The mother of all brick walls!

[JMB1943]

1. Have you considered Henry Butler, b. Chelsea, Q4 1837 ?

2. I have encountered exactly this situation with one of my GGF's, and I think that you may well find that HB was married, but not to Margaret McHale.

JMB

[Timbottawa]

Thanks JMB,

No, I hadn't considered that particular birth.  I have a database of 69 possible Henry Butler births for the period 1842-46 alone!  My Henry never claimed to be anything like that old - the oldest he ever claimed to be corresponded to a birth year of 1842.  And the problem is, if I were to order and receive the certificate, it would tell me nothing that I could say "this is the right one"!

When you say that Henry was married but not to Margaret, do you mean that he was previously married (before 1871), but left his wife to join Margaret?  This is, of course, a possibility - but I can't think of any way I could demonstrate this.  There are 53 Henry Butler marriages in the period 1865-69.  Only one of these is "Henry Thomas Butler" (to Ann Harriet Cansick), but I have that certificate, and Henry is not an actor, or artist, or anything else that my Henry subsequently claimed to be!  So it could be him, but I have no way of knowing.

Thanks for your ideas - more are welcome to break down this brick wall

[JMB1943]

Tomb,

1.  There is on the 1851 Census, one Henry Butler, 8 yrs, b. London, son of William/Eleanor; he has an older sister Eleanor, 10 yrs, b. London, Middx.  This gives 1843 as year of his birth.

We know that Chelsea is in Middlesex at that time period.

2.  There is on the 1861 (Scotland) Census, one Henry Butler, 18 yrs, b. London; occupation is billposter (circus/theatre/vaudeville ??). He has left his family.

JMB

[alandeighton]

Dear Tim,

GRO 1st qu. 1872 St Giles 1b 560

Born 29th December at 17 Little Queen Street
Henry William Butler, boy
Son of Henry Thomas Butler (occupation: actor) and Emma Butler, formerly Deighton.
The birth was registered by the boy's mother on 1st March 1872.

Emma Butler can be found in the 1871 census at 32 Tysoe St., Clerkenwell, living with a daughter, Ellen, age 2, born in Liverpool. Emma described herself as a 'professional actress', age 25, born in Blackfriars, Surrey, the head of the family and married.

In 1881 Emma appears at 24 Royal Terrace, Newington, with Ellen, now age 12, still born in Liverpool, and two sons: Henry W., age 9, and Charles E., age 1, born in Newington. Emma is now a dressmaker, age 37, born in Southwark, the head of the family, but now a widow.

By 1891 Emma is living at 72 Avenue Road, Camberwell, with Henry William, age 19, and Charles E., age 11, both born in Newington. Emma is now a mantle cutter, age 47, born in London, Blackfriars Road, the head of the family and still a widow.

Confusingly, Emma appears to have used her 'maiden' name when she had her children baptised: Ellen and Henry William at St Paul's, Walworth, on 22nd August 1873, when their address was 25 (not 24!) Royal Terrace. On this occasion, she is described in the register as a single woman. On 18th June 1884 she had another child baptised: Robert, born 1st June 1884; her address: 11, Carnaby St., and her profession: dressmaker. There is no mention of a father for any of these children.

All of these children, with the exception of Robert, who seems to have made no further appearances in the records, claimed on marriage that their father was Henry or Harry Butler:

Ellen (to Frederick Thomas Hunt, 1890) – Harry Butler, actor.
Henry William (to Margaret Elizabeth Smith, 1894) – Henry Butler, traveller, deceased.
Charles (to Lydia Sarah Kemp, 1901) – Henry William Butler, traveller.

Furthermore, Emma Butler died in 1917, aged 74, in Picton Street, Camberwell. Her death certificate states she was the widow of Henry William Butler, an actor (this information I have from a descendant of hers).

There are discrepancies here, but these are consistent with the children having had no real knowledge of what was probably a father, involved in a profession which at the time was not regarded universally as respectable, who had passed out of their lives while they were still very young.

An added confusion appears in the form of Emma Kate Butler, who married William James Clark at St. Paul's, Newington, on 19th March 1881, claiming to be the daughter of William Henry Butler (no indication of profession). Emma Kate Butler does not appear in any census returns under this name, but her great-granddaughter knows that she was brought up by Emma Butler, formerly Deighton, and this Emma Butler was a witness to her marriage.


Who was Emma Butler, formerly Deighton?

The only Emma Deighton who fits seems to be the daughter of William James Deighton (1798-1852, variously surgeon, apothecary and accoucheur to the parish of Bethnal Green) who was born on 29th January 1843 at 33, George Street (now Dolben Street, off Blackfriars Road) in Southwark. She was my father's great-aunt.

Other factors pointing to this link (in no particular order):
1.   Ellen Butler's husband, Frederick Thomas Hunt, was her cousin, the son of Emma's older sister Hannah.
2.   Emma Kate Butler claimed her grandfather was a doctor.
3.   Emma Kate claimed the entertainer Eugene Stratton was some sort of cousin. This is a fantasy (he was born Eugene Augustus Rühlmann in Buffalo, New York), but Emma Deighton had a sister Ellen who appears to have lived with a William Stratton and borne him three children, Strattons who therefore were indeed Emma Kate's cousins.
4.   For what it is worth, in 1849 Emma Deighton's oldest sister, Matilda, married James Lyddon Langabeer, who claimed to be a 'Professor of Dancing' and may have been identical with the Langabeer who played minor parts in plays at the Adelphi theatre in 1843 – another possible acting connection.

Unfortunately, Emma Deighton and Henry Thomas Butler do not appear to have been the marrying type.


