Butler Records - Part 1

[steepholm]

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

Honoured Father and Mother,
I hope you and all the good family are well. On the 19th of July last we took a brig at Minorca; on the 21st, Mr John Foster and self, with 6 Hands went to take charge of her; on the 12th of August following we left, the Fleet being bound for Gibraltar; on the 25th, at 7 in the evening, were taken within 4 or 5 leagues of our Port by French privateer of 10 carriage guns, besides swivels and 40 Hands. They took our six men out and left us two to be carried into Malaga, and sent on board five of their men; they brought with them three scimitars: we had neither sword, cutlass, nor small arms of any kind of board. The wind was fair, so we laid our heads together in order to retake her (which answered). Our signal word was St. George, and we took the opportunity to surprise them. Putting about their scimitars, laid close by the tiller-head, the helmsman let go the helm when staying to tend the forebraces. We then secured the three scimitars, hove one overboard and fell on cutting and slivering them with their own weapons. They were fit for the purpose, being very sharp. They laid hold of handspikes, &c., but we soon made them drop them, and cry for quarter, which we gave them, and those that were able got up in the foreshrouds, and one in the forestaysail netting. It was about 8 in the morning we retook her and about 3 the same afternoon we got safe into Gibraltar and sent those desperately wounded to the Hospital. I should be glad to tell you the affair face to face. We have gained the applause of all here, and are going up shortly in the Experiment Ship of Ware to Sir Edward Hawke, and don’t doubt but he’ll do for us. So no more at present from
Your dutiful son,
Daniel Butler

The family was then based around Rye and Margate, and the news from Gibraltar caused quite a stir. A letter from Daniel’s brother Richard to their father reports: “My dear brother Daniel’s letter is in everybody’s mouth here, and in short, his brave and gallant behaviour has so greatly inveigled him in their favours, that he is the topic of conversation; his health is often drunk in public company; and though to many people here he is an entire stranger, yet the whole neighbourhood heartily wish him a Command soon” (Rye, 14th December 1756).

Father Daniel perhaps worried a bit about his son’s spiritual health on this account, for a few days later on the 20th December he wrote to him, congratulating him and Foster as "two heroes", but adding: “It was a good scheme well laid, and as resolutely executed, as anybody could wish, no life being lost, for which I hope you’ve often given the glory to God; for His encouraging and strengthening you and your companion, and not taken it to yourselves, who could do nothing as of yourselves, for the gift was God’s and to Him be the praise, and I hope you’ve not prided yourselves thereon, but behaved like good Christians.” He does add, however, in a slightly more worldly way: “The Lords of the Admiralty will look upon this action and reward it, if the Admiral ha’nt, though I sincerely hope he has, and then you may be ready for something better, Mr. Hunter being one of the Lords of the Admiralty.”

I can’t offer anything quite as sanguinary or exciting for my next, but to be honest this episode is rather atypical Butler behaviour.

Comments

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Well, jolly good for Daniel! Did he get his promotion?

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

According to the family tree that I have (also in Thomas's careful hand) - it seems not! At least, he's referred to there as a Lieutenant, only. Could one have a command at that rank? I assume not. Or maybe Thomas didn't know what happened next, any more than I do.

Mind you, Daniel came out of it better than the commanding officer of the fleet, John Byng, who was executed by firing squad for failing to "do his utmost" to save Minorca from the French. In those days, they were serious about getting the top people to take responsibility (a lesson for the bankers)?

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I've just found a letter to Daniel dated 1767. He's still a Lieutenant at that point, alas...

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. At least he's still alive, though. I had a couple of relatives in Captain Cook's crew, and they died on the first voyage to the Pacific.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Oh dear. Do you know how?

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Malaria, I think.

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

Oooh! I look forward to more Butlerian exploits.

I come from a family with little sense of history and even less tendency to keep things for sentimental reasons (keeping things because they might be useful is a different matter). I'm fascinated by the mere existence of your family letters.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you liked it. They won't all be as exciting as this - but some are interesting from a "slice of life" point of view, and others for the style in which they're written. As you will see...

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

'slice of life' is my favourite kind of anything.
I'm currently reading Michael Crummey's novel, River Thieves about Newfoundland at the turn of the 19th Century - the privations the settlers endured, the failings of the British Navy & governors, and the fate of the Beothuk Indians. It's a perfect balance of engaging my interest through individual characters and sneaking in lots of historical detail while I'm not looking.

