William Butson



S. of William Butson & Margaret

William Butson
Bap. 5.1.1825 at Kenwyn, Cornwall, England (Born in Truro)
Occ. Miner/Road Worker/Labourer
Marr. Mary Elizabeth Brooming Sampson
Died in 1897 at Milton, NSW, Australia
Buried at Sandridge Cem., Mollymook, NSW


Children

William Henry
Caroline
Evangeline
Samuel John
Maria C.
Sarah J.
Caroline A.
Mary E.
Margaret E.
Lucy E.
Miriam E.
Phillip Edward Brooming
Fanny Asenath
Amos Ernest James


NOTE

Mary (1833-1896), of Bere Alston, Devon. Dau. of John Sampson & Ann Brooming. Caroline died aged 2 during voyage to Australia; Evangeline died aged 3; Samuel, a Carpenter marr. Sarah Ann Shepherd; Maria & Margaret both died in infancy; Phillip, a Salvation Army Officer & Farmer marr. Ida Bettens & Amos died in infancy.


"1851 Frog St Beerferris DEV with Mary and William age 10 mth arrived NSW "Rajastkan" 1855 assisted immigrant with wife; "Beautiful Burrill" Alexander McAndrew p.33 Land holdings in 1885 W Butson 140 acres;western end of west arm of Lake Burrill.gradually expanded to 705 ac "About 1918 our family moved from Yatte Yattah to...Romney Park" Jean Butson ibid p.59" (From Carol Booth)


After their first child the rest were born in New South Wales & Evangeline onwards they were born at Ulladulla, NSW.


The Butsons' are well documented as pioneers in the Shoalhaven area on the south coast of New South Wales. William Butson (1824-1897) and his wife Mary, nee Sampson (1831-1896) arrived in Sydney from England on the Rajasthan on the 11th January, 1855. They had one son with them, William Henry Butson aged 4 years. Their second child Caroline, aged 2, had died during the voyage. William Butson was a miner, and could neither read nor write. His wife Mary could both read and write. They quickly established themselves in the Milton-Ulladulla area where William is listed as being a roadworker and a labourer. He also had an orchard at Ulladulla where he grew the famous Golden Russet pear, which orchardists are currently trying to reproduce. The property, at Woodburn Road, was called Romney Park. The Landholders Index of 1885 lists W.Butson with 140 acres at Milton with 1 horse and 5 head of cattle.


William Butson (Snr) was born in Cheswater (possibly Chacewater near Truro) Cornwall, in 1824 and was christened at Kenwyn on 5th January, 1825. His parents were William (chr. 1796 Brannel, Cornwall) and Margaret Butson. His grandparents were John and Elizabeth Butson. William Butson's wife was Mary Elizabeth Brooming Sam(p)son, born in Bere Alston, Devon, in 1831 and christened on 17th March 1833. Her parents were John Sam(p)son and Ann Brooming. After their arrival in Australia, William (a Salvation Army officer) and Mary Butson had another twelve children:- Evangeline Butson (b.1855 d.1858), Samuel John Butson (b. 1857), Maria C.Butson (b. and d.1859), Sarah J.Butson (b. 1860), Caroline A.Butson (b. 1862), Mary E.Butson (b. 1864), Margaret E.Butson (b. and d. 1866), Lucy E.Butson (b. 1867), Miriam E.Butson (b. 1868), Phillip Edward Brooming Butson (b. 1871), Fanny Asenath Butson (b. 1872), and Amos Ernest James Butson (b. and d. 1875).


William Butson's youngest son Phillip Butson was also a Salvation Army officer early in his life, then turned to farming, eventually expanding the property at Romney Park to 705 acres. Phillip married Ida Ethel Bettens in 1904, and in 1920 he and his wife opened up a camping ground on their farm near Lake Burrill and catered for tourists. Phillip and Ida Butson had 4 children, and they hired out boats and sold oysters from their oyster leases. They were also known to foster children. Samuel Butson, William's second eldest son, was a carpenter by trade and married Sarah Ann Shepherd in 1881. They had 4 children.


