Untangling the Butsons of Trevellas Manor, St Agnes, Cornwall

Research Note by Wesley Johnston - Begun 18 May 2023, Last Updated 18 May 2023

The Families

The 1851 Census of Trevellas Manor lists two Butson families, both with wife Elizabeth and with many of the children having the same given names.

Page 11 - 17 Trevellas Downs - Edward (45) and Elizabeth (44) - All born St Agnes

https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8860/images/CONHO107_1909_1909-1103

Nanny (21), Thomas (17), Elizabeth (13), James (10), William (9), John (9), Eliza (7), Amelia (4), Emily (2)

Page 21 - 7? Trevellas Coomb - widow Elizabeth (48) with ENNOR family - All born St Agnes

https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/8860/images/CONHO107_1909_1909-1115

Mary (26), Nanny (23), Elizabeth (21), John (19), Edward (16), Thomas (14)

Estimating Birth and Marriage Years

We can calculate from the ages the approximate birth years of the three parents:

Edward (1806) and his wife Elizabeth (1807)

Widow Elizabeth (1803)

And we can calculate the approximate year of marriage from the age of the oldest child:

Edward and Elizabeth (1829)

Widow Elizabeth (1824)

The Only Cornwall Marriage of an Edward Butson to an Elizabeth

In all of Cornwall (per the Cornwall Online Parish Clerks database) in the period 1715 to 1850, only one Edward BUTSON married a wife named Elizabeth:

1829 Apr 12 at St. Agnes - Edward BUTSON (bachelor) and Elizabeth ENNOR (spinster) - witnessed by Thomas and Ann ENNOR

This conforms precisely with the estimated marriage year of the Edward and Elizabeth in the 1851 Census. 

Widow Elizabeth BUTSON with the ENNORs at Trevellas Coomb

So, who then was the widow Elizabeth BUTSON living next to the ENNORs in Trevellas Coomb if she was not Elizabeth ENNOR who we know was living with her husband Edward and Trevellas Downs?