At the time of his birth, he was the third son of Lord and Lady Ormonde, and was christened James Arthur Wellington Foley Butler.
Unlike previous generations, he did not live in the family seat of Kilkenny Castle as his son inherited it directly from his uncle.
[4] In 1891, the couple were recorded as living at 21 Park Lane, City of Westminster, London,[5] and at Sandleford Priory, near Newbury, from at least 1895 to September 1898.
[14][15] This remained the home of Ellen, Lady Arthur Butler (later Marchioness of Ormonde) until her death in 1951.
In the 1920s, the sister of Ellen, Marchioness of Ormonde, Mrs Annie Stager Hickox (of Cleveland, Ohio), died in Monte Carlo.