BUTLER, Edward (fl. 1645-60), of Almer, Dorset.

The Butler family came from Gloucestershire and Wiltshire, but by the early seventeenth century they had settled in Dorset, with two branches seated respectively at Handley on the Wiltshire border, and at East Almer, to the north west of Poole.16Hutchins, Dorset iii. 542. The identity of Edward Butler is at times confused, as by the late 1650s there was an Edmund Butler in Dorset, who was also a militia captain, and on occasion both men were named to the same local commissions.17A. and O. It is certain that the Cromwellian MP was the younger son of Thomas Butler of Almer, but little further personal information is known of him, except that he married Katherine, daughter of a Mr Cole of London.18Vis. Dorset 1677, 11-12; cf. Som. and Dorset N. and Q. xxix. 205-7. He may have been the ‘Edward Butler, gent’ whose children were baptised at Almer church between 1626 and 1635.19Regs. of Almer ed. E.A. Fry (1907), 12-14. Butler’s elder brother, Col. Robert Butler, was parliamentarian governor of Wareham in 1645, and the brothers served together in the garrison. In May 1645 Edward Butler wrote to Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper*, expressing his concern at army unrest at Wareham, adding that ‘I shall rejoice to see the business prosper in better hands, and shall deem it a mighty happiness to see my brother disengaged’.20PRO30/24/3/78. He also recommended for employment the radical, John Fry*, saying that it was ‘a prejudice to the state when three penny fellows shall be in places of honour and trust and men considerably more worthy left out’. This approach to Ashley Cooper, and Butler’s statement that he was ‘sorry that I came to Poole an hour too late to speak with you’, suggest that he was already well-acquainted with the turn-coat baronet.21PRO30/24/3/78.

After Pride’s Purge of Parliament and the execution of the king, the Presbyterian old guard in Dorset was reluctant to play its accustomed role in county government, and the way was open for minor figures, such as James Dewy I*, James Baker* and Edward Butler himself, to take up the reins of local power. Butler was added to the Dorset bench in November 1649, to the county assessment commission in December, and served as a militia captain from March 1650.22C231/6, p. 168; A. and O.; CSP Dom. 1650, p. 505. In May 1654 he was appointed to a Dorset commission for investigating piracy and in August he was made commissioner for scandalous ministers in Dorset and Poole.23CSP Dom. 1653-4, p. 275; C181/6, p. 33; A. and O. In response to the royalist rising led by John Penruddock in March 1655, Butler was one of the militia commissioners appointed to investigate royalist plots in Dorset.24SP25/76A, f. 14. In May 1655 he was entrusted with taking the oath of new justices in the county.25C231/6, p. 309. On 31 July 1655, Butler was appointed receiver-general of the state’s revenues in Hampshire, Dorset and Somerset, at a salary of £300 per annum.26TSP iii. 688; C66/2913; Bodl. Carte 73, f. 128. John Disbrowe*, the major-general for Dorset, valued Butler as a faithful lieutenant. In November 1655 Butler joined Dewy and others in investigating the petition of the Penruddock’s widow.27CSP Dom. 1655-6, p. 27. A month later Butler, Dewy and Baker were active as commissioners for securing the peace of the commonwealth; in January 1656 Butler was among the commissioners given specific instructions by Disbrowe to enforce measures against criminals, papists and scandalous ministers; and he was also ordered to suppress entertainments, profanity and drunkenness, as part of the general programme of ‘reformation of manners’ instigated by the lord protector.28TSP iv. 305; CSP Dom. 1655-6, p. 102.

From the beginning of the 1650s, Butler had been in close contact with the borough of Poole, which he seems to have served, perhaps as an agent, in conjunction with William Constantine*.29Poole Borough Archives, MS MA48, unfol. In October 1653, the mayor of Poole noted a £3 expense ‘delivered [to] Mr Butler for to retain three counsellors in London to have their advice of the lawful right we had to brewing money’; and in 1655 Butler was sent various letters from the corporation, and was paid £2 for ‘defending and prosecuting the town business’.30Poole Borough Archives, MS 29(7), unfol. In January of that year, Butler was also in contact with the Dorset parliamentarian, John Fitzjames*, about providing for impoverished soldiers in Poole, and other matters arising from the recent Parliament.31Alnwick, Northumberland MS 551, f. 16v. No doubt this existing connection with the borough, and his increasing importance in county affairs, encouraged Poole to elect Butler as their burgess in the second protectoral Parliament in the autumn of 1656. It is also possible that Butler benefited from the patronage of Ashley Cooper, Fitzjames’s ally, in this election.32Som. and Dorset N. and Q., xxix, 245; TSP iii. 688.

Butler arrived in Westminster promptly for the beginning of the Parliament, and was named to the committee of privileges on 18 September 1656.33CJ vii. 424a. In the first three months of the session he became involved in issues which reflected his local concerns. On 7 October he was named to committees on drunkenness and profanity and to consider laws on wages.34CJ vii. 435a-b, 443b. On 28 November he was named to a committee to prevent the election of delinquents into places of trust in corporations, and on 5 December, in the debate on the bill to suppress minstrels, he argued that they should be restricted to groups which served a useful purpose, such as the London waits.35CJ vii. 461a; Burton’s Diary i. 23. Butler was also a conscientious representative of his constituency. On 21 October 1656 he wrote to the corporation, reporting the affairs of Westminster, detailing proposed legislation for law reform, parish registers, the Spanish business and the ‘pressing debts of the nation’, and assuring them that ‘we are very tender generally of augmenting taxes on the country and hope [we] shall continue [so]’.36Poole Borough Archives, MS L4. On 17 February 1657 he again wrote to Poole, informing them that the debate on Naylor’s case had been superseded by the need to raise money for the Spanish war, and promising to help reduce the tax burden on the town: ‘though I doubt [not] it will be very difficult to get any abatement at this time ... yet I shall try’.37Poole Borough Archives, MS L5. The town accounts show that the mayor received at least one more letter from Butler before the end of the parliamentary session.38Poole Borough Archives, MS S105, unfol.

