BUTLER (BOTELER), Sir Philip (d.1592), of Watton Woodhall, Herts.

Butler’s family had been established in Hertfordshire since at least 1450 when a namesake was sheriff of the county. Butler’s own father was a deputy lieutenant, and Butler himself served with distinction in the Netherlands, receiving his knighthood from the Earl of Leicester. During the Armada he commanded the Hertfordshire lancers at Tilbury. During his only Parliament he was put on a joint committee (27 Feb. 1589) dealing with the Queen’s dislike of the purveyors bill, and he was appointed to the Common’s committee later that day to determine future policy over the bill. He was appointed to a committee on abuses in presentations to benefices, 20 Mar. 1589. After the end of the Parliament he took part in the Portugal voyage. He died v.p. in January 1592, and was buried at Watton Woodhall.1Vis. Herts. (Harl. Soc. xxii), 30; CP, vii. 239; Lansd. 62, f. 146; 69, f. 202; 80, f. 95; R. C. Strong and J. A. Van Dorsten, Leicester’s Triumph, 112; Rylands Eng. ms 311; Al. Cant. i(1), p. 273; D’Ewes, 440, 449; R. Clutterbuck, Herts. ii. 474.