Butler Records - Part 4

Was it a convention for Victorian families, at least those of a religious cast, to write lengthy accounts of the final hours of their loved ones? Certainly the Victorians are well known for their death-bed scenes in fiction, so why not in real life?

On the 8th January 1891, the Butler household was in a very sombre mood. In one room the paterfamilias, Thomas Butler (son of the younger Weeden), lay gravely ill. He was 81, and had enjoyed a long and full career at the British Museum, which amounted to a lot more than simply annoying Alfred Russel Wallace; but his life seemed to be drawing to its close. In another room his wife Jane was also dying. Her death, I can say quite punctiliously, took place at 7.50pm that evening, as noted by my great-grandfather Thomas, her son. Three days later, he compiled an account of her final hours.

( This is what he wrote... )

Jane had been certain that her own death would be followed swiftly by her husband’s. The day before she died, she had said: “Well, it is not easy to reconcile oneself all at once to the idea of Mother dying in one week, Father soon after, both being swept off, and the children left alone; but the LORD sitteth above the water floods.” And: “Tom will lie, like a tired child, for three weeks, and then he will come to me.”

( In the event... )

Butler Records - Part 4

Was it a convention for Victorian families, at least those of a religious cast, to write lengthy accounts of the final hours of their loved ones? Certainly the Victorians are well known for their death-bed scenes in fiction, so why not in real life?

On the 8th January 1891, the Butler household was in a very sombre mood. In one room the paterfamilias, Thomas Butler (son of the younger Weeden), lay gravely ill. He was 81, and had enjoyed a long and full career at the British Museum, which amounted to a lot more than simply annoying Alfred Russel Wallace; but his life seemed to be drawing to its close. In another room his wife Jane was also dying. Her death, I can say quite punctiliously, took place at 7.50pm that evening, as noted by my great-grandfather Thomas, her son. Three days later, he compiled an account of her final hours.

( This is what he wrote... )

Jane had been certain that her own death would be followed swiftly by her husband’s. The day before she died, she had said: “Well, it is not easy to reconcile oneself all at once to the idea of Mother dying in one week, Father soon after, both being swept off, and the children left alone; but the LORD sitteth above the water floods.” And: “Tom will lie, like a tired child, for three weeks, and then he will come to me.”

( In the event... )