Place Name
Like Ormond Road it is named after James FitzJames Butler, (April 29, 1665 – November 16, 1745) was the 2nd Duke of Ormonde, an Irish statesman and soldier, and the grandson of the 1st Duke who gave his name to Great Ormond Street, in Bloomsbury. The 2nd Duke was one of the great and popular figures of the early 18thCentury, holding high office as the Duke of Marlborough’s successor as Commander in Chief of the British Army in the reign of Queen Anne. He served in the campaign to put down the Monmouth Rebellion, in the Williamite War in Ireland, in the Nine Years’ War, and in the War of the Spanish Succession. He was well connected in his personal life too, having married the Queen’s niece, and daughter of the 1st Earl of Rochester, Lady Anne Hyde, who lived at Petersham Lodge, although she died in January 1685, less than eight months later he had married the almost equally well connected Lady Mary Somerset, daughter of the Duke of Beaufort. In 1704 he obtained a grant for the Lodge in Richmond Old Park. The property which was nearing 100 years old had only recently been renovated by William III as a hunting lodge. John Cloake in The Growth of Richmond takes up the story: “Ormonde substantially rebuilt and enlarged the house, now formally known as Richmond Lodge. In 1715 he espoused the Jacobite cause, was impeached and attainted in abstentia (having sought refuge in France) and his lands were forfeited to the Crown. Although Ormonde’s brother was permitted to retain Richmond Lodge, his interest in it was soon acquired by the Prince of Wales.” This cul-de-sac was built in the grounds of The Rosary, in Ormond Road, in 1895.
