BUTLEIGH ANCESTRY, GENEALOGY AND FAMILY HISTORY

INTRODUCTION TO THE SITE

My wife and I came to Butleigh in 1979 from Germany, largely as a result of happenchance, never having visited this part of the world before. My parents and grandparents had their origins in Manchester and Yorkshire but on our arrival here, Butleigh immediately became 'home' to us – as if we had always been here. In the last decade or so I began a journey into the past to discover who my ancestors were and followed every line as far as possible. Like life itself, this path proved to be a winding one with several dead ends and many surprises – some pleasant, some not so. One maternal line in particular held the most interest in that a branch showed my descent from three of the children of Ralph Neville (1364 – 1425) who was an ancestor-in-common with the last squire of Butleigh, Robert Neville-Grenville, in part of whose house (Butleigh Court – shown here above in its prime circa 1906) I now live. My proven ancestry in this line goes even further back to Alfred the Great and more interestingly his grandfather, Ecgberht of Wessex who, in 801 AD granted 20 Mansiones (hides) at Butleigh to Eadgils, his minister of the West Saxons. The land was subsequently given to Glastonbury Abbey. In other words I have a link to this village that goes back over 1200 years, albeit with a 'small' break in the middle – an unexpected and surprising discovery!

Taking a break from my own family research I decided to look at the people who had inhabited Butleigh over the years, especially since many who could show several generations of descent in the village seemed to be fast disappearing. At first I thought that I would note the older houses in the village and list the owners and occupiers of each house from around 1837 to the present, and I therefore transcribed all the Censuses 1841 – 1901, not only for Butleigh but also for Kingweston. Unfortunately it wasn't possible to carry out this project since it was too difficult to identify specific properties on most of the censuses. I then decided, instead, to use the transcriptions to build up family trees for all the people listed and to discover what happened to the them during that period. I no longer included Kingweston in this research because the material accumulating was already growing too large and time consuming to acquire. It became more or less compulsory to record all Births, Marriages and Deaths from 1837, and since this coincided with the inception of Queen Victoria's reign, it seemed logical to add this information where possible (from the Free BMD site) to the census information (beginning in 1841), in order to give greater accuracy and allow researchers to easily acquire copies of BMD certificates from the GRO.

Where possible I followed all the people listed on the Butleigh censuses, even if they subsequently left Butleigh, and also tried to trace the origins of those inhabitants not actually born here. Next I expanded the search to all people who were living elsewhere but who claimed to be Butleigh born or could be shown to have lived in Butleigh at some time. At that stage it became obvious that I should also transcribe the Parish Registers and this I have done - Parish CMB records from 1578 to 1908, I didn't make as full a copy of some of the transcriptions as I should have done since they were originally made solely for the purpose of identifying the family relationships of their descendants post 1837. Some further checking is required and comparisons with the existing Bishops Transcripts. In 1677 Butleigh acquired a new vicar, John Radford, and for the next 37 years no Parish Records of Christenings, marriages nor burials seem to have been kept by him. However, from 1673 the churchwardens kept their Churchwardens Accounts which included some personal names during this period and help fill this important gap for genealogists. The accounts also provide an interesting view into village life during this period. [so far 1673-1714 only, shown in a basic form]. I have also transcribed the accounts of the Overseers of the Poor from 1673-1716 which I have incorporated into the main alphabetical files. Eventually I shall complete all the Churchwardens' and Overseers' accounts and similarly incorporate them too.

At the moment I am incorporating information from the Overseers accounts and the files are a little disorganized and not all family links are sorted – it is a work in progress!

The main file and information on this site contains all that I have discovered about these Butleigh People, taken from the above sources, and giving where possible information on christenings, marriages and burials from the Parish Registers plus, where possible, GRO references. Individuals who have made more in-depth studies into their family history have assisted me by sending additional information, particularly concerning people who emigrated. With trying to cover EVERY person with a Butleigh connection it is obviously beyond my resources to go into such detailed research for each and every Butleigh person. What started out as a limited study concerning the period 1837 – 1901 has since expanded and will eventually cover all Butleigh people of the pre-WW1 periods and a few thereafter.

Your attention is drawn to a major CAVEAT:- since this a work in progress, I have sometimes speculated on some of the family relationships/burials etc. in the pre-1837 period particularly where maybe there is insufficient evidence to guarantee a link. This information may surface from other sources; Wills, rent accounts etc., and will be amended in the future if found to be incorrect. Similarly, a few of the PRO references given may be erroneous since it is often the case that until one acquires the certificate one be cannot be sure, for instance, that one is dealing with the correct person's death, however likely it may seem to be the only one that fits all the facts. In this regard I shall be very grateful to anyone who uses this site who can correct, amend or add any material, if they would contact me at :

Many of the people who inhabited Butleigh in the late Victorian, and subsequent periods were photographed at some time and I would like to include images of as many of them as possible. Should you have any and are willing to share them with everyone, then please contact me. One valuable source of images has been the famous 'Butleigh Revel of 1906 in which most villagers participated. This was the most famous event to take place in Butleigh and it was reported in the national newspapers. Many of the people in the pictures remain unidentified. I have put together everything I can find on the Revel in this separate file, including a preliminary 'cast' list. If you can identify any of the people illustrated in the pages shown there then please, again, get in touch. I will consider including any pictures sent to me that are related to Butleigh or Butleigh people either through links to them in Butleigh People or in a 'Picture Gallery'. Another section that will interest you is Memories of Butleigh which is intended to record people's reminiscences of Butleigh past and include items of more general Butleigh history.

Compiling this material has taken a great deal of time and effort and I willingly offer it freely for your own family research or studies, but I retain the copyright and none of this material is to be used for any other use without my permission. Under no circumstances is any of it to be used for any commercial use or publication.

In the Spring of 1983, two stalwarts of the W.I., Eileen Cuthbert and Bernice Redwood made a list of all the Grave Memorials in the cemetery and they have kindly consented to it being published here. I have updated it and amended a few details where the PRs have thrown more light on a name or date. All the graves pre-1983 were photographed on a card-file system that Eileen and Bernice created but there are too many to include on this website and I shall just illustrate some of the more attractive memorials (when time allows). A MAP of the churchyard is also shown. Ann Heeley has compiled a list of the Church Memorials in St. Leonards Church which I have expanded and partly illustrated.

The 1911 census has now come online and you can download information about your Butleigh ancestors at www.1911census.co.uk for a small charge. I have tabled lists of the inhabitants of Butleigh in 1911 and of people born in Butleigh but living elsewhere to indicate whether you ancestor is included on the census.

See Links Page for other useful pages when researching Butleigh and related genealogy.

As a temporary add-on I am including some transcriptions of Street Parish Registers made by Darryl Roode and kindly offered by him, taken from Arthur Jewers book of that name, 1898. They cover Baptisms 1598-1755, Marriages 1599-1755 and Burials 1598-1762 plus the most interesting Notes to the same.

Robert SENIOR