The Electoral Roll for the Shoalhaven for 1878-1879 lists:- William Butson, residence, Ulladulla, Police District of Dowling. In addition to farming activities, later generations were well educated and supplied a number of teachers to the Education Department; Phillip and Ida Butson are credited with the establishment of Lake Burrill as a holiday location, where in addition to the camping grounds they constructed a boardng house which still stands. In later years this house was moved to the highway opposite the Lake Burrill Post Office. Phillip and Ida's eldest son Hartley Louis Butson (1905-1987, BUTSON, Hartley Louis, 06NOV1987, 82, Death, late of Milton), was secretary of the Ulladulla Fishermen's Co-op for 14 years from 1959, and their youngest daughter Jean Butson (b. 1912) became a teacher and taught at schools all over the state for 43 years. Jean started the original school at Lake Burrill, and retired as principal of Beauty Point Infants School in Sydney. Their second son Neil's daughter, Lorraine Butson, was working in the Post Office in Ulladulla in the 1950's, where I met her when I undertook a coach tour to the NSW South Coast with my mother in 1952. As an aside I might mention here the extraordinary coincidence that together with the fact that Lorraine Butson, granddaughter of Phillip Butson, and I had both been given the same first name, her grandmother and my mother (after marriage) both became Ida Ethel Butson! I can remember thinking as a child that there could never be another Lorraine Butson in Australia, but eventually it turned out that there are at least four!


William and Mary Butson's first son William Henry Butson (b. 1850) moved to Sydney and is first listed in the Sands Directory in 1885 as a fruiterer at 289 (or 280) Crown Street Sydney. On 11th May 1882, William Henry Butson was married in St.Mary's Roman Catholic Cathedral in Sydney to Julia Scanlan (b. 21st July 1856). No address is given in the Parish Register for either, but William's occupation is given as salesman, and it is believed that William became a Roman Catholic at the time of his marriage. Julia's parents were John Scanlan and Mary McCanna/McKenna. Sands Directory for 1887 shows William and Julia living at 202 Riley Street Sydney, only a short distance from William's fruit shop. In various Electoral Rolls William has his occupation shown as salesman although at different times he referred to himself as a collector.


Sometime after William Henry Butson and Julia Scanlan were married, William became a cabinet maker/carpenter. Their first son William Ernest Butson (called Ernie) was born in Sydney in 1882 and their second child a daughter Elsie May Butson was born 26th June 1885 in Surry Hills. William and Julia Butson travelled to Queensland in 1890 with their two children, and it is said that this was to allow William to work on the railway carriages then being built for the new Queensland railway system. I could not find any reference to William Henry Butson listed as an employee in the microfiche of "Persons Employed in the Railway Service in Qld - 1901", but he may have worked for a private firm building the carriages for the government. A search conducted by the NSW State Records Office of the "NSW Railway Employees Personal History Cards" found a reference to John Wilford Butson, William's youngest son (see below). William and Julia Butson stayed in Queensland for a period of approx. fifteen years returning to Sydney in 1905. The NSW Electoral Roll and Sydney Sands Directory show that they lived at 23 Rose Street, Sydney (now Chippendale) from 1906 until 1912, and then at 117 Wilson Street, Newtown. In 1916 William is listed as living at 6 Yaralla Street, Newtown, and then in 1919 he is shown as being a collector and living at 29 Wilson Street, Newtown. A further Sands Directory listing for 1918/19 shows W.H.Butson as living in O'Connell Street, Parramatta.


During the time that William and Julia Butson were in Queensland, four more children were born, Mary E. (May) Butson also listed as Mary Jane, was born 10th August 1888, Francis Edward Butson (Frank) born 6th December 1891, John Wilford Butson born 17th November 1893 (later listed as Wilfred John, and called Bill), and Lucy Evelyn Butson born 8th February 1896. William Henry Butson's death certificate lists an additional female child as deceased, but no records of the birth of this child have been found. This deceased child is not included on Julia Butson's death certificate. William Henry Butson died 17th December 1925 at 79 Regent Street, Newtown of chronic myocarditis, and was buried on 18th December 1925 in the Roman Catholic Section H. Plot 597 at Rookwood Cemetery. Julie Butson died 13th May 1927 at Newington State Hospital, Auburn, of senility and cerebral haemorrhage, and she was buried on 14th May 1927 also in the Roman Catholic section of Rookwood Cemetery. Julia's last address prior to this was 87 Burns Street, Newtown. Her death certificate shows Julia's mothers name as Mary McKeon.


