Mary (Fisher) Butler (1711 - abt. 1792)

Born 28 Mar 1711 in Bucks, Pennsylvania

Ancestors

Wife of John Butler — married 27 Mar 1740 in Wrightstown, Bucks, Pennsylvania

Descendants

Died about 1792 at about age 80 in Bucks, Pennsylvania, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Scott Butler [send private message]

Biography

Mary was a Friend (Quaker)

Mary Fisher was the daughter of John Fisher Jr. (1678-1765) and Mary Hough (1684-1711), the widow of Jacob Janney (1662-1708). Like her father and mother, Mary was a Quaker. She was born 28 Mar 1711 in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Her birth is recorded in the Falls Monthly Meeting minutes. ^[1] The marriage of her parents, John Fisher and Mary Hough, took place on 2 Oct 1710 and is so recorded in the Falls Monthly Meeting minutes ^[2].

Mary Hough passed in December 1711, and on 29 Dec 1719 John Fisher married Elizabeth Scarborough (1695-1742). John and Elizabeth had 10 children (Robert, Sarah, John, Elizabeth, Hannah, Joseph, Deborah, Barak, Samuel, and Katherine), the half-siblings of Mary Fisher, the subject of this record. The births of John and Elizabeth’s children are recorded in Quaker Meeting Records ^[3]. Joseph’s son, Joseph Fisher (1766-1848), penned a memoir that provided considerable detail of the family.^[4]

In it, Joseph wrote about Mary Fisher’s marriage to John Butler. Mary and John Butler were married on 27 Mar 1740. The marriage was recorded in the Wrightstown Monthly Meeting minutes.^[5] John and Mary had five children: Thomas (b. 1740), Grace (b. 1742 but died as an infant), Mary (b. 1743), John (b. 1747), Isaac (b. 1749), and Jacob (abt. 1749). Their births are recorded in Quaker meeting minutes.

Attended Various Monthly Meetings

From about 1739 through 1792, John Butler, Mary and family were admitted to numerous Quaker meeting houses around southeast Pennsylvania, including Buckingham (where Mary was born); Bradford; New Falls; Haverford; Birmingham; New Britain; Radnor; Hopewell Meeting located in Frederick County, Virginia; Wrightstown; Darby; New Garden (where Mary died). Records of each admittance and removal are numerous.

Husband John's Death

Mary's husband John passed between 12 Apr 1771, when he requested a Certificate of Removal from the Bradford Monthly Meeting in Bucks, PA, to the Hopewell Monthly Meeting, in Frederick County, Virginia, and 12 Feb 1773, when the Bradford Monthly Meeting minutes contained the following statement:

John Butler having obtained a Certificate to Friends of Hopewell Monthly Meeting for himself and Mary his wife and their four children Thomas, Mary, John and Jacob, bearing the date of 12th of the 4th month 1771, and said John Butler the father soon after dying, said Mary with her children have returned and settled within the verge of this meeting and have returned said Certificate with a few lines from Friends of Hopewell Monthly Meeting concerning them which was accepted.^[6]

Mary's Death

Mary drafted her Last Will and Testament on 1 Apr 1791. It is recorded in Chester County. She died in 1791/1792, and the Will was proven 7 Feb 1792.^[7]

At the time of her death in 1791/1792, Mary resided in New Garden Township, Chester County, PA. Her Will mentions a bond of her son Thomas Butler that was in the hands of Samuel Coope and about £80 due from son Isaac Butler. To daughter Mary Butler she left 2 shares of the above-mentioned money. The remainder of the plantation was to be equally divided between her 3 sons, Thomas, John and Jacob Butler, except to Betty, daughter of Thomas, who received £5 out of her father's portion when she turned 18. The Executors were Samuel Coope and daughter Mary Butler. Witnesses were Jonathan Johnson, Nicholas Hurford, and Jonathan Hoopes.

A brief note on another Mary Fisher…

There are numerous websites that show this Mary Fisher has having married a Thomas Spray.^[8] Research does indicate that a Mary Fisher who died before 1782 did indeed marry a Thomas Spray in 1734 (according to Presbyterian Church records), but that Mary Fisher was not the daughter of John Fisher and Mary Hough. As early as 1737, this other Mary Fisher and Thomas Spray lived in what was then Lancaster County, PA (now Cumberland County), near current-day Harrisburg, PA. Spray had about 209 acres of land that was directly next to land owned by a Thomas Fisher.^[9] It is possible that Thomas and this other Mary were related in some way, but no evidence to support this hypothesis has been found to date. In 1737, the Mary Fisher that is the subject of this record was living in Bucks County, PA, and, as noted above, for the next few decades until her death, she lived in various counties around Bucks. There is no record of the subject Mary Fisher ever having lived in Lancaster/Cumberland county.

