grow rice, having many irrigation ditches dug, and flood gates. Roswell King was the manager of the Butler plantations from 1802 to 1819, when he was succeeded by his son, Roswell King, Jr. Pierce Butler married the well-remembered actress, Fanny Kemble, and brought her to reside on his McIntosh County plantation. Although her husband's wealth provided well for her and she had lived in a luxurious Southern plantation, she hated plantation life and slavery. While resident in Georgia, she wrote her book Life on a Georgia Plantation, which is a short synosis of her hatred for the South. The memory of it left a bad taste with Southern pride, and passed down to their children the memory of this pampered spoiled and pampered wealthy woman. She preferred town life and travel and because of her Butler spent most of his life in Philadephia and this was where he died on 15 August 1867.
In addition to owning the plantation Hampton Point, Experiment between the Hampton River and Buttlermilk Sound on St. Simon's Island, Georgia, Butler Island in McIntosh County, Georgia, he also owned Five Pound Tree Plantation and Mary Ville in Charleston, South Carolina.
