William Butler (1798 - 1871)

Born May 1798 in Sherston Magna, Wiltshire, England

Ancestors

Husband of Mary Ann (Scott) Butler — married [date unknown] in Tasmania

Descendants

Died 1871 at about age 72 in Buckland, Tasmania

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Biography

William 27 May 1798 [BT] William Butler’s first wife Mary was born in Barnstaple, Devon about 1793. Possibly she married William there, as no record was found at Shearston or elsewhere in Wiltshire. William is supposed to have had five children. We have found four baptised at Sherston Magna. In 1821 William was a publican on baptism record of son, in 1823 a “dealer” and in 1827 a horse dealer. [PR] Possibly he inherited the inn business from his father in 1818 but could not or did not want to keep it up, and his mother the innholder became bankrupt in 1821, and presumably lost the inn. This background fits neatly with what we know of him in Australian records. Wiltshire Forefathers by June Badeni, The road that runs past Farleaze, ends in the field at Surrendell, and then continues on the other side down to the Hullavington-Grittleton road, is called Pig Lane. Canon Jackson had the following story among his papers with no note as to its source. The Rev. A. Austin , curate of Kington St. Michael in the early part of the eighteenth century and later Vicar of Alderton, was riding home from Gloucester one night by way of Pig Lane. it was very dark, and hearing a man coming at full gallop, he cried out a warning, but to no avail. The man ran straight into him and nearly knocked him off his horse. 'You drunken vagabond, why do you ride over me?. he shouted ; upon which the other deliberately tried to ride over him again. But Austin reined back his horse, and the drunkard charged past and went, horse and all, head over heels in the ditch. His horse galloped off, and he then rushed at Austin, attacking him with his fists and trying to pull him off. Austin resisted, but the other got hold of his horse's bridle and asserted, with many oaths, that he would never let go. He held on from 10 o'clock at night until 4 o'clock in the morning. As it began to grow light, the two, still locked together, began to move up towards Surrendell (they had met near where the Hullavington lane comes in ) and as they reached the cottages which then stood on the slope below the present ones, Austin called out to one Bailey, who lived there. Bailey put his head out, but when he recognised the drunkard as one Butler of Sherston, a notorious fighter whose father kept the Rattlebones Inn, he refused to interfere. After remaining outside Bailey's house for some time, Austin at last dismounted, promising to get Butler punished and daring him to go off with his horse. This was apparently successful, and Butler finally handed over the horse to the unfortunate curate. This affair happened on a Saturday night , Saturday being then Chippenham market day, and Butler being on his way home from there. He was had up before the Chippenham magistrates on Monday and fined £5 and 15/- expenses, but several people pleaded for him , including Austin and his fine was reduced. He was subsequently transported for horse-stealing. At a special sessions held on 10 June 1829 at Chippenham, William Butler of Sherstone, horse dealer, was fined £2 and costs, for a violent and outrageous attack and assault on the Rev. Anthony Austin, of Kingston St Michael, on the 30th day of May last, in Pig Lane, near Sherstone. [Devises and Wiltshire Gazette, 11 June 1829] In 1841 at Back Street, Sherston Magna, Wilts was Mary Butler 48 not born Wilts and Thomas Butler 14 born in Wilts. In 1851 Mary Butler widow aged 52 born at Barnstaple was living with her son Thomas and his family in Sherston. Mary was buried at Sherston 17 March 1855 aged 62. No obit. No will.

