He then found a means to reunite the Ormond estate, by marrying his grandson James, who had been raised a Protestant, to Elizabeth's only daughter.
[6] His brother James inherited but died unmarried sometime before September 1576 when Walter became the owner of the land around Kilcash Castle that had been his father's appanage.
The dispute was arbitrated by King James I, who awarded most of the estate, including Kilkenny Castle, to Preston.
This county had been vested in the head of the family for nearly four hundred years and could therefore under no circumstance have belonged to his cousin Elizabeth, the wife of Richard Preston.
After the marriage Ormond was recognised, on 9 October 1630, heir to the lands of his uncle, Earl Thomas, as well as of Sir John Butler of Kilcash, his father.
His son Thomas, styled viscount Thurles, married the daughter of Sir John Poyntz of Gloucestershire against his wish.
In 1619 Thomas was accidentally drowned at The Skerries, Isle of Anglesey,[32] at the beginning of Walter's long imprisonment in the Fleet Prison.
Viscount Thurles had been a prominent Catholic and at the time of his death, was being sent to England on charges of having garrisoned Kilkenny.