Jonathan Butcher, [email protected]
[updated 1 January 2014]
Debenham lies in Loes District, about five parishes southwest of Wilby, about midway between Wilby and Stowmarket. The family of Giles Butcher and descendants is found there from at least the 1630s. I have not researched this family in any detail, but provide some notes based on correspondence (notably from Adrian) and parish records now available on the excellent debenhamfamilyhistory.org.uk site. I have not examined the original register of Debenham.
The first Giles Butcher in Debenham
looks to have come from Polstead, on the southern
edge of
i. Margaret2, bp. 28 Oct. 1571 Polstead
ii. Giles, bp. 8 Mar. 1572
iii. Edmund, bp. 4 Dec. 1575
iv. John, bp. 1 June 1578
v. Edmund, bp. 20 Oct. 1581.
The Giles2 Butcher bp. in 1572 then appears to have had (the last by wife Elizabeth):
i. John3, bp. 20 Apr. 1600 Polstead
ii. Giles, bp. 17 Apr. 1603
iii. Giles, bp. 30 Oct. 1608 (see below)
iv. Thomas, bp. 19 Jan. 1611
Giles3 (I) Butcher of Debenham is the right age to be the one bp. Polstead 1608. He appears in Debenham on the 1638 list of Able Men of Suffolk and is apparently also there on the 1674 Hearth Tax. Giles mar. in Debenham on 1 Oct. 1633 Susan Daldy, who was bur. 26 Jan. 1658. Giles Butcher, widower, married secondly widow Frances Tiddeman “of Wettlesham” in Debenham on 20 June 1657. She was bur. 20 or 3 Oct. 1688. My correspondent suggests that Giles died about 1680.
There are apparently gaps in the record of Giles’ children in the Debenham register, but they appear to have included the following:
i. William, bp. 9 Aug. 1639 Debenham, bur. 2 Feb. 1658
ii.
iii. probably Giles, b. abt. 1655 (see below)
iv. Mary, bur. 19 Jan. 1658.
Giles4 (II) Butcher, of Debenham, likely son of the previous, was likely born about 1655 and married in Debenham 16 June 1685 Mary Allen. There was a Giles Butcher bur. in Debenham 2 May 1715, likely him. However, there was also a Giles Butcher bur. Worlingworth 17 Aug. 1718 (not otherwise found in the Worlingworth register). A Mary Butcher was bur. in Debenham 28 Nov. 1729. Issue:
i. Giles5, bp. 14 Feb. 1685/6 Debenham (see below)
ii. Thomas, bp. 28 Jan. 1687/8 (see below)
iii. Marie, bp. 14 Nov. 1689
iv. John, bp. 24 Mar. 1692. Sarah, wife of John Butcher was bur. Debenham 10 Feb. 1759. A John Butcher was bur. there 21 Dec. 1779.
v.
vi. child of Giles Butcher, bur. 6 Nov. 1697
vii. James, bp. 26 Oct. 1701 Debenham (see below)
viii. Robert, bp. 6 Dec. 1703, bur. 22 Nov. 1725.
ix. Anne, bp. 21 Aug. 1706; acc. to tree on Ancestry.com, she married Alexander Cooke in Bedingfield in 1743 (but perhaps that is her niece, dau. of Giles5?)
x. Honour, bp. 29 Nov. 1709, bur. 30 Oct. 1709
Giles5 (III) Butcher of Debenham, bp. 1686, appears to have married first in Offton Suffolk in 1709 Elizabeth Smith (Boyd’s Index). She is probably the Elizabeth Butcher bur. Debenham 8 Oct. 1713. His second wife was Sarah. Giles “the eldest” was bur. in Debenham 17 Nov. 1749; Sarah was bur. there 5 Sep. 1754. Children of Giles (III) included:
i. Benjamin6, bp. Debenham 24 Oct. 1717, bur. 27 Oct. 1717
ii. Thomas, bp.
Debenham 21 Sep. 1718, bur 21 Sep. 1718.
iii. Anne, bp. 22 Nov. 1719
iv. perhaps
Giles (IV) who married in Layham, Suff. (next to Polstead) on 6 Nov. 1754 Sarah
i. Giles7 (V), b. 15 Oct. 1755, bur. Debenham 15 June 1821, aged 65. Mar. there on 17 Apr. 1780 Susannah Harvey (1755-30 Jan. 1840) and left descendants.
ii. Sarah, bp. 22 Aug. 1756
iii. Hannah, bp. 23 Apr. 1758
v. Sarah, d. Giles & Sarah, bp. 17 Jul. 1743, bur. 23 Apr. 1745
vi. Mary (d. Giles & Sarah), bp. 41 Dec. 1745
Thomas5 Butcher of Debenham was bur. 14 Jan. 1717. He had the following children by an unknown spouse:
i. Mary6, bp. 2 July 1711 Debenham
iii. Joseph, bp. 19 May 1716
James5 Butcher, bp. Debenham 1701, could be the James Butcher bur. Debenham 31 July 1718. However, it also seems possible that he could be the James Butcher found in Bedfield, Hoxne District, two parishes to the east, with wife Mary. James Butcher, aged 73, was bur. Bedfield 7 Dec. 1780 (NBI2) – a little off from the James bp. 1703, but possible. Mary Butcher aged 62 was bur. there 21 Oct. 1766. He was one of several James Butchers with wife Mary in this time period, the records being difficult to separate (see accounts of the Wilby family and Henry-Mark Butcher families). James Butcher of Bedfield had the following children:
i. Mary, bp. 1 Aug. 1736 Bedfield (d. of James and Mary)
ii.
iii. James, bp. 3 Jan. 1740/1 (s. of James and Mary). Bur. Bedfield 19 Jan. 1792, aged 50 (NBI2).
iv. Sarah, bp. 30 Dec. 1743 (shown as d. of James and Elizabeth).
Much earlier in Debenham there was a John Butcher, tiler, of Debenham Market, who left a will dated 18 May 1573 and proven 22 June 1573 (Archdeacon of Suffolk wills, R24/360, W22/229). Despite these dates, the Debenhamfamilyhistory website shows John Butcher, tyller bur. on 18 May 1566. The will appoints his son Robert executor and leaves him a tenement in Debenham Market as well as lands held of the manors of Butley, Ely, and ____hall in Debenham Market. Also mentioned are the testator’s wife Alice, son Robert, daughter Winifred wife of William Cooper of Beccles(?), and daughter Elizabeth Butcher, along with a small bequest to Elizabeth Butcher, daughter of the late George Butcher of Stoke. Witnesses were Robert ffolkar, Robert Bonde, and Thomas Baton (?). Widow Alice Butcher was bur. on 7 Apr. 1576. The elder son was likely the Robert Butcher who mar. in Debenham on 7 Feb. 1563 Mary Sherffe.
I know nothing further of this family. However, there was an Elizabeth Butcher, dau. of George Butcher, bp. 8 Dec. 1560 Stoke by Nayland,
Suff. This is in extreme SW Suffolk on
the
A Giles Butcher who left a will in Rearsby, Leicestershire in 1614 does not appear to be directly related to this family.