Lady Mary Butler was the second daughter of the 2nd Duke of Ormonde

James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde

James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde KG KT was an Irish statesman and soldier. He was the third of the Kilcash branch of the family to inherit the earldom of Ormonde...

 and a maternal granddaughter of the 1st Duke of Beaufort

Henry Somerset, 1st Duke of Beaufort

Henry Somerset, 1st Duke of Beaufort, KG, PC was an English peer. He was styled Lord Herbert from 1646 until 3 April 1667, when he succeeded his father as 3rd Marquess of Worcester....

. She was born at Kilkenny Castle

Kilkenny Castle

Kilkenny Castle is a castle in Kilkenny, Ireland built in 1195 by William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke to control a fording-point of the River Nore and the junction of several routeways...

 in Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

. She married John, 1st Earl of Ashburnham

John Ashburnham, 1st Earl of Ashburnham

John Ashburnham, 1st Earl of Ashburnham was a British peer.-Career:Ashburnham was the second son of John Ashburnham, 1st Baron Ashburnham and his wife, Bridget, daughter of Walter Vaughan from Brecon, south Wales, who had inherited Pembrey...

 on October 21, 1710, and died two years later in childbirth. She was Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift

Jonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer , poet and cleric who became Dean of St...

’s "greatest favourite"; he wrote "I am in excessive concern for her death, I hardly knew a more valuable person on all accounts."