John Butson (of Devon) and Wesley Johnston (originally of Illinois, now of California) separately researched Butson family history over several decades and gathered many records. In 2011, we connected with each other and began combining what we had gathered and concluded.

This (forever incomplete) web site shares what we have brought together. This page is an introductory page, with links to the contents.

• The Researchers
• The Records
• Interpreting the Records
• The Conclusions:
  • Early Cornwall Butson Family Tree
  • Before Cornwall

• Butsons of Bodinnick, Fowey & Polruan

These files will probably go into the interpretation section eventually. However the web pages will not be updated for a while, and I do want to make these important files available sooner rather than later. So for now they are posted here.

In 2011, John Butson gave a presentation to the Devon Family History Society on Wheal Butson in Cornwall and the origins of the Butson surname at Blackborough, now part of Kentisbeare, in Devon. These are the files associated with that presentation.

• Microsoft PowerPoint Files
  • Presentation: "Of Miners and Men"
  • Free download of Microsoft Powerpoint Viewer
• Microsoft Word Files
  • Wheal Butson
  • Kentisbeare to Padstow - A Theory [of Butson migration]