Rev. Duke Butler

Profile & Legacies Summary

1723 - 1780

Biography

Anglican clergyman, of Okeford Fitzpaine in Dorset. He and his brothers inherited from their father Thomas Butler of Camberwell (q.v.) the New River and Grove estates on Nevis that had belonged to their grandfather Capt. Thomas Butler (whose will was proved in 1687). The brothers reportedly sold the New River estate in 1745 to William Clarke of Camberwell [their brother-in-law] and John Hooker of Portsmouth, while Duke Butler's children (including Rev. William Butler, q.v.) held his share of Grove in 1785: in the 1830s representatives of Duke Butler claimed compensation for the enslaved people on Grove under mortgage deeds of 1794, implying they had sold the estate and taken back a mortgage on the estate and the enslaved people attached to it.

Son of Thomas of Camberwell, Surrey, gent. Queen's College [Oxford] matric. 14/06/1740 aged 17, BA 1744.

Sources

Terry Townsend, 'The slave-owning vicar of Okeford-Fitzpaine', http://www.blackmorevale.co.uk/slave-owning-vicar-Okeford-Fitzpaine/story-28340933-detail/story.html [accessed 24/02/2016]; Vere Langford Oliver, History of Antigua Vol. I 'Pedigree of Butler' p. 93. To date no will has been found for Rev. Duke Butler.

Ancestry.com, Oxford University Alumni, 1500-1886 1715-1886 Vol. I [database online].

Further Information

Absentee?

British/Irish

Spouse

Mrs Mary Freke

Children

Thomas; James; William; Mary; Jane

University

Oxford (Queen's) [1740-1744 ]

Occupation

Clergyman

Religion

Church of England

Associated Estates (1)

The dates listed below have different categories as denoted by the letters in the brackets following each date. Here is a key to explain those letter codes:

SD - Association Start Date
SY - Association Start Year
EA - Earliest Known Association
ED - Association End Date
EY - Association End Year
LA - Latest Known Association

1744 [SY] - 1780 [LA] → Joint owner

Grove Estate [ Nevis ]

Legacies Summary

Physical (1)

Country house

Old Rectory, Okeford Fitzpaine [Built]

Details

description →

OKEFORD FITZPAINE GREENHAYES (WEST SIDE) ST 8010 15/135 The Old Rectory (previously 4.10.60 listed as 'Rectory') - II House, mid C18 for Rev Duke Butler. Rendered above rubble plinth. Tiled roof with...