James Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormond (b. about 1359 – died 7 September 1405) is the common connection. He had two sons. His eldest son James became 4th Earl of Ormond, and his second son was Sir Richard Butler (1395-1443) of Polestown.

James, 4th Earl of Ormond, had three sons

• James Butler, 5th Earl of Ormond, who died without any legitimate children (1420 – 1 May 1461)
• John Butler, 6th Earl of Ormond, who died without any legitimate children (1422 – 14 December 1476)
• Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond. (1426-1515) (1st cousin to Sir Edmund MacRichard Butler, Sir Richard Butler’s son)

Thomas Butler, 7th Earl of Ormond,  married firstly Anne Hankford (1431-1485) in 1445, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Richard II Hankford (c.1397-1431) of Annery, Monkleigh, Devon, and had two daughters who inherited the Butler estates in England:

• Anne Butler (1455-June 5, 1533), heiress through her mother of Annery, who married firstly Ambrose Cressacre, esquire, by whom she had no issue, and secondly Sir James St Leger (d.1509), by whom she had two sons, Sir George St Leger, and James St Leger.

• Lady Margaret Butler (1465-1537), (2nd cousins to Sir James Butler, son of Sir Edmund MacRichard Butler).  She married Sir William Boleyn, by whom she had six sons and five daughters, including Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, father of Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII.

Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire, (3rd cousins to Piers Butler, son of Sir James Butler)

Anne Boleyn, (4th cousins to Thomas Butler, son of Piers, and father of Margaret Butler, wife of Rory O’More) ,

This makes Margaret Butler, a 4th cousin, once removed of Anne Boleyn.

Elizabeth ( 5th cousin with Margaret Butler)

Sir Richard Butler (1395-1443) of Polestown, County Kilkenny, was the second son of James Butler, 3rd Earl of Ormond, and Anne Welles. His older brother James inherited the earldom, becoming the 4th Earl.  Following the extinction of the senior family line, his great-grandson, Piers Butler, became the 8th Earl of Ormond.

Sir Edmund MacRichard Butler of Polestown, (1420 – June 13 1464) was the eldest son of Sir Richard Butler of Polestown and adopted the Gaelic title of The MacRichard of Ossory. He married Catherine O’Carroll, (who died in 1506) the daughter of Mulroney O’Carroll, Barbatus, King of Elyocarroll (which abutted Ossory). They had three sons, the eldest of whom succeeded him as “The MacRichard of Ossory”:

• Sir James Butler
• Walter Butler of Polestown
• John Butler

Sir James Butler, Lord Deputy of Ireland, Lord of the Manor of Advowson of Callan (1438-1487) The dates are doubtful for his birth.

Piers Butler (1467-1539) is James’s only legitimate son, and the 8th Earl of Ormond.