So, Tim, were there two actors named Henry Thomas Butler? Or is this 'your' Henry Thomas? Was Emma 'that woman' who the aunts feared might turn up to the funeral in 1909? She was a 66 year old woman by then who appears to have earned her living as a mantle machinist at home. Somehow I suspect that even if she had learned of his death she wouldn't have been able to afford the trip north. So perhaps there was yet another woman!

Alan

[avm228]

Fascinating stuff, Alan

Was Emma Kate "Butler" the Emma Kate Deighton whose birth was registered Sep qtr 1862 Newington? It's consistent with her age at marriage (18 in March 1881).

Was your Emma Deighton/ Butler b 1843 the one enumerated in 1851 as a niece of Henry & Almira Chapman? If so then I think young Emma aged 8 and a George (5), both as DIGHTON, are with Almira in Newington in 1871: HO107/1565/363/2.

[alandeighton]

My Butler family informant is pretty certain that Emma Kate "Butler" is indeed Emma Kate Deighton born in Newington in August 1862. However, her parents are recorded as George Deighton and Emma Deighton, formerly Smith. George is a commercial clerk. Emma registered the birth. On 21st August 1866 they had her baptised at St Paul's, Newington, together with a son George Andrew. They were living at 33 Hill Street.

These children are probably related to "my" and Emma Butler's Deightons because in the 1871 census they are living (spelt Dighton) with Almira Chapman at 182 Hill Street. Over the years Almira  had housed various other Deightons on census nights, including Emma's sisters Ellen and Catherine. The Chapmans and the Deightons appear to have been neighbours in George Street when the latter first moved there from Bethnal Green.

If George Deighton snr. really existed he would have to be Emma Butler's cousin at the closest, but I know nothing about Emma's father's siblings. I would like to assume that George Deighton and the surname Smith were figments of Emma Butler's imagination designed to make her look respectable, but that is a baseless assumption that has no place in genealogical research!

[Timbottawa]

Hi Alan,

Thanks so much for that extremely comprehensive summary of Emma Butler, nee Deighton.  Fascinating!

It looks for all the world that the father of Henry William was my Henry.  And, intriguingly, if the birth was more or less at term, then conception was quite close to census night 1871, when my Henry was missing from his newly pregnant "wife".  What a lovely soap opera that could be!

So, could there have been two Henry Thomas Butlers (actors) busy getting young ladies pregnant in  London at the time?  There was almost certainly Thomas Henry (Sherwin) Butler in London (see this thread in September 2008).  He was 20 years old at the time and a possible candidate.  But then again, one hypothesis I have is that Thomas Henry Butler (actor) and Henry Thomas Butler (actor) are one and the same person!

I think the case is compelling that my Henry was being very naughty, having recently got Margaret pregnant, having a bit of a fling with another actress.

But is Emma "that woman", whose possible plans to turn up at Henry's funeral in 1909 caused my grandmother and great-aunts such distress?  I feel that is unlikely.  If Emma had continued to feature in the background of the family's life throughout the last 3 decades of the 19th century, I feel that some rumours would have come down through at least one of the lines, but I have never heard of this.  I've always felt that "that woman" was probably some young "hussy" who Henry moved in with after Margaret's death, and who was therefore looked down on by the family.

Please let me know if you manage to cast any further light on this.

All the best
Tim

[Timbottawa]

As we approach the 20th anniversary of this brick wall, and coming up to 18 years since I first raised it on RootsChat, I thought I would renew an appeal for advice and information.

Henry Thomas Butler was born in the 1840s (or possibly 1851), most likely in London (but no birth certificate has been found), and died in 1906 in Hartlepool.  He was an actor/theatrical manager/stage manager/comedian/artist.  He and his "wife", Margaret McHale, had 10 children, 7 of whom lived to adulthood, and spent almost all their professional life based in N.E. England.  No Butler-McHale marriage certificate exists.  Shortly after Henry and Margaret's first child was born in London, a son was born in London to Emma Deighton, an actress, who sometimes styled herself "Butler" (but no Butler-Deighton marriage certificate exists).  I believe that it has been demonstrated "beyond reasonable doubt" that the two children were both sired by Henry.

Shortly after the birth of these two boys, Henry and Margaret left London, never to return, all their other children being born in northern England.  I believe this was linked to the Deighton child - Margaret probably knew of/learnt of the birth and insisted that they distance themselves from London.

Henry and Margaret appear in the 1881 and 1891 censuses, and Henry in the 1901 census, shortly after Margaret's death.  Margaret also appears in the 1871 census, in Finsbury, as a married actress, boarding alone on census night.  I have not found Henry in the 1851, 1861, or 1871 censuses.

However ... an earlier post proposed that Henry Thomas Butler was actually born Thomas Henry (Sherwin) Butler, in Q1, 1851, to Edwin Henry Butler, a theatrical agent, who usually styled himself "Henry Butler".  Thomas Henry Butler is easily found in the 1851, 1861, and 1871 censuses, but thereafter disappears. 

The facts about Thomas Henry and Henry Thomas can be made to fit.  Thomas Henry is several years younger than Henry Thomas claimed to be, and 3 years younger than Margaret, but Henry Thomas may quite simply have inflated his age.  In the 1871 census, Thomas Henry appears as a married shipping clerk, but living with his parents and not with his wife on census night.  I had always assumed that Henry Thomas, being (or claiming to be) older than Margaret, was the one who got into theatre and then encouraged Margaret to become an actress, but possibly it was the other way round, if Margaret was indeed 3 years older.  She may even have appeared in a production put on by Thomas Henry's father, which is how they might have met.

I have almost convinced myself that Henry Thomas Butler is Thomas Henry Butler, but it is certainly not conclusive.  I would welcome comments and thoughts about whether I should indeed become convinced!

[DianaCanada]

Have you checked out the Thomas Henry Butler who died in Edmonton district in Dec 1874, age 23?