Agnata Frances (Ramsay) Butler (1867 - 1931)

Born 28 Jan 1867 in Marylebone, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom

Ancestors

Wife of Henry Montagu Butler — married Jul 1888 in St George Hanover Square, London, England, United Kingdom

Descendants

Died 27 May 1931 at age 64 in Harrow on the Hill, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom

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Biography

Agnes was born in 1867, the daughter of Sir James Henry Ramsay, 10th Baronet of Bamff, and Elizabeth Mary Charlotte née Scott-Kerr. ^[1] She came from a family with a history of academic achievement as her father published books on history, her uncle George Gilbert Ramsay was a professor of humanity at Glasgow University and her grandfather, Sir George Ramsay, published works on philosophy.

Brought up in Perthshire, she attended St Leonards School in St Andrews. In 1884, she went as the Misses Metcalfes' Scholar to Girton College, Cambridge, where she read Classics. Her achievement in being the only candidate in 1887 to be placed in the top division of the first class in the Classical Tripos examinations – thereby being placed above all of the men in her year – was marked with a cartoon in Punch which was entitled 'Honour to Agnata Frances Ramsay' and showed her boarding a train's first-class compartment marked 'For Ladies Only'.

While a student, she worked hard at her studies but also found time for outdoor pursuits which she enjoyed, including tennis and skating. She was president of the debating society and, while she did not speak often, she impressed others with her eloquence and humility.

In August 1888, she married the Master of Trinity, Henry Montagu Butler. They had met at the Cambridge Greek Play, a performance of Oedipus Rex in November 1887 for which Butler had arranged a large party of 42. He had included Agnata because of her prowess in the classics but he later wrote that it was her "goodness ... not her Greek and Latin, which have stolen my heart". Even so, he allowed that, on their honeymoon, they "read a great deal of Greek together".

They had three sons, James, Gordon, and Nevile. Their first child was born while she was working on her edition of Herodotus, which prompted Punch to run another punning cartoon, in which she was portrayed as ordering 'a crib for Herodotus'. After the death of her husband in 1918, she remained in Cambridge, where she was involved in the local Christian Science church. She died in Harrow on 27 May 1931.

Sources

1. ↑ Baptism: "London, England, Church of England Births and Baptisms, 1813-1920"
   London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; London Church of England Parish Registers; Reference Number: P89/MRY2/035
   Ancestry uk Record 1558 #3596499 (accessed 13 November 2021)
   Agneta Frances Ramsay baptism on 27 Feb 1867, son of James Henry & Elizabeth Mary Charlotte, in St Mary, Bryanston Square, Westminster, England.

• Butler family tree in possession of NW Smith and passed down to BW Smith
• https://www.ancestry.com.au/family-tree/person/tree/120228848/person/302059561510/facts
• https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Agnata_Butler