Pierce Butler, 4th Viscount Ikerrin (c. 1677 – 1711) was an Irish peer, politician, and professional soldier who rose to the rank of brigadier general under Queen Anne. He was outlawed as a Jacobite in 1690, when he was probably still in his early teens, but was restored to his titles and estates in 1698.
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Early life
He was the elder of the two sons of James Butler, 3rd Viscount Ikerrin, and his wife Eleanor Redman, daughter and co-heiress of Colonel Daniel Redman of Ballylinch Castle, Thomastown, County Kilkenny, and his wife Abigail Otway. His father was descended from John Butler of Clonamicklon (died 1330), who founded a junior branch of the great Butler dynastywhose head was the Duke of Ormonde. His mother's father was a Cromwellian army officer who purchased his estate in County Kilkenny from his brother-in-law, Captain John Joyner, who had begun his career as a cook in the household of King Charles I.
Pierce was born at his mother's family home, Ballylinch Castle, between 1677 and 1679. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin. His grandfather, the 2nd Viscount, was a convert to the Church of Ireland, but his father and at least one of his aunts, Elizabeth (who married Sir John Meade, 1st Baronet), reverted to the Roman Catholic faith. For this reason, his father gained the favour of the Catholic King James II of England, and became a captain in the Grenadier Guards. The 3rd Viscount died of smallpox in London in October 1688 and Pierce succeeded to the title.