Ann Butler (1779 - 1847)

Born 5 May 1779 in Heston, Middlesex, England

Ancestors

Died 23 May 1847 at age 68 in Hounslow, Middlesex, England

Biography

Ann, born on 16 May 1779 was the second child and second daughter of John George and Ann Butler. She came into prominence in Hounslow when, in 1807, she was appointed as the first Postmistress of the small and growing town. Her role as postmistress was combined with the running of a circulating library and a stationery business. She did not realise that she was to be the first in an unbroken line of Butlers to be in charge of the post office in Hounslow for a period of 109 years.

In this position, she was assisted by her elder sister, Sarah, and later on by her nephew, Edward Paine Butler (not to be confused with his Tasmanian cousin of the same name), who was to succeed her as postmaster on her death in 1847.

Like her mother, she was very competent, and when her brother Gamaliel left for Tasmania in 1824, he left in her care four of his six children, Sarah, Ann (Nancy), Henry and Francis, only nine months old. Ann was then aged forty-five and for her it must have been an unusual and demanding task to bring them up and educate them, even though she had servants to help her, including a Sarah Barnes who joined her at about the time of Gamaliel’s departure.

It was never clear how many of the children were left with her and how many may have gone to live with their Paine cousins in Richmond. However, a court case at the Old Bailey in 1828 indicated that there were only two children living with her. The case involved the robbery of some twenty-nine bags of mail delivered between five and six o’clock in the morning as the mail coaches passed the post office. The post office was in the High Street and it was the practice for the mailbags to be thrown from the coaches through an open upstairs window.

Ann Butler gave evidence:

“I am Post-mistress of Hounslow, and receive letters both going into the country and coming to London. We throw the window open when the first mail arrives - the servant then goes up to dress; the other mails come in quick, and throw the bags in; this has been the case for twenty years. On the 19th of February the servant came and gave me information; I immediately went to the room, and found only the Gloucester set of bags - a ladder was brought in with the Newbury bag; twenty-nine bags were missing. Q. What inmates were in your house? A. My sister, who was ill, Mrs. Letitia, and Ann Bickham, who lodged there, and two little children - every one in the house was in bed; I did not take the bags.”

There were a number of witnesses who had seen two men and a cart at various times both in Hounslow and along the road to London, and further evidence was given about the loss of a ladder, later found against the wall of the post office. Although two men were arrested and charged, there was no evidence to link them to the stolen mail and it was never recovered.

Ann must have been quite a strong and reliable character as she later took on the care of the children of her brother, William and his wife, Elizabeth Jane, (my great great grandparents) when they both died at relatively young ages and within two years of each other. William died in 1835 and taking in his family may have proven to be too much responsibility for Ann, for it was in the same year, 1835, that three of Gamaliel’s children, Charles, Sarah and Ann left to rejoin their parents in Hobart.

It seems that Ann became reasonably prosperous through her endeavours. She had her own portrait painted and also had in her possession other oil paintings, fine furniture and silver, which were passed on to later generations.

In the 1841 Census, Gamaliel’s son Francis was still living with his aunt Ann at the post office in High Street, Hounslow, together with his cousin, Edward Paine Butler and Edward’s younger sisters, Lucy Elizabeth, Sarah and Ann. The other children of William and Elizabeth had left home to make their own way in life, but strangely, the youngest, William, aged eleven, (my great grandfather) was not shown living there at the time. He may have been at boarding school or even working as an apprentice.

It is said that Francis, the son of Gamaliel and Sarah, who lived with his aunt Ann and studied architecture, had a particular liking for a painting of a young lady that used to hang on one of the walls of his aunt’s house. There are various stories surrounding this portrait, but its origin and how it came to be in the possession of the family or who was its subject is not known. One story handed down through the Hounslow branch of the Butler family was that it was a painting of Lady Hamilton, Lord Nelson’s mistress, and that because of her shameful character, it was always hung with its face to the wall. (This same story was handed down through both the Tasmanian and Hounslow branches of the Butler family) This seems far-fetched, for if this was the reason, why hang it on the wall at all. In any event, when Francis went to Tasmania to join his family, he was allowed to take the painting with him. The painting passed down through several generations of the family in Tasmania, when it was discovered that it was the work of the artist George Romney. It was sold by auction in London in 1904, the buyer being Agnews, the art dealers, and subsequently passed into the hands of Lolita Armour, the wife of the Chicago meatpacker “robber” baron, J Ogden Armour, an associate of J P Morgan, the Rockefellers and the Vanderbilts.

Although Romney had produced several portraits of Lady Hamilton, this painting was not of her, and the painting’s subject remains a mystery, being described simply as Portrait of a Lady. Romney came to London in 1762 and it was only then that he began to establish his reputation as an artist. It is conceivable that it was a portrait of one of the Butler family and was eventually passed down to Ann, but it seems somewhat unusual that if the subject was a family member, her name was not known. It seems highly unlikely that Ann would have bought such a painting herself, so it is possible, that someone in the family left it to her, or else it was a bequest or gift from someone else.

Not very much more is known of Ann Butler’s life, but she must have been a central character in Hounslow’s history during the first half of the 19th century. In the running of the Post Office with a large staff, she was certainly helped by the eldest of William’s children, Edward Paine Butler* and his sisters. Edward did not marry but was well prepared to take over the Post Office on the death of his aunt in 1847.

[* Edward Paine Butler, eldest son of William and Elizabeth Jane Butler, not to be confused with his cousin, also Edward Paine Butler, eldest son of Gamaliel and Sarah Butler.]

Ann Butler died on 16 May 1847, a week after her birthday, aged 68,and was buried together with her younger brother William and sister Sarah at Holy Trinity, Hounslow

Sources

• St. Leonard's, Heston baptismal register.

• Heston Parish burial register.

• 1841 census.

• Biography and original research by Merv Shearman.