Butler Records - Part 1

Some time during the Great War my great-grandfather, the Rev. Thomas Butler, seems to have taken it on himself to transcribe a whole series of family letters, dating from the the mid-18th century to the turn of the 20th, and bind them in a book entitled Butler Verses and Records, 1756-1915. I’ve no idea where the originals are now: probably one of my numerous cousins has them. But I've got Thomas's book, and his handwriting is delightfully easy on the eye.

Anyway, I’m going amuse myself (and possibly others) by giving a few highlights in this entry and some future ones.

As it happens, the earliest letter is also the most exciting, if you like tales of derring do. It’s from Lt. Daniel Butler of the Royal Navy, then aged 25, to his parents Daniel (a Margate solicitor) and Mary, my great*5 grandparents. The scene is the Seven Years' War...

( Gibraltar, September 13th, 1756 )

Butler Records - Part 1

Some time during the Great War my great-grandfather, the Rev. Thomas Butler, seems to have taken it on himself to transcribe a whole series of family letters, dating from the the mid-18th century to the turn of the 20th, and bind them in a book entitled Butler Verses and Records, 1756-1915. I’ve no idea where the originals are now: probably one of my numerous cousins has them. But I've got Thomas's book, and his handwriting is delightfully easy on the eye.

Anyway, I’m going amuse myself (and possibly others) by giving a few highlights in this entry and some future ones.

As it happens, the earliest letter is also the most exciting, if you like tales of derring do. It’s from Lt. Daniel Butler of the Royal Navy, then aged 25, to his parents Daniel (a Margate solicitor) and Mary, my great*5 grandparents. The scene is the Seven Years' War...

( Gibraltar, September 13th, 1756 )