William Henry Butler (1790–1865)
Mayor of Oxford, January–October 1836
William Henry Butler was born in Oxford on 24 February 1790 and baptised at All Saints’ Church on 26 March.
He was the thirteenth child of James Butler (baptised at All Saints’ Church on 10 October 1750) and Jane Slatter (baptised at St Peter-in-the-East Church on on 2 February 1756). His parents were married at St Martin in the Fields Church in Westminster on 1 October 1776 and had fourteen children:
- Catherine Tyrell Butler (born in Oxford and baptised at St Peter-in-the-East Church on 1 March 1777)
- Jane Ann Butler (born in Oxford and baptised at St Aldate’s Church on 3 July 1778)
- James Butler (born in Oxford on 17 January 1780 and baptised at St Mary-the-Virgin Church the next day)
- Martha Butler (born in Oxford on 22 August 1781 and baptised at St Mary the Virgin Church on 24 August 1781)
- Mary Anne Butler (born in Oxford on 30 June 1783 and baptised at St Mary-the-Virgin Church on 24 July 1783)
- Sarah Butler (baptised at All Saints’ Church on 29 December 1784)
- John Butler (baptised at All Saints’ Church on 28 July 1786)
- Elizabeth Butler (baptised at All Saints’ Church on 5 November 1787)
- Lucy Butler (baptised at All Saints’ Church on 27 November 1791)
- Lydia Butler (baptised at All Saints’ Church on 25 October 1793)
- Charles Butler (baptised at All Saints’ Church on 17 April 1796)
- Robert Butler (baptised at All Saints’ Church on 18 April 1798; buried there 15 February 1818)
- William Henry Butler (baptised at All Saints’ Church on 26 March 1790)
- Thomas Butler (baptised at All Saints’ Church on 31 August 1800).
In 1772 a survey of every house in the city was taken in consequence of the Mileways Act of 1771. According to H. E. Salter, a Mr Butler (possibly the Mayor's father) occupied premises just to the north of 4 St Aldate’s Street with a frontage of 4 yards, 2 ft. and 10 in. William Butler’s parents appear to have lived in St Peter-in-the East and in St Aldate’s parishes for a short period around 1777/8. They then lived in the parish of St Mary the Virgin from 1780 to 1783, when William’s father James Butler worked as the Common Room man of All Souls College.
William’s grandfather, James Butler senior, died early in 1781 and was buried at All Saints’ Church on 4 May that year, and it seems likely that William’s father took over his premises in All Saints parish in 1783/4. His grandmother Martha Butler probably continued to live with her son and his family until her death almost sixteen years after her husband: she was buried at All Saints’ Church on 14 December 1796.
William Butler went into partnership with the wine merchant Deodatus Eaton. They first operated from Oriel Street (St Mary Hall Lane), but on 10 September 1814 they announced that they had entered upon “spacious vaults situated on Carfax”.
On 11 April 1815 Butler was admitted to the freedom of the City by purchase, and he came on to the Common Council later that year. .
On 6 January 1816 Butler & Eaton announced in Jackson's Oxford Journal that they had dissolved their partnership by mutual consent. Each of them then announced separately that he would be carrying on as a wine & brandy merchant on his own account:
- William Henry Butler in the Vaults opposite the Town Hall
- Deodatus Eaton in the vaults adjoining the Town Hall.
The wine vaults leased by William Henry Butler were under the butter bench at Carfax (on the corner of St Aldate’s Street and Queen Street). (This site had since 1710 been occupied by the butter bench, but after 1774 traders sold their butter in the new Covered Market instead.)
Right: In this engraving of 1822 the side pillars and railings of William Henry Butler’s wine vaults can be seen opposite the old Town Hall.
