Verdon (Verdun), Sir John de (c.1226–1274), landowner, was the son of Theobald Butler (qv) (d. 1230) and his second wife, Rohese, daughter and heir of Nicholas de Verdon. Nicholas was the younger son and heir of Bertram de Verdon, who was granted substantial lands in Uriel when he came to Ireland with John (qv) in 1185. Following his marriage to Margaret (Margery) de Lacy, daughter of Gilbert de Lacy and co-heir of Walter de Lacy (qv), lord of Meath, in June 1244 John received his wife's portion of the lordship of Meath. In May 1247, after the death of his mother, he entered into the Verdon inheritance for a fine of 1,300 marks. His holdings straddled both sides of the Irish Sea and included interests in a Welsh marcher lordship and estates scattered throughout England. He appears to have divided his time equally among England, Wales, and Ireland, and his first visit to Ireland seems to have occurred in May 1248. In 1256 he concluded a short-lived peace with Áed O'Connor. In 1261 he marked out the site of a new castle in Longford, and the following year led an army with the justiciar, Richard de la Rochelle (qv), which joined forces with Walter de Burgh (qv) in Connacht and prepared to march against O'Connor in Roscommon. However, after some desultory skirmishing a truce was arranged. In 1267 his attempt to restore the full liberty status of his portion of the lordship of Meath was unsuccessful.
Verdon was occasionally active on royal service; in 1253 he was with Henry III in Gascony, in August 1257 he was appointed constable of the army which mustered at Chester, and in 1260 he was ordered to defend the Welsh march. A prominent royalist during the struggle with the Montfortians, he was summoned to attend the king with arms in 1260 and 1263 and was one of the barons who swore to observe the mise of Amiens. He was captured at the battle of Lewes in May 1264 and, following the victory at Evesham the following year, was instrumental in stamping out remaining pockets of baronial disaffection. He travelled to Ireland in June 1268 to settle his affairs there before setting out on crusade with the Lord Edward in 1270. By May 1272 he had returned to Ireland, where two of his sons, Nicholas and John, had died in June 1271 after a battle with the O'Farrells. He died 21 October 1274; according to a highly dubious entry in the annals of Clonmacnoise he was poisoned in England along with thirteen of his retinue.
Verdon's marriage to Margaret de Lacy produced three sons. He also had a son by his second marriage, to Eleanor, who may have been related to the Bohuns. His third and only surviving son from his first marriage, his heir, Theobald de Verdon (d. 1309), landowner, was granted seisin of his inheritance in November 1274. Theobald had a protracted legal battle with his stepmother, Eleanor, over her dower, which does not seem to have been settled finally until 1295. He first appears in Ireland, where he spent much of his career, in May 1275. In 1278–9 his lordship of Meath was adjudged to have lost its remaining position as a liberty and his appeal against the decision of the justiciar was turned down in June 1280. The Verdon half of Meath and all church lands in the lordship of Trim were constituted as a royal shire in 1297. He served in the royal armies in Wales 1282–3 and attended the parliament at Shrewsbury in 1283. When he returned to Ireland the following year he was granted permission to receive his Irish vassals and associates into the king's peace. Styled ‘constable of Ireland’, he remained in Ireland until 1291.
He was present at Norham during the hearings to determine the Scottish succession, though his relationship with the king came under increasing strain owing to his actions as lord of Ewyas Lacy in the Welsh march. That lordship was confiscated and he was imprisoned in September 1291 because of his continuing refusal to obey royal mandates relating to his treatment of the prior of Llanthony, and the contempt he displayed towards royal officials. The parliament of January 1292 confirmed this sentence and he was released from prison in June that year after the payment of 500 marks; his lordship and its attendant liberty were restored, the latter probably after he served in Gascony in 1294. In 1295 he returned to Ireland. He was summoned on royal service to Scotland in 1296 and Flanders the following year. In July 1297 the king expressed his displeasure at what he regarded as inadequate excuses for Theobald's reluctance to go in person to Flanders: Verdon had cited ill health and the recent death of his eldest son, John, as his reasons for refusing the commission, and asked that his son Theobald might go in his stead. In March 1299 he was besieged in his castle of Roche by unspecified Irish forces. He attended the Lincoln parliament in 1301 and was one of the magnates of the realm to affix his seal to the letter sent to the pope to justify English claims to Scotland. In March 1301 he was ordered to appear once more in Scotland and following service there he seems to have remained in England. He died 24 August 1309 at Alton in Staffordshire and was buried 13 October at Croxden Abbey.
Verdon married Margery before November 1276; there were five sons from the marriage, the eldest surviving being Theobald de Verdon (1278–1316), justiciar of Ireland, who was born 8 September 1278. He served in his father's place in Flanders in 1297. Summoned to Scotland the following year, he was knighted by Edward I in Northumberland in June and fought at the battle of Falkirk in July. In September 1309 he received seisin of his father's lands, and in September 1311 a dispensation was granted him to pay his debts to the exchequer in small annual instalments. While he was in England in 1312, his brother Robert, for unspecified reasons, together with a large following, went on the rampage in Uriel, forced oaths of allegiance from crown tenants, and went to war with the forces of the justiciar. Robert was eventually joined by his two brothers, Milo and Nicholas, and at Ardee they annihilated a force sent against them by John Wogan (qv). Eventually, with the intervention of Roger Mortimer (qv), Theobald's brother-in-law, they made peace, but a large fine was imposed on the entire community of Louth.
Theobald was appointed justiciar of Ireland on 30 April 1313 and served in that position from 19 June 1314. Though immediately summoned to England following the English defeat at Bannockburn, he remained justiciar until 27 February 1315. Thereafter he concentrated on his English career. Despite the invasion of Ireland by Edward Bruce (qv), Verdon pursued Elizabeth de Clare (qv) (d. 1360), daughter of Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester, and Joan of Acre, daughter of Edward I, one of the three heiresses to the Clare fortune, whose husband, John de Burgh, son of Richard de Burgh (qv), the earl of Ulster, had recently died. In February 1316 they married at Bristol without royal licence, which greatly angered Edward II. Theobald died 27 July 1316 at Alton and was buried 19 September in Croxden Abbey. With his first wife, Maud (d. 1312), daughter of Edmund Mortimer and Margaret de Fenles, he had three daughters; Joan, Elizabeth, and Margery. His fourth daughter, Isabel, the offspring of his second marriage, was born after his death. His widow married Roger Damory, the king's favourite. The Verdon lands were finally divided in 1332 among the four daughters, though the Irish lands passed largely to Theobald's younger brothers, Nicholas and Milo.