William and Julia Butson's eldest son, William Ernest (called Ernie) Butson stayed in Queensland and was a jockey and horse trainer. While in Queensland, Ernie enlisted in the Army in 1915 for service in WWI. He was discharged in 1918 and returned to Australia. Ernie never married, and died of lung cancer on 15th July 1943. He was buried in his mother's grave at Rookwood Cemetery. It is after arriving back in Sydney from Queensland in 1905 that a number of foster children began to appear in William and Julia Butson's family. I have the details of two of these children. But very little is known about further foster children, and it is thought that they did not stay with the family for any length of time. The term fostered children is used loosely in this narrative as no evidence has been found that any of these children were legally adopted or fostered, neither has any record of payment to Julia Butson ever been discovered.


William and Julia's eldest daughter Elsie May Butson, married Charles Joseph Burke (later Bourke) on 25th March 1911, in Redfern. They had four children all born in Newtown; Veronica Mary Bourke born 17th April 1912, died 27th March 1971 (lung cancer), Charles Joseph Bourke born 1915, and Mavis Bourke born 17th January 1925. It is thought there was another daughter but nothing more is known about this child. Elsie Bourke died on the 28th May 1954 (diabetes) and was buried in her father's grave at Rookwood. Charles Burke died on 17th August 1956. Elsie and Charles also fostered children. Mavis Bourke ran away from home (so the story goes) and joined a circus. She subsequently had a son to one of the circus people, John Shields. The boy was born on the 5th February 1943 and was known as Lil' Johnny Bourke. He later took his father's name of John Shields and is currently one of the double bass players in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. William and Julia's second daughter Mary E. (or Mary Jane) called May, married Leslie J. Fisher also in Redfern in 1916, and they had three children, Ruby M. Fisher born 1917, Leslie F. Fisher born 1918, and Dorothy M. Fisher born approx 1920. May Fisher died in the 1950's. The second eldest son Francis Edward (Frank) Butson married Blanche Dibbs in Waverley in 1914, and they lived at 29 Wilson Street Newtown with William and Julia. Frank's occupation is given as a coach maker (carpenter/cabinet maker) and he was also said to have worked for the NSW Railways. Frank and Blanche had three children, Noel Francis Butson born 1916, Neville Joseph Butson born 1919, died 12th October 1996 (lung cancer), and Berwen Nellie Butson born 1922, died 21st December 1997 (lung cancer). Frank Butson died on the 22nd October 1949 in Marrickville, he was buried in the Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park, Botany, Roman Catholic Section 2, on 24th October 1949. Blanche Butson died on the 16th May 1973 and was also buried in the Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park, Botany, Roman Catholic Section 2, on the 18th May 1973.


The youngest son, John Wilford Butson (Bill), was said to have had talipes (a club foot). As previously mentioned, Bill worked for the NSW Railways and his job history is interesting. His personal history card shows that he commenced work on the 26th August 1917 as a fuelman in the Locomotive Branch at Eveleigh railway yards Sydney. Bill's rate of pay was 9/6 (nine shillings and six pence) per day and he continued in this position until 27th February 1928 when he was made a car (carriage) cleaner in the Electric Carriage repair shop. On the 15th April 1930 he was dismissed from his job for "idling his time on duty" but was restored to his position on 9th June 1930 after a successful appeal. Bill continued to work as a car cleaner until 23th October 1939 when he became an electrical mechanics labourer in the Mechanical Branch of the Railways. He retired from this position on 24th February 1960 with a final rate of pay of 9/3 (nine shillings and threepence) per hour, and his retirement rate was 7/9 per hour. Bill's personal staff card also shows that on 16th June 1955 he was awarded 2 guineas (£2.2.0 i.e. 2 pounds and 2 shillings) for a suggestion to "bolt in place coupe seat cushions in electric carriages". Bill did not marry, and died on 23rd October 1967 in Bondi Junction.The youngest daughter, Lucy Eveline Butson, married John Francis Gunning (Jack) in 1914, in Redfern. They had two children: John Francis Gunning Jnr. born 1914 in Paddington, and Mary M. Gunning (Maisie) born 1916, in Newtown. Lucy Gunning died on the 19th December 1962 in Sydney. The two known foster children were: (i). Walter Joseph Butson, (my father whose real name was Walter Henry James Sinclair, and who never legally changed his name to Butson; and (ii) Frederick Butson, who was born Frederick Cordery and who changed his name legally to Butson in 1954. I remember my father telling me he thought the Narrandera Butsons were related to "his" Butsons but I have not been able to find a connection. (By Lorraine Smith & given to me by Yvonne Tennant)

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