On 31 May 1816 it was ordered by the City Council “that a license be granted to enable Mr Henry Hardy to alien to Mr W. H. Butler the wine vaults situate under the Butter Bench held by lease of this City”. The vaults were evidently in a poor state and the Council minutes of 15 September 1817 read:
Upon reading the underwritten report and upon Mr Wyatt’s stating to this House that in his judgment the repairs that ought to be done by the City will not exceed Fifty pounds It is agreed and ordered that Mr Butler the Lessee of the wine vaults be allowed fifty pounds out of the City funds on a report being signed by Mr Wyatt and Mr Hudson that the repairs referred to in the report have been substantially performed. “We the undersigned having examined the state of the arches &c. of Mr Butler’s vaults under the Butter bench agreeable to the order of Council find them in a very weak state composed of loose materials and not of sufficient strength to support the screen and columns over them the weight of which has caused in a great measure a sinking in that part where it crosses over the arches And we are of opinion that part and that part only ought to be put into repair at the expence of the City & made of sufficient strength to support the said erections above which belong to the City.
On 13 February 1817 at St Giles’ Church, Northampton, William Henry Butler married Elizabeth Briggs (the youngest daughter of the late Alderman Briggs of Northampton). Their first four children were born in All Saints parish in Oxford:
- Edwin Butler (born in Oxford on 7 December 1817 and baptised at All Saints’ Church on 24 February 1818)
- Jane Elizabeth Butler (born in Oxford and baptised at All Saints’ Church on 1 March 1819)
- Robert Jackson Butler (born in Oxford and baptised at All Saints’ Church on 19 July 1820)
- Lucy Ann Butler (born in Oxford and baptised at All Saints’ Church on 22 December 1821).
In the baptismal register in 1818 and 1819, William Butler was described as a wine merchant in the High Street, presumably in All Saints parish, and when his mother Jane Butler died at the age of 65 in 1820, her address was given as the High Street.
Butler was elected Senior Chamberlain for 1819/20 and Senior Bailiff for 1824/5. He continued to serve as a Bailiff on the Old Council until it came to an end in December 1835
On 11 May 1826 the City Council agreed that “Mr William Henry Butler shall have a new Lease of All those five vaults or arched Cellars situate in Saint Martins Parish for Forty years from Lady Day last for a Fine of Twenty pounds under the old Rents and Covenants.”
On 12 April 1834 William Henry Butler inserted the following advertisement in Jackson's Oxford Journal:
That suggests that he had also taken over Deodatus Eaton's shop next to the Town Hall. In 1835 he also paid the city council a rental of five shillings for a property (late Hardy) in St Martin's parish: this may be 143 High Street on the south-east corner of Carfax, the former draper's shop of Thomas Hardy, who died on 16 June 1829. On 27 September 1839 Butler was described as being immediately to the south of 141/142 High Street at Carfax, and Robson's Commercial Directory that year gives the address of his premises as 2 St Aldate's Street. (Billing's Directory for 1854 gives the address of his wine shop as 1 St Aldate's Street, but it is likely to be the same building.).
William Henry Butler's next five children by his first wife would presumably have been born over his wine shop at Carfax:
- George Morant Butler (baptised at St Martin’s Church on 5 May 1823)
- Mary Ann Butler (baptised at St Martin’s Church on 26 July 1825)
- Caroline Butler (baptised at St Martin’s Church on 25 July 1827, died aged seven months)
- Octavia Frances Butler (baptised at St Martin’s Church on 31 October 1828, and appropriately named as she was his eighth child)
- Catherine Adelaide Butler (baptised at St Martin’s Church on 7 November 1830, died on 12 April 1831 aged six months).
His father James Butler died in St Michael’s parish at the age of 75 on 23 April 1825.
Butler was the election agent of W. Hughes Hughes when he unsuccessfully contested the City of Oxford at the general election of June 1826.
In Jackson's Oxford Journal on 15 August 1835 notice was given that under an Indenture of Assignment that had been made on 16 June 1835 between (1) the Oxford wine merchant Richard Dry and (2) the London wine merchant William Henry Frisby and William Henry Butler and George Guy (both wine merchants of Oxford), Richard Dry sold all his good to Frisby, Butler and Guy.
