BUTTON, John I (c.1596-1665), of Buckland, nr. Lymington, Hants.

The Button family, who could trace their lineage at least as far back as the reign of Henry III, had settled in Alton, Wiltshire, by the end of the fifteenth century.38Berry, Pedigrees of Hants, p. 33; Wilts. Vis. Peds. 1623 (Harl. Soc. cv-cvi), 33. John Button’s great-grandfather William Button† (d. 1547) and grandfather William Button† (d. 1591) both sat in Parliament for boroughs in the county.39HP Commons 1509-1558. While the latter caused dissension by settling the bulk of his lands on his second son William Button, father of Sir William Button†, our MP, who lost his father John Button of Upavon in 1601, was the chief recipient of the rest of the family’s property following the deaths successively of his other, childless, uncles Sir Ambrose Button† (the eldest), Edward Button and Henry Button.40Wilts. Vis. Peds. 1623, 33; PROB11/122/619; PROB11/140/338; HP Commons 1604-1629. From the last this Member inherited early in 1624 the seat at Buckland, and the bulk of the estate in Hampshire, while a few months later the death of his mother freed his Wiltshire land from her dower.41PROB11/143/392; PROB6/6, f. 78v; PROB11/144/96.

Button’s inheritance and his marriage in 1622 to a sister of Thomas South† of the Middle Temple and Northleigh enabled him to assume a prominent place amongst the Hampshire elite, and in 1625 he was appointed to the commission of the peace.42C231/4, f. 176. The same year he was unanimously returned to Parliament for Lymington, where his brother-in-law South was recorder (and had been MP in 1604) and where his uncle Henry Button had been mayor in 1622. He made no impression on the records of the Parliament.43HP Commons 1604-1629. Like some other leading Hampshire gentlemen, he paid the Forced Loan in 1626 after expressing initial reluctance, for which he was temporarily put off the county bench.44Hants RO, 44M69/G4/1/36/9; G4/1/42, 53; 44M69/G5/32/17; 44M69/G5/33/22; 44M69/G5/42/5; Add. 5669, f. 88; Portsmouth Recs. ed East, 352; Add. 21922, ff. 5, 62, 110, 151v, 166v; Add. 26781, ff. 17v, 66; C181/4, ff. 17v, 49v. He remained active as a burgess of Lymington, despite not standing again for Parliament that decade, and fulfilled numerous regional public offices.45Hants RO, 27M74/DBC2, ff. 11, 20, 23, 34v, 40v.

When Button compounded for knighthood in 1630, he was reckoned able to pay the substantial sum of £25.46Add 21922, f. 176v; Cornwall RO, ME 2886. His social status was further enhanced by his second marriage, in 1632, to a daughter of Sir William Oglander, head of one of the county’s most powerful gentry families, although he may not have gained financially since his bride was the widow of Dr William Thorne, dean of Chichester, and brought with her only limited property in Sussex.47I.o.W. RO, OG/Z/11-13. At least initially, the union may not have been particularly happy. Writing to her brother Sir John Oglander† in March 1633, Button’s wife remarked that ‘my other husband was more kind, loving, and indulgent to me than this one ever was or will be’; admitting ‘I did not like Mr Button when I first saw him’, she explained that ‘your highly extolling him made me love him, for upon my faith I would have married no man living without your approbation and good counsel’.48I.o.W. RO, OG/CC/12.

By the mid-1630s, Button was an obvious candidate for the shrievalty, and once appointed in 1636 he was responsible for collecting Ship Money in the county. While he professed zeal for this service, and there is no evidence of significant political disaffection, he could not match enthusiasm with efficient collection, and his pleas for extra time to complete the task fell on deaf ears.49I.o.W. RO, OG/BB/348; Haskell, ‘Ship Money in Hants’; CSP Dom. 1636-7, pp. 436, 469; 1637, p. 172; 1637-8, p. 166. Active in local administration throughout 1640, as a deputy lieutenant he arranged the collection of coat and conduct money and organised Hampshire men for the second bishops’ war.50Add. 26781, ff. 72, 89; Add. 21922, f. 220.

It is probable that Button did not seek election in spring 1640, but when he offered his candidacy at Lymington later in the year, he was returned in first place.51Hants RO, 27M74/DBC2, f. 35v. It is likely that he was more active in the county than at Westminster, however. Prior to the outbreak of civil war he was named to just one minor Commons committee on private business (4 Jan. 1641), although he was called on to send down orders to Hampshire justices relating to the publication of parliamentary orders, and was present on 3 May 1641 to take the Protestation.52CJ ii. 62b, 133b; I.o.W. RO, OG/AA/30, unfol.

By the middle of June 1642, while his cousin Sir William Button adhered to the king, John Button was in Hampshire to assist in the implementation of Parliament’s Militia Ordinance; he was among the deputy lieutenants who on 21 June signed an optimistic letter on the subject to their lord lieutenant, Philip Herbert*, 4th earl of Pembroke.53LJ v. 156b. In August he was active in seeking to prevent supplies from reaching the royalists in the strategic garrison at Portsmouth, and in September he received the Speaker’s permission to transport ‘a great saddle’ and ‘a case of pistols’ to Southampton.54I.o.W. RO, OG/BB/463; NBC/45/16a, p. 427; CJ ii. 760a. Evidently a key parliamentarian in the region during this initial phase of the conflict, being named to successive commissions, Button reported with Edward Hooper* to Commons’ leader John Pym* regarding his activities and the county’s military requirements, and made recommendations regarding nominations to the county committee.55A. and O.; HMC 10th Rep. vi. 91. His zeal for the war effort was reflected in his appointment before May 1643 as captain of the garrison at Hurst Castle; by that autumn he held the rank of colonel.56A. and O.; HMC Portland, i. 131. Allegedly, he refused to approve the release from prison of his royalist brother-in-law, Sir John Oglander.57Royalist’s Notebook ed. Bamford, 107. On 24 January 1644 the lord admiral alerted the Lords to a letter he had received from Button and Thomas Carne, the earl of Pembroke’s deputy on the Isle of Wight, requesting the retention of a warship to provide security to the island ‘and those places’.58LJ vi. 390b.