Butler’s views on religion were pronounced. He was appalled by the case of the Quaker, James Naylor, who was prosecuted for re-enacting Christ’s entry into Jerusalem in the streets of Bristol. On 6 December 1656 Butler castigated those who favoured leniency to Naylor: ‘it lies much upon your hands to vindicate the honour of God. This fellow has not only committed blasphemy himself; but, I fear me, caused many others to commit blasphemy’.39Burton’s Diary, i. 50-1. On 15 December he told the House that ‘the eyes of the whole nation are upon you in this business’, and he urged them to make an example of Naylor ‘to suppress the whole growth of that generation, whose principles and practices are diametrically opposite both to magistracy and ministry’.40Burton’s Diary, i. 137. Three days later he emphasised the need for legislation against Quakers in general: ‘in pity to these people’s souls, I desire there may be a law against them. Lenity may work upon some and severity upon others’.41Burton’s Diary i. 171. Butler’s hostility towards the Quakers may have had Dorset origins: in the same period he was listed as one of their principal persecutors among the local magistrates.42SP18/130, f. 46.

The evils of Catholicism also exercised Butler. On 22 October he was named to a committee to consider papists’ estates, and how revenues from them might be improved.43CJ vii. 443b. On 3 December 1656, when the bill for discovering and suppressing Catholics received its second reading, Butler supported a motion by Sir Gilbert Pykeringe* supporting outward conformity and opposing any attempt to make people suffer for ‘private opinion’, in what was probably a nod towards liberty of conscience.44CJ vii. 463b; Burton’s Diary i. 8. In the late spring of 1657 Butler’s views had become less temperate. On 29 May he claimed ‘I know where they have increased one hundred in a year, in one or two parishes. They keep up another jurisdiction against you’; and he challenged the Commons: ‘will you suffer the limbs of Antichrist to grow rich within your bowels?’45Burton’s Diary, ii. 152. Butler’s anti-Catholic stance may have been motivated in part by profit, as he was now receiver-general of the revenues in the southern counties, and stood to gain from a rigorous enforcement of the recusancy laws. Thomas Burton* had his suspicions, noting that ‘Mr Bedford and Mr Butler are both receivers, and help to drive on the business for the benefit of the auditors’.46Burton’s Diary, i. 117.

Butler was certainly involved in a wide range of financial matters during this Parliament. On 25 October he was named to a committee to consider improving the excise levied on beer, and on 1 November he was named to the committee on a bill concerning the recovery of small debts.47CJ vii. 445b, 449a On 9 December 1656 he argued that Parliament must honour the public faith debts incurred during the 1640s, as ‘the [Long] Parliament’s debts are your debts’.48Burton’s Diary i. 94. On 20 December he joined those calling for two days a week to be set aside for public business, and he called for private business to be suspended a few days later.49Burton’s Diary i. 191, 292. Butler appears to have supported Disbrowe and the army interest in factional politics. On 25 December, when the militia bill was introduced, he criticized the prevarication of the House over whether to debate it or not, calling for an immediate question ‘whether a tax bill shall be brought in to lay a tax upon the cavaliers’.50Burton’s Diary i. 237. He is not listed among the ‘kinglings’ in March 1657, and may have joined the army interest in abstaining or voting against the offer of the crown to Oliver Cromwell*.51Narrative of the Late Parliament (1657), 22 (E.935.5). In what may be further evidence of Butler’s continuing sympathy with the armed forces, on 28 May he moved that Robert Blake*, the victorious naval commander, should receive a jewel worth £1,000.52Burton’s Diary, ii. 144.

When the Parliament was reconvened in January 1658, Butler played only a minor role, becoming involved (3 Feb.) in the dispute over committing the Humble Petition to a grand committee.53Burton’s Diary, ii. 372, 436. Although he continued to sit on local commissions, in the last years of the protectorate Butler’s influence in Dorset seems to have waned. During this period, Butler may have drawn closer to the broadly-based party led by Ashley Cooper, which was antagonistic towards the army’s influence at Westminster. Butler had already defended Ashley Cooper against Captain John Arthur’s allegations in Parliament in December 1656, reminding the House that the former royalist ‘has done you good service’.54Burton’s Diary, i. 204. In March 1657 he was signatory of a certificate on behalf of the wife of Thomas Fitzjames, the cavalier brother of Ashley Cooper’s ally, John Fitzjames*.55CSP Dom. 1656-7, p. 319. By the 1659 elections other former associates of Major-general Disbrowe, including James Baker*, had also joined the Ashley Cooper affinity, but it is unclear where Butler stood. With the collapse of the protectorate, Butler continued to be involved in the local administration and was appointed a militia commissioner in July 1659.56A. and O. Ashley Cooper was treated with suspicion by the restored Rump, and in August 1659 Butler and John Whiteway* were (perhaps reluctantly) involved in investigating allegations made locally against him.57CSP Dom. 1659-60, p. 160. In January 1660 Butler was made an assessment commissioner, and he was included in the militia commission appointed on 12 March.58A. and O. Butler’s activities after the Restoration are obscure. There is no record of a surviving will, or of the activities of Butler’s descendants.