The Municipal Corporation Act was due to come into force on 1 January 1836 with a new Council and Mayor, so Richard Wootten, Mayor for 1835/6, served an extra three months as Mayor of the old council. On Saturday 26 December 1835 polling took place for all the new wards in Oxford, and William Henry Butler was elected one of the six councillors for the West Ward. Then on Thursday 31 December 1835 he was elected to serve as an Alderman for three years on the new council. Two days later on 1 January 1836 he was elected the first Mayor of that Council.
On the day that Alderman Browning took up office as Mayor, George Rowley, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford, wrote to him to say that the University could not dispense completely with the duty of the Mayor to take the usual oath on the day of entering office relating back to the St Scholastica's Day riot, but that he was willing from now on to receive the Mayor with just four burgesses at his lodgings (at University College). Butler replied immediately that he would duly attend the next day at 12 noon.
Butler served as Mayor for ten months (1 January–31 October 1836), as although he started three months later than usual, henceforth the Oxford council year started a month later on 1 November.
A drawing of Butler’s wine vaults on the site of the old butter bench on the south-west corner of Carfax can be seen on a bill-head of 1837 reproduced on p. 28 of the book Oxford Shops and Shopping. The bill-head reads:
Next Town Hall
O x f o r d
BOUGHT OF W. H. BUTLER
Importer of Foreign Wines & Spirits
and Dealer in
British Compounds & London Bottled Porter
Casks, Bottles & Hampers if not returned will be charged 1s. per gallon
Empty casks & Bottles to be kept tight corked
His eldest son Edwin was destined to take over the wine business, while his second son Robert Jackson Butler was matriculated at the University of Oxford by Brasenose College on 21 February 1838.
Soon after serving as Mayor, Butler moved to a large house in Iffley, held by lease under Lincoln College. He only lived there for about four years, and on 14 December 1839 Jackson's Oxford Journal reported the forthcoming auction of this house, describing it as follows:
A valuable LEASEHOLD ESTATE, pleasantly situated on an eminence facing the meadows, at Iffley, commanding interesting views of the River Thames, the picturesque surrounding scenery, and nearly the whole of the magnificent buildings and spires of the University and City of Oxford, the genteel Family Residence now in the possession of Mr. Alderman Butler; comprising a handsome bow-windowed drawing room, size 18 ft. by 16 ft.; dining room, 16 ft. by 15 ft.; study, 16 ft. by 3 ft.; housekeeper's room, 13 ft. by 9 ft.; china closets, six good bed chambers, with convenient closets, kitchen larder, wash and brew-house, cellars, &c. The House is placed on a lawn, with iron palisading in front, surrounded with gardens neatly laid out, enclosed with lofty brick and stone walls, clothed with choice fruit trees; stabling for six horses, with lofts over, coach-house, a barn, yard, three pumps, and other necessary conveniences.
Opposite to the same are Two Paddocks and One Meadow, containing 3A. 2R. 30P.
Butler then moved to Headington, to a large house in Old High Street that was then known as Linden House and later as the Priory. He is listed there in the 1841 census with his first wife and three of their nine children (Edwin, Lucy, and Mary) and two servants. His older brother Thomas, who had been a carver and gilder and printseller in a shop in Oxford’s High Street, had already retired to Headington and lived in the Manor House with his wife Selina (the daughter of Rudolph Ackerman, who introduced lithography into Britain: he had married her on 29 January 1827). Mrs Selina Butler opened a ladies’ seminary at the Manor House in about 1836, and Butler’s daughter Octavia was boarding there as a pupil in 1841.
William's older brother Charles Butler, who had been elected Actuary of the Oxford Savings Bank in June 1840 and who lived at the top of St Aldate's Street at Carfax (possibly with William) died at the age of 45 in February 1842 and was buried at St Martin’s Church.
In 1843 Oxford Police Station was built on part of the site of William Henry Butler’s wine vaults at the old Butter Bench.
William Butler's first wife named Elizabeth died in Headington on 14 February 1844 at the age of 55, and was buried at St Martin’s Church in Oxford.