In addition, it does not appear that Thomas Spray was ever a Quaker. For him (a non-Quaker) to marry Mary Fisher (a Quaker), Mary would have been disowned by the Quakers, and that did not happen. Mary Fisher’s son, Thomas Butler, is believed to be the first Butler of this line to be disowned by the Friends for “going outside in his marriage” to Abigail Bane in 1773.

Sources

1. ↑ Swarthmore College; Swarthmore, Pennsylvania; Falls Copy Births, Deaths and Marriages; Collection: Quaker Meeting Records; Call Number: RG2/Ph/F35 3.1
2. ↑ Swarthmore College; Swarthmore, Pennsylvania; Falls Copy Births, Deaths and Marriages; Collection: Quaker Meeting Records; Call Number: RG2/Ph/F35 3.1
3. ↑ Swarthmore College; Swarthmore, Pennsylvania; Births, Burials and Marriage Certificates, 1720-1801; Collection: Quaker Meeting Records; Call Number: MR Ph 47
4. ↑ http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~joneall/famhisty/fisher/jfisher_jrnl.html
5. ↑ Swarthmore College; Swarthmore, Pennsylvania; Marriages, 1730-1760; Collection: Quaker Meeting Records; Call Number: MR-PH-676
6. ↑ Swarthmore College; Swarthmore, Pennsylvania; Minutes, 1765-1781; Collection: Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Minutes; Call Number: MR-Ph 34
7. ↑ Estate Papers, 1713-1810; Author: Chester County (Pennsylvania). Register of Wills; Probate Place: Chester, Pennsylvania
8. ↑ Presbyterian Historical Society; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; U.S., Presbyterian Church Records, 1701-1907; Book Title: Church Register 1701-1746; Accession Number: V MI46 P477rr v.1
9. ↑ Pennsylvania, Land Warrants and Applications, 1733-1952 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Original data: Warrant Applications, 1733-1952. Harrisburg, PA: Pennsylvania State Archives. Land Warrants. Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg, PA.

• Swarthmore College; Swarthmore, Pennsylvania; Record of Births and Burials; Collection: Quaker Meeting Records; Call Number: MR Ph 176
• Swarthmore College; Swarthmore, Pennsylvania; Marriages, 1730-1760; Collection: Quaker Meeting Records; Call Number: MR-PH-676
• Swarthmore College; Swarthmore, Pennsylvania; Falls Copy Births, Deaths and Marriages; Collection: Quaker Meeting Records; Call Number: RG2/Ph/F35 3.1
• Swarthmore College; Swarthmore, Pennsylvania; Women's Minutes, 1734-1792; Collection: Quaker Meeting Records; Call Number: MR Ph 45
• Swarthmore College; Swarthmore, Pennsylvania; Marriages, 1730-1760; Collection: Philadelphia Yearly Meeting Minutes; Call Number: MR-Ph 676
• Swarthmore College; Swarthmore, Pennsylvania; Marriages, Births and Deaths, 1699-1788; Collection: Quaker Meeting Records; Call Number: MR-PH 170
• Hinshaw, William Wade, et al., compilers. Encyclopedia of American Quaker Genealogy. 6 vols. 1936–1950. Reprint, Baltimore, Maryland: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1991–1994.
• Estate Papers, 1713-1810; Author: Chester County (Pennsylvania). Register of Wills; Probate Place: Chester, Pennsylvania
• Pennsylvania Marriage Records. Harrisburg, PA: Pennsylvania Archives Printed Series, 1876. Series 2, Series 6.
• Book Title: Bi-Centenary Memorial of Jeremiah Carter : who came to the province of Pennsylvania in 1682 : conta

• History of Bucks County, Pennsylvania (https://archive.org/stream/historyofbucksco03davi/historyofbucksco03davi_djvu.txt)

• Chester Wills (http://files.usgwarchives.net/pa/chester/wills/wills1792-3.txt)

• Our Family Ancestors (https://www.ancestry.com/interactive/12235/dvm_GenMono001702-00144-1)

• "The First Fishers of Pennsylvania and Adjacent Colonies (1650-1747)”, by Jackie L. Fisher (2010). (http://www.cephasfisher.net/FirstFishersofPA.pdf)