At the Oxford Assizes of 27th February 1836, William Butler was sentenced to transportation for 14 years. His crime was receiving stolen goods, specifically receiving a stolen gelding. He was tried with a Mr. Gardner 29 a plowman and shepherd from North Lincoln who was given a sentence of transportation for life. By and large only the Assizes or Quarter Sessions transported convicts to Australia, and most sent out were convicted by due process of law, under procedures which did not differ very much from those of today. Just over a quarter of those convicted in the higher criminal courts were sentenced to transportation in the mid 1830s. Those transported were an average age of 26, two thirds having been previously punished, usually for theft. Half were sentenced to 7 years and another quarter to life or 14 years. However, men convicted from non-industrialized counties such as Oxfordshire were older, more often married, and only a third had previously been in trouble. Fewer were sentenced to 7 years, most for life. William fitted into this later group, being aged 38 and married. [Dr. Robson in The Convict Settlers of Australia] No records of trials were kept in those days except at the Old Bailey. Conditions of some rural workers in the 1830s were grave. In 1830 the rural workers plight in the southern counties was so desperate that machines were broken and arson committed. Crime was thought to be caused by the low rate of wages and want of employment, however a third of the men were born outside their county of trial and evidence suggests these men were not law-abiding but migrant depredators preying on the country-side. Jackson’s Oxford Journal of 27 February 1836 reports on the Oxford Circuit Assizes under matters to be dealt with: “William Butler, charged with having a mare in his possession well knowing the same to be stolen, the property of William Badger, of Swalcliffe.” The issue of 5 March 1836 repeated the report and added “14 years transportation”. Swalcliffe is near Banbury and Shipston-on-Stour. He and John Gardiner were transported on the Eden on 22 December 1836. The surgeon’s report for the voyage is quite interesting. The Eden travelled from England on 3 August transporting prisoners to Van Dieman’s Land, arriving there at on 18 January 1837. The Captain’s log “On the 22nd of August we received 100 convicts from the hulks in Portsmouth Harbour, middle aged and athletic men many of them soldiers and this completed our stipulated number of 280. Having received the Government despatch of the 30th May we endeavoured to get to sea but did not succeed until the next day. Perhaps it would have been better if we had remained at Spithead for more favourable weather for we had a foul wind with a head sea until we got as far as Scilly when part of the stem of the ship having been carried away by heavy pitching we were obliged to bear up for Plymouth Harbour.” [photo of the Eden at Hobart NS 1013/65] “In this short cruise the prisoners again suffered much for sea sickness and I have been most particular in painting it out because I am satisfied the seeds of future dissent were sewn here and the debility induced by the continuance of so distressing an infliction increases in no small degree the predisposition to scurvy among for others.... My experience in the convict service has verified the above observations for in two voyages we started with a fair wind and got away to the southward without encountering any bad weather and in neither ship had I a patient whom it was necessary to confine to bed. In my first and fourth voyages however it was very different we had foul wind and bad weather for some time after leaving port and in both ships scurvy was prevalent and made its appearance at an early period. In the present ship the Eden the disease commenced shortly after we had passed the equator and became so general among the prisoners (although not in an aggravated form) that I considered it absolutely necessary to go into Table Bay, Cape of Good Hope for the purpose of obtaining fresh beef and vegetables. Our stay in H... was ............ short but its beneficial effects were sufficiently obvious and exceeded the most sanguine expectations. The countenance which before was pale sallow and dejected became clear cheeks assumed a healthy bloom and appetite returned and cheerfulness pervaded every part of the ship in short after.... H....... only a couple of days the altered and out appearance of the convicts was so unequivocal and satisfactory that I agreed to take on board twenty two additional convicts.” “On leaving the Cape we were supplied with two live bullocks, The Eden was built in London in 1826 and originally classed A1 which class it retained for ten years. It left Portsmouth on 31 August 1836 via the Cape, a journey of 113 days, arriving at Hobart on 26 December 1836 with 277 male convicts on board, three having died en route. After the arrival of Lieut-Governor Sorell (1817 –24) and with the increase in the numbers of respectable settlers, the demand was high for assigned servants. This assignment system continued until 1840. It provided that convicts on arrival were assigned either to the governor or to free settlers. Van Dieman’s Land colonists seeking labour sent in their request and their wishes were granted as far as the supply permitted. After 1834 one convict was assigned for every 160 acres owned and another for every 40 acres cultivated. William was assigned to Mr. J. Cuiston Sutherland of Isis, on the Isis River near Campbelltown, and like most convicts probably was never in a penal settlement. [CSO 1/895/19007] [CON 27/2] William was assigned to Campbell Town on 16 December 1842 and seems to have worked at Rostrevor from at least when he was given his Ticket of Leave on 13 January 1843, and to have stayed there after he received his pardon. His conditional pardon was approved in March 1845, and a free certificate on 4 June 1850. [Tasmanian Archives CON 31/3]He was a shepherd at Rostrevor in 1851 when Captain Vicary held Rostrevor. William was a gold digger in 1852, living at Spring Bay but possibly mining in Victoria where the rushes had drawn half the male population of Tasmania. James Vicary took up Rostrevor, which later became an immense fruit growing property of Jones & Co. precursors of IXL. Mary Ann Hernamen had met William Butler, presumably the father of her child, and they applied for permission to marry. They were described as Convict 2563 Wm Butler, ship Eden and convict 465 Mary Ann Herman, ship Rl Admr. On 18 November 1844 this application was ‘approved if clergyman satisfied’. [Tasmanian Achives CON 52/2] William perhaps had some luck on the goldfields or just worked hard , for, in July 1860 he was one of fifty signatories to a petition to the Colonial Secretary requesting that Spring Bay become a municipality. To sign, he was required to be the proprietor of land with an annual value of at least twenty pounds.William seems to have been in charge of the 325 acre property of Richard Crocker called Crocker’s Farm at Cockle Bay in 1858 [Valuation Roll] In 1864 they were renting Boomer Creek, a property of Thomas Buxton of Mayfield. Cockle Bay is opposite the southern portion of Maria Island, just north of Cape Bernier. The farmhouse was on Cockle Bay Creek (not Cockle Creek). Boomer Creek was directly south at Boomer Bay at the head of the penisula leading to Port Arthur. In the electoral roll of 1870 a widow Mrs Elizabeth Hume was the owner of Apsley Meadows with William Butler (probably her overseer) as the tenant. “A snug little place of 420 acres, with about 80 acres suitable for cultivation, about ten tilled, with a little brook rippling past.” [Mercury, 8 November 1884] William Butler was a modest but successful farmer when he died on 5 September 1871 aged 75 of disease of the heart, and is buried in the Apslawn Cemetery.

Sources

• William baptised 27 May 1798 Shearston [BT]

Rev JJ Daniel wrote The History of Chippenham . Compiled from researches by the author, and from the collections of Rev. Canon Jackson.FSA rector of Lekje Delamere, Wilts. Devises and Wiltshire Gazette, 11 June 1829.