Button, Sir Thomas (d. 1634), naval officer, was the fourth son of Miles Button of Worlton, Glamorgan, thrice sheriff of that county, and his wife, Margaret, daughter of Edward Lewis of Y Fan. He married Mary, daughter of Sir Walter Rice of Dynevor, Carmarthenshire, and may have had seven children. (In 1634 his widow's name was given as Elizabeth, perhaps suggesting a second marriage.) He entered the navy in 1589, and served in the West Indies and Ireland; he distinguished himself in the engagement at Kinsale in 1601, where he commanded the pinnace Moone. In 1612–13 he led an expedition in search of the north-west passage, explored the west coast of Hudson's Bay and gave his name to Button Bay. He was appointed admiral of the king's ships on the coasts of Ireland, probably in 1614, and apparently for life. His Irish base was Kinsale, where he held command of the fort at Castle Park from 1616, though his home was at Sandyhaven, apparently near Cardiff. He was knighted by his kinsman Lord Deputy St John (qv) on 30 August 1616. His principal task was to protect the coasts and trade from the incursions of marauders, usually pirates but also French or Spanish vessels during the wars of the 1620s. Though he reckoned at least four ships were needed for his command, he was at times reduced to only two vessels. In 1620 he was named rear-admiral of a fleet sent against corsair bases at Algiers, returning thereafter to his Irish command.
From 1624 Button served on the council of war, and was involved in the assault on the Île de Ré in France in 1627. He was in conflict with commissions set up to investigate the navy, or with the admiralty commissioners, over several decades, with accusations against him including absenteeism, making false returns of crew members to secure their wages and victual allowances, or sheltering pirates for bribes. In turn he argued persistent failure to pay sums owed him. In 1632 he was sequestered from his Irish command, and his case for dismissal or restoration had not succeeded by the time of his death in April 1634. He appears to have invested in the Guinea Company, the Virginia Company and in privateering, but died heavily indebted. A portrait exists, reproduced in the fourth volume of Glamorgan county history, edited by Glanmor Williams (Cardiff, 1974).