Butler’s business in Oxford continued to operate after he retired to Headington, and in September 1847 he was granted a council lease of nine wine vaults (formerly five), together with a counting house.
On 7 October 1847, Butler was described as being “of Headington” in the marriage notice in The Times of his daughter and the architect William Wilkinson Wardell at St Mary’s Catholic Church, Moorfields.
At the time of the 1851 census Butler, described as a magistrate and alderman, was still a widower and living in Headington. Two of his unmarried children were living with him: Edwin (33), who was described as a wine merchant and Octavia (22).
On 20 January 1852 at St Andrew's Church, Headington, his youngest daughter Octavia Butler married the Revd Robert Hake, Chaplain of both New College and the Warneford Asylum.
On 5 November 1853, Butler announced his retirement in favour of his eldest son Edwin in Jackson's Oxford Journal:
WILLIAM HENRY BUTLER & CO.,
BEG to acknowledge with gratitude the flattering preference which has for so many years been given to their carefully selected Stock of Wines, Liqueurs, and Spirits, and respectfully announce the retirement of Mr. W. H. BUTLER from the Wine Trade, which will in future be carried on by EDWIN BUTLER, and who is authorized to receive all accounts due to the late Firm.
Edwin Butler responded with his own advertisement immediately below, and described the address of the family business as “Counting House and Vaults, Carfax, Oxford”.
The last mention of William Butler in Headington is in a directory of 1854, and he seems to have spent some time in London around that time before moving to Hanborough (to the north-east of Witney) by mid-1856.
On 30 July 1856 at St Mary's Church in Haggerston, Shoreditch in London, William Henry Butler (65), described as a widower and a gentleman of Hanborough, married his second wife Elizabeth Gibbs (31), who was then living in Haggerston and was described as a spinster. Born in St Clement's, Oxford, Elizabeth was the daughter of the stonemason & sculptor John Gibbs and his wife Alice of George Street (now Cave Street) and had been baptised at St Clement’s Church on 7 May 1824 (followed by her brothers John Gibbs in 1826 and Henry Wilkins Gibbs in 1831).
Elizabeth had given birth a child before marriage, Bessie Alice Gibbs, who was born on 25 August 1854 and baptised at St Luke's Church in Chelsea on 8 September. Elizabeth named Bessie's father as William Gibbs, the Captain of a vessel.
After their marriage William brought his new wife back to Hanborough together with young Bessie, who became known as Bessie Alice Butler, and their son was born there:
- William Henry Gibbs Butler (baptised at Hanborough on 28 June 1857).
In the 1861 census Butler (71), described as a J.P. and an Alderman of Oxford, was living at Park Cottage in Hanborough with his second wife Elizabeth (34), their children Bessie (6) and William (4), and two servants.
Butler remained on Oxford city council until his death.
† William Henry Butler died at Park Cottage, Hanborough on 11 October 1865 at the age of 75. He was buried in the churchyard of St Martin’s Church at Carfax with his first wife Elizabeth and their two daughters who died in infancy. Their tombstone is one of the few that remains at Carfax following the demolition in 1896 of the second St Martin's Church of 1820, and it lies in what is now the outdoor eating area of the café.
The inscription reads:
Blessed are they that are in the Lord
Here lies the body of Elizabeth
Wife of William Henry Butler
Born 6 March 1786
Died February 14th 1844
Also of
Caroline and Catherine Adelaide
Infant children of the above
William Henry Butler
Alderman of this City
Born February 24th 1790
Died October 11th 1865
Butler’s death notice in Jackson’s Oxford Journal reads as follows:
DIED, Oct. 11 [1865] , at Handborough, near Oxford, William Henry Butler, Esq., Alderman of this city, in his 76th year. He had been a member of the City Council more than half a century, having been elected one of the Common Council on the 30th of September 1815; Chamberlain in 1819; Bailiff in 1824; and the first Mayor under the Municipal Reform Act in 1836, and at the time of his death he was the senior member of the Council.