[gair.livejournal.com]

I come from a family with little sense of history

Amen to that! I was just thinking how exciting/strange it must be to come from a family with a history: I don't think I've ever heard the first names of either of my maternal grandparents, and am not 100% sure of my dad's mum's first name (in fact, I only know my dad's dad's first name because my brother was named after him), so even the phrase Daniel and Mary, my great*5 grandparents is wildly exotic to me...

[calimac.livejournal.com]

Much of what we know about C.S. Lewis's family history, up to and including his childhood and college years, comes from a hefty series of typewritten volumes - I think there are six - that his brother made, transcribing letters and other documents and embedding them in a narrative commentary. It's a magnificent piece of research, and the brother (W.H. Lewis) later went on to write and published well-received historical books on topics of slightly wider interest.

So what happened to the originals after the transcript was made?

Threw them away. Figured he didn't need them any more.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I didn't know that! But I doubt my ancestors would have done the same, being as much curators as curates by nature and profession. The volume in my possession, for example, has a handwritten label on its spine ("92 But"), a relic of my grandfather's homemade classification system - and his personal collection of books and other materials on Esperanto went on to form the basis of the Esperanto Association's Butler Library. I strongly suspect that the original of these letters (and very bad poems) are still in the family somewhere, if I could be bothered to go looking.

[drasecretcampus.livejournal.com]

I wonder if we connect? Aside from myself, there are two Butlers by birth - a third died before I was born and was born early twentieth/late nineteenth century somewhere in Kent/London. An Edmund, I believe. He was a royal gardener and worked on the first world war cemeteries in Ypres, where he met my grandmother (who was English, and from Nottingham). There's some connection with the Trinity House Estate in Newington

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

It's possible, though I'm not sure how we'd find out. My lot seem to have been in Margate and Rye for a few generations, and Claines in Worcestershire before that, when Weeden (a brother of brave Daniel) headed for Chelsea, where he set up a school - that was around 1780. They were in Cheyne Walk until 1854, but after that they're scattered about the city - my own father was born in Kingston-upon-Thames.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Awesome! I look forward to more.

[joyeuce]

I also look forward to more. My maternal grandmother's family had a strong sea-going tradition, and my mother has recently e-mailed me a copy of my great-great-grandfather's obituary; he was pressed into the Navy and served at Trafalgar, among other actions. I might post it at some point.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I'd love to see it!

[emmaco.livejournal.com]

What about when you defied the security guard and jumped that barrier last year? I suspect the Butlers are rather an adventurous lot...

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Hey, you're right! He was lucky I didn't sliver him with his security pass, or hoist him by his own lanyard.

[booksandtea.livejournal.com]

I wish I had such records from my ancestors! And on seafaring, too! I'm quite envious. I love how formal the letter is, and how understated.

Of course, had my own ancestors kept records, the most exciting bits would have been along the lines of "the old bull escaped into the apple orchard today. Took five hours to lure him back to his paddock". My ancestors were all farmers and gardeners, much to the chagrin of my grandfather who did the genealogical research.

[hafren.livejournal.com]

What a brilliant thing to have! I'll look forward to more extracts...

[sovay]

I'm very glad you had a great-grandfather who transcribed! Thank you for sharing this.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I'm glad too, an even more so for his handwriting. I might wish for a little less religiosity than I find in most of his chosen pieces, but I think they were a particularly religious family - or maybe his own vocation led him to find those the most worthwhile.

[sovay]

I might wish for a little less religiosity than I find in most of his chosen pieces, but I think they were a particularly religious family - or maybe his own vocation led him to find those the most worthwhile.

The latter sounds plausible to me—I'd probably show a preference for letters which mentioned weird language things . . .

(I think it's also awesome that the original letters have survived. My family has nothing like that on either side.)

[ewein2412]

i enjoyed this too, very much.

[gillo]

Wonderful stuff! I love letters of this sort. Daniel would have made a decent sum of prize money even if he didn't get a promotion. (Possibly the Navy was unimpressed by the loss of the ship, even if he did get it back.)

I, too, look forward to more. My ancestors of that era are unlikely to have been literate, sadly.