Butler or Botiler

Question

I'm working on a Magna Carta line and have detoured to clarify some relationships in a Butler line in medieval England.  Persons used the name Botiler most often.  Some profiles use the misspelling Boliter.  Butler, although occasionally used then, is certainly the modern equivalent.  Correcting the LNABs of this line to Botiler would best satisfy the objective of being true to what they called themselves.  But using Butler would probably be most effective in preventing new duplicate profiles using the surname Butler from being created.  I don't want to waste my time making changes that have to be corrected later, so opinions and advice are most welcome now!

Answer 1

http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Butler

Bouteillier or Butler preceeds 1215 when the Magna Carta was created. 

Butler                        

This famous aristocratic surname is of Norman-French origins, and is one of the very few to be accepted as being pre-1066 in origin and recording, and even rarer still to be recorded in France itself. It is in a sense job descriptive, deriving the Olde French 'bouteillier' and meaning "one who supplies the bottles" but more specifically the wine. However 'Bouteillier'in the surname sense defines status in a royal or at least noble, household, along with the Marshall (Master of the Horse), The Steward (Head of the Estate), The (dis)Spencer (Head of Provisions) and the Bouteillier or Butler (Master of the Pantry). That the original 'Butlers' were much more than servants of any sort is shown by the fact that when Theodore Fitzwalter accompanied King Henry 11 on his conquest of Ireland in 1171, he was not only appointed 'Chief Butler of Ireland' but he subsequently adopted 'Butler' as his surname. In England and Ireland no less than ninety four Coats of Arms have been granted to Boteler and Butler, the first being to Robert de Pincerna, butler to Randolf, Earl of Chester, in 1158, and the first of the Butlers of Cheshire. This original and ancient arms has the blazon of a red field, a bend between three goblets, all gold. The Butler's were also amongst the first into the new American Colonies, Francis Butler, aged 18, being recorded as a settler at 'Elizabeth Cittie, Virginea'in January 1624. He arrived on the ship 'Bonaventure' and was a member of the governors guard, history repeating itself. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Hugo Buteiller, which was dated 1055, The calendar of preserved ancient documents of France, during the reign of King Henry 1 of France, 1031 - 1060. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.

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Answer 2

For those generations where the original records use the spelling "Botiler," I would use that as the LNAB and then enter "Butler" in the "other last names" box.  This way the profiles will come up in searches under either spelling.

Comments

That is my recommendation. I followed the complete Butler line in my family, and Boteler, le Boteler, Botiler, as well as other variations, are the original spellings. I believe Boteler was pronounced like Butler. As it is a vocational name, there are some 40+ family groups; and they are not necessarily related.

Answer 3

If the name is like many others from the medieval period, then it is probably spelled differently on every document, in which case the instruction is to use the modern equivalent.

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Name_Fields#When_conventions_changed_during_a_person.27s_lifetime

"It's also common in cases of earlier ancestors that the spelling of a name was not standardized and that the person him or herself would have used more than one. In those cases, we recommend choosing the spelling that is most recognizable to modern descendants, e.g. "Winslow" rather than "Wynslow" or "Winslowe.""

Answer 4

My ancestors William and Ann married into a Boutilier family in Nova Scotia, Canada.  I understand the Boutiliers had petitioned the King of France, and they were French Catholics from Etoben, France. William's son carried the middle name of "Butler" when the family removed to New Hampshire in 1832.