His effects came to under £2,000, and his executors were his son Edwin, who was described as a wine merchant, his second wife Elizabeth, and the architect John Gibbs, probably his second wife's brother.
His eldest son Edwin Butler outlived his father by only four years, and on 5 February 1870 Walter Sotham announced that he had taken over the Carfax wine vaults, having purchased the old-established wine and spirit business of the late Edwin Butler.
Butler’s widow Elizabeth (née Gibbs)and their son William Henry Butler junior
Less than three years after his death, on 25 April 1868 at St Paul's Church in Oxford, William Butler's second wife Mrs Elizabeth Butler nee Gibbs married her second husband Duncan Greening Anderson, a printer thirteen years her senior,
In 1871 the Andersons and William Henry Butler junior (14) were living at 22 Walton Crescent in St Thomas’s parish, and Elizabeth no longer had any servants.
Ten years later in 1881 they were living at 118 Bullingdon Road in east Oxford. Elizabeth's son William Henry Butler junior (24), a commission agent, was still living with them, but by the end of the year he was a librarian in Birmingham. He was a librarian living at 24 Charles Street in Oxford when on 27 December 1881 at Birmingham he married Sarah Elizabeth Gardner of Kings Sutton. Their son Hubert Duncan Butler was born at Charles Street and baptised at Cowley St John Church on 9 September 1883.
By 1891 Duncan Greening Anderson had retired, and he and Elizabeth (now aged respectively 79 and 66) were living at North View in New Marston.
Butler's children by his first wife Elizabeth (née Briggs)
- Edwin Butler (born 1817) who had carried on his father's trade, died at the age of 52 on 7 December 1869. He was described in his death notice as being of Carfax and Walton Manor.
- Jane Elizabeth Butler (born 1819) is hard to trace.
- Robert Jackson Butler (born 1820) obtained his M.A. in 1844. He described himself as a gentleman of London when on 18 October 1870 at the age of 50 he was married for the first time at St John's Whetstone Church, Finchley to Miss Jane Birley Baxendale (45), the daughter of Joseph Baxendale, Esquire, who was the head of the removal firm Pickfords & Co. At the time of the 1871 census Robert was living with his wife in his father-in-law's home at Woodside, Whetstone and described himself as the Secretary to the General Credit and Discount Company. The family had nine servants (a butler, valet, footman, cook, lady's maid, three housemaids, and a kitchenmaid). Robert Jackson Butler died two years later on 6 August 1873 at Ditchling in Sussex, and his effects came to under £4,000.
- Lucy Ann Butler (born in 1821) is hard to trace.
- George Morant Butler (born 1823) was a 27-year-old clerk at the Emigration Office at the time of the 1851 census and was living with a confectioner's family at 6 Charles Street, Westminster.
- Mary Ann Butler (born 1825) is hard to trace after the 1841 census.
- Octavia Frances Butler, Mrs Hake (born 1828) was living at 25 Green Court, Canterbury at the time of the 1861 census with her husband Robert Hake, who was a Minor Canon at Canterbury Cathedral) and their four sons William Robert Hake (7), Edwin Denys Hake (5), Lewis Francis Hake (3), and Ormond Butler Hake (1), plus their three servants. Octavia and her husband were at the same address in 1871, but by 1881 they were living at Stodmarsh in Kent and Robert Hake was now a Clerk in Holy Orders. Octavia died just after the census on 20 April 1881.
See also:
- Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 15 February 1817: Announcement of Butler’s first marriage
- Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 14 October 1865, p. 5a: Short obituary of Butler
- Account book of W. H. Butler when he was election agent of W. Hughes Hughes in 1826 (Bodleian Library MS.Top.Oxon.c.327)
- 1841 Census: Oxford (Headington), 877/01/36
- 1851 Census: Oxford (Headington), 1727/217
- 1861 Census: Oxford (Hanborough), 904/78
- 1871 Census: Oxford (St Thomas’s), 1441/033
- 1881 Census: Oxford (St Clement’s), 1498/11
- 1891 Census: Oxford (Marston & Headington): 1163/038