During the first civil war his appearances at Westminster were rare. He took the Solemn League and Covenant (2 Nov. 1643), but most of the other evidence indicating his attendance reveals his preoccupation with local affairs. He was appointed to the committee to consider a petition from the Isle of Wight (15 Mar. 1643), to the committee on Portsmouth (4 Nov. 1643), and to the committee relating to funding Hampshire’s forts and garrisons (9 May 1644).59CJ iii. 1a, 299a, 302a, 486b. Occasionally, his presence was required at the Committee of Both Kingdoms in order to discuss Hampshire business.60CSP Dom. 1644, pp. 147, 154; CJ iv. 33b. On 20 June 1644 he was named to the body entrusted with implementing parliamentary ordinances in the Isle of Wight during the absence of the governor, the earl of Pembroke.61CJ iii. 537a. On at least one occasion his absence from the Commons was excused on the grounds that he was ‘in service’ (5 Feb. 1644), and his letters from the Isle of Wight reveal that the persistent royalist threat in the area necessitated his presence.62CJ iii. 389b; Bodl. Tanner 62, ff. 515-6, 524 Only very rarely was Button nominated to committees on matters of wider importance, as in June 1644, when he was appointed to consider the ordinance for prohibiting the export of wool.63CJ iii. 523b.

Button’s military career appears to have ended with the creation of the New Model army and the disappearance of the royalist threat in Hampshire. Thereafter he devoted more attention to Westminster, although his focus was less on the Commons, where his committee appointments remained rare, than on the new Star Chamber Committee of Irish Affairs, appointed from both Houses, to which he was added on 24 July 1645.64CJ iv. 197a, 217b. Button is known to have attended this cross-party committee frequently in July and August 1645, March and April 1646, and September 1646.65CSP Ire. 1633-47, pp. 408-9, 412, 440-1, 446, 514, 516. His periodic absences were to attend meetings of the Hampshire county committee.66Add. 24860, ff. 134, 136, 139, 145.

From the autumn of 1646 evidence regarding Button becomes scarcer, both inside and outside Parliament. Most references to him in the official records indicate his absence from Westminster. Granted leave on 22 February 1647 to go into the country, he was noted as absent at a call of the House on 9 October, as among those sent to Hampshire on 23 December to effect the collection of assessment money, and again as absent on 24 April 1648, before being appointed to the committee to consider the affairs of the county (11 Aug.). 67CJ v. 93a, 330a, 400b, 543b, 667a. His absences appear to have gone unpunished, perhaps partly because of the illness which led to his being excused again on 26 September.68CJ vi. 34b.

It is also possible, however, that Button’s low profile reflected disillusionment arising from the emergence of radical politics. He was evidently perceived to have been inclined towards political Presbyterianism, and to a negotiated settlement with the king on lenient terms, since he was secluded at Pride’s Purge in December 1648.69A List of the Imprisoned and Secluded Members (1648, 669.f.13.62). He appears to have retained his place on the Hampshire bench until July 1650, but in contrast to his son John Button II* he was omitted from all local commissions during the 1650s.70C193/13/3, f. 56v; C231/6, p. 190; A. and O. That he was still regarded as a leader of the godly is attested by the dedication to him, with John Bulkeley* and John Hildesley*, of a work deploring the spiritual ignorance of the general population written by William Gearing, ‘minister at Lymington’, and published at the beginning of 1659.71W. Gearing, The Arraignment of Ignorance (1659), sig. A2 (E.1760.1). That he continued to move in Presbyterian circles is revealed in the will drafted that December of Richard Whithed*, who named as his overseers his ‘good friends’ Button and Bulkeley, together with his son-in-law – and convert from Independency – Nathaniel Fiennes I*.72PROB11/313/504.

With his more recent record of public service, it was Button’s son John who represented Lymington in the Parliament of 1659. There is no clear sign that Button himself took his place in the restored Long Parliament, following the readmission of the secluded Members in February 1660, but it was perhaps he who was added to the commissioners for the New Forest on 1 March.73Grand Memorandum (1660, 669f.24/37); CJ vii. 856b. Contrary to what has sometimes been suggested (including in the 1660-90 volumes of The History of Parliament), it seems to have been Button senior – unusually at this period of a more conservative cast of mind than his son – who sat in the Convention.74HP Commons 1604-1629; HP Commons 1660-1690. Once again a justice of the peace, it was almost certainly he who was named to local commissions after the Restoration.75A Perfect List (1660), 49; SR.

Button drew up his will in May 1663, naming John Hildesley and Henry Whithed† among his executors. By this time his son John was apparently dead and his grandson, also John Button† (?1655-1679), was therefore his heir, although the bulk of his estate had already been settled.76Hants RO, A1666/016. Button senior was buried at Lymington on 7 March 1665, and was survived by his wife Amy.77Berry, Pedigrees of Hants, 33; PROB11/324/184. His grandson, who in 1678 married Whithed’s daughter Anne, was twice elected Member for Lymington in 1679.78Hants. RO, 8M56/42/1; 5M50/2040; HP Commons 1660-1690.