1. Neither the family name of Stephen Butler's wife nor any other
particulars respecting him have been ascertained, except the record of
the births of his children, which is extracted from the city registers
of Boston, formerly kept in the Old State House. As he became a
father in Boston within little more than twenty years after its first
settlement, it may be presumed that he was an emigrant from Europe.
2. Benjamin Butler. The different dates in this and similar cases
denote the births of different children bearing the same name; the
former in all probability died before the birth of the latter.
3. James Butler probably died before 1692, if the Grace Butler, married
to Andrew Rankin, April 15th, of that year, by Simon Bradstreet, was
his widow.
4. Information as to the kindred of Abigail Eustice may doubtless be
found in the public records of Boston.
5. James Butler was a proprietor in a rope-walk at West Boston; was
married April 6, 1710, by Rev. E. Pemberton of the Old South. He was
probably admitted to the First Church Jan. 24, 1703-4. A folio Bible
with Clarke's annotations, now in my possession, as an heirloom from
my father and grandfather, bears the name of this James Butler, my
grandfather's grandfather, and the date 1713, doubtless written by his
own hand.
6. Grace Butler was married Dec. 26, 1706, to Thomas Jackson, by
Benjamin Wadsworth, minister of the first church. She had several
children, Grace, Thomas, and Elisabeth, and died March 15, 1759.
7. Eliza Butler was admitted to the first church Nov. 25, 1706, and was
married to Capt. Ephraim Savage, Jan. 8, 1712. Nothing further is known
of her.
8. James Butler was by trade a goldsmith. About 1750 he removed to
Halifax, Nova Scotia, but proving unfortunate in his enterprise, soon
returned to Boston. He afterwards lived awhile in Sutton, Ms., but died
in Boston, in 1776, aged 63.
9. Although I have abstained from full details of collateral lines, I
am constrained to give them respecting Elisabeth Davie, since her line
of ancestry is so long.
John Davie of Exeter, Eng. = = Julian Strode.
|
|-------------------------|
| |
John. Mary, = = Humphrey, a London
| merchant.
|
|------------------------------+---------------|
| |
John, removed from = = Elisabeth Richards. Ann, d. Sept.
London and settled | 12, 1662.
in Groton, Ms., 1662. |
|
|--------------+------+--------------+---------+---------+---------|
| | | | | |
(a) John, graduated (b) Humphrey of Mary. William. Elisabeth. Sarah.
at Harvard,1681, Dorchester, = = (c) Hannah Gedney.
became baronet |
in 1713, presented |
books to Yale College. |---------|
|
Elisabeth, d. Feb. == (8) James Butler.
15, 1739.
(a) The lineage of this nobleman, his heraldic emblazonings and the
like, may be found in Burke's Peerage of England; "vix ea nostra voco."
(b) Humphrey Davie was a captain in the London trade. Hence his
daughter had many fine dresses. One of these now belongs to her
granddaughter, Mrs. Sarah Kingsbury of Oxford, Ms.
It is of brocade, with many-colored figures embroidered upon a ground
of green. It has two skirts, each of seven breadths, a long bodice
to be worn with a satin stomacher, sleeves short at the elbows, with
flowing ruffles. A silver tabby christening, or to use a better
expression, _baptismal_, blanket, now in my possession, is said to
have been made of another of my great-grandmother's dresses. There is
a family tradition that these dresses were pawned by her husband after
her death, and redeemed by her son.
(c) Hannah Gedney's lineage so far as I can trace it is as follows;
John Gedney, b. 1603; d. Aug. 5, 1688; == Mary ----.
admitted to church in Salem, Nov. 19, 1637. = = Catherine ----.
|
|------+--------+------------+--------+----|
| | | | |
Sarah. Eli. Bartholomew, Eleazer. John, lost at sea, = = ----.
baptized, June |
14, 1640, |
Freeman,1669; d. |
March 1, 1698. |
|
|------------------------------------------------|
|
William, b. 1668; m. 1690; d. 1730. = = Hannah Gardner.
|
|
|
Hannah, == (b) Humphrey Davie.
10. James Butler was brought up to the trade of a hatter; was married
May 10, 1763, by Rev. Andrew Eliot of New North Church; in Aug.,
1774, fled with his wife and six children under ten years of age, to
Georgetown, Me., a four days' voyage. He was driven to this flight by
the Boston port-bill, which brought all business to a stand. After
remaining four years in Maine, he returned to Boston, and soon removed
to Oxford, Ms.; where he resided till his death, Dec. 20, 1827, aged 88.
11. Mary Sigourney was great-granddaughter of a Sigourney, who, being
a Huguenot, fled from Rochelle in France, with his wife and four small
children, in 1685. This first emigrant was among the first settlers
in Oxford, Ms., and some of his children married there. Through fear
of Indians, he removed to Boston. I have made out an extensive table
of his posterity, but on account of its length, must refrain from
inserting it here, except so far as relates to my own family. Among
the descendants of this Huguenot exile, are the Brimmers, the Inches,
and the Dexters, of Boston; the Commander of the Schooner Asp, killed
by the British in the Potomac, in 1813; and the husband of our most
popular poetess.
---- Sigourney, = ----.
|
|-----------------|
|
Andrew, m. ab. = Germaine ----.
1701, at Oxford. |
|
|---------------------|
|
Anthony, b. Boston, Aug. 17, 1713, =[W]Mary Waters.
|
|
|-----------------------------------|
|
(11) Mary, b. March 23, 1741; m., May 18, 1763; = (10) James Butler.
was early taught French by her grandmother,
as the tongue of her ancestors;
consulted by Dr. Holmes as to Huguenot
annals; had the covenant propounded to
her at the New North church, Feb. 22, 1761.
12. James Davie Butler was born in Boston, Oct. 5, 1765. In 1786, left
a school he was teaching in Oxford, to be a volunteer against Shays.
Emigrated to Rutland, Vt., in Aug., 1787; was at first a hatter; in
1792, became a merchant, and continued in trade fifty years, till his
death, June 3, 1842.
He was married, Aug. 22, 1802, to the widow Rachel Maynard, and March
15, 1827, to Lois Harris. He represented the town of Rutland in the
Vermont Legislature, for the years 1812 and 1813. In the year 1814, he
was a member of the State Council.
His first wife was daughter of Capt. Israel Harris of Williamstown,
Ms., who went with Ethan Allen's Green Mountain Boys to take
Ticonderoga, and was an officer in the battle of Bennington.
13. This infant of days may be noticeable as being the seventh of those
who, in one unbroken line during one hundred and eighty-one years, have
born the name of James.