Research in Exeter at the county records office produced the following entry transcribed from the Exon (Exeter) Domesday book, which was one of two pilot counties completed before the main survey was undertaken. This covered Devon, and the other county covered in the same way was Norfolk. These trial versions contained far more data than the subsequent full version.
|
Ralph Botin holds BLACKBOROUGH from William the Usher. Leofwin Sock held it before 1066. It paid tax for 1 hide and 1 virgate of land. Land for 3 ploughs. R(alph) has in lordship 1/2 hide and 1/2 virgate.
|
Additional Information
The Domesday Map web site has an image of the original, which is reproduced here.
That site has a different interpretation, seeing William the Usher as the tenant in chief in 1086. The site also show two other entries that refer to Blackborough: William Black (location as Blackberie) and Ralph of Pomeroy (location as Blackberge).
Additional Information
The completion translation of the Domesday, from which the lower text in the box above is taken, can be found in a Word document at University of Hull's Muradora web site.
The following was published by Wesley Johnston in Issue #3 (Spring 1981) of the Butson Family Newsletter.
|
These records are from the British Record Society's Index Library series, begun about 1880. Each pair of numbers, i.e. (66,79), designates the volume (66) and page (79). My abbreviations are:
|
The following is a newly added chronological listing of the same references. Refer back to the alphabetical list for volume and page references.
|
The Devon Wills Project on GENUKI lists many Butson wills. The following are those at Kentisbeare. (There are many also at Uffculme and many in small numbers at other locations.)
- 1546 - Stephen BUTSON, alias BROKE
- 1569 - Anthony BROUKE, alias BUTSON
- 1586 - John BUTSON, alias BROOKE [listed at "Blackeborroughe", Kentisbeare]
- 1619 - Agnes BUTSON
- 1619 - Osmond BROOKE, alias BUTSON
- 1640 - George BUTSON
- 1646 - Edward BUTSON, