John Butt is one of my ancestors that I knew for quite a long time and possibly for much longer than I really realize. His eldest son Charles was known to my grandfather as a child. Charles was a Methodist Lay Preacher and an agricultural labourer. He lived to be 86 years old and it was his 80th birthday party at Turnworth that my grandfather remembered. Quite likely this was the furtherest that my grandfather had ever been away from home at Upper Clatford. He never really mentioned that but he remembered his great grandfather Charles who could tell him about life in England from the early 1800s on.
John Butt was baptized 10 May 1776 at Winterborne Clenstone. That was the main reason that I took on OPC for Winterborne Clenstone way back in 2007. He was the son of John Butt and Mary Rolles who were themselves married 9 Aug 1762 at Winterborne Clenstone. This John had been baptized 6 May 1736 at Winterborne Stickland and was the son of William Butt and Susanna Foster and they had been married 31 Jan 1729 at Winterborne Stickland. I was unable to trace back further from this point until I met a cousin at Genes Reunited and she had been into the Dorset Record Office and traced the family back much further. The father of this William Butt was also a William Butt and he was married to Elizabeth Lemon. They were married at Winterborne Houghton 27 Jul 1696 and their eldest son William had been baptized 28 May 1697 at Winterborne Houghton. The father William had been baptized 24 Aug 1665 at Winterborne Stickland the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Butt. Thomas was baptized 31 Mar 1622 at Winterborne Houghton the son of Robert Butt and Susan Cantrell who were themselves married 13 Apr 1607 at Winterborne Stickland. Richard Cantrell the father of Susan had been buried 15 Dec 1591 Winterborne Stickland.
We traveled through the Winterborne Valley when we visited England in 2008. There was a light mist over the valley and the hills roll away from you into valleys. It was a beautiful sight standing on the knoll where the church of St Nicholas stands in Winterborne Clenstone. I was too new to genealogy to really learn as much as I would now from such a visit. I did photograph a number of the memorial stones in the small cemetery just above the Winterborne (a small river) and at the base of the hill away from the Church. The Church is a Heritage building and used for services only a couple of times a year. It is in beautiful condition and looks out loftily over the valleys and hills that surround it.
Richard Cantrell is my 10th great grandfather and the furtherest I have information for this line back. No ideas on the father of Robert Butt my 9x great grandfather. I do not know a lot about this family although I believe they were always agricultural labourers working in this Winterborne Valley. Robert and Susan had eight children - 7 sons and 1 daughter. I have trace downs for several of the sons - Simon, Thomas and John. They remained in this beautiful valley until the mills of Lancashire beckoned some of them away in the mid 1800s and Charles (my 3x great grandfather)'s brothers went off to Australia (George and Stephen and there are thousands of descendants there) and Canada (Joseph and there are thousands of descendants here). Charles and Robert remained in England and I have lately met an ancestor of Robert's line on My Heritage. Charles had two sisters with Bethaniah dying as an infant and Maria married to James Vacher.
John Butt (1776-1850) married Jean Durnford 14 Oct 1800 at Winterborne Stickland. Jean was the daughter of Thomas Durnford and Mary Ball and for me this line remains a brickwall. Jean was baptized at Winterborne Stickland 29 Sep 1771.
There isn't a lot of information on this Butt family other than my small bit of family lore but they have spread far around the world. Surprisingly one of my mother's best friends Teresa Butt was actually my father's third cousin but he didn't know that although may have suspected it from the surname. Joseph Butt had emigrated to Canada with his wife Sarah Arnold (Charles and Joseph had married Arnold sisters). Then three of Charles' children married three Knight siblings making this quite a combination of double and triple cousins! No one, other than myself, though have tested their atDNA to my knowledge thus far. Although I do have five people on my Family Finder with the Arnold surname but none with the Butt surname.
Charles' daughter Louisa was one of my known ancestors as my father knew of Louisa (she died before he was born) probably from his great grandfather Samuel Knight whom he knew as a child. Samuel and Louisa were married 7 Sep 1849 at Winterborne Stickland and I visited their memorial stone in 2008 at St Mary the Virgin parish Church in Turnworth Dorset. Their eldest daughter Maria Jane was my great grandmother and she married Edward Blake at Upper Clatford. They had twelve children and the eldest daughter Louisa Mary lived with her grandparents at Turnworth, married there and looked after Samuel until he died. My grandfather Samuel was Maria Jane's second son.
Ancestry of John Butt
1. Elizabeth BLAKE
2. Ernest Edward George BLAKE (b 20 Aug 1904) - Eastleigh Hampshire England
3. Samuel George BLAKE (b 10 Feb 1875) - Upper Clatford Hampshire England
4. Maria Jane KNIGHT (b 27 Jan 1849) - Turnworth Dorset England
5. Louisa BUTT (b 27 Jan 1827) - Winterborne Stickland Dorset England
6. Charles BUTT (b 21 Dec 1801) - Winterborne Stickland Dorset England
7. John BUTT (b 10 May 1776) - Winterborne Clenstone Dorset England
8. John BUTT (b 6 May 1736) - Winterborne Stickland Dorset England
9. William BUTT (b 10 Dec 1696) - Winterborne Houghton Dorset England
10. William BUTT (b 24 Aug 1665) - Winterborne Houghton Dorset England
11. Thomas BUTT (b 31 Mar 1622) - Winterborne Houghton Dorset England
12. Robert BUTT (b c 1570)
It does seem like a long way to go back in an agricultural labourer's family and I really have no ideas on this family back into the 1600s. Were they always labourers or did they at one time farm and being younger sons did not inherit any leases or the like so had to make their own way in the world? They did it very well and the Butt family is huge around the world. A couple of years before I started into genealogy (2001 I think) there was a Butt family reunion in England. I would dearly have loved to attend that reunion and perhaps one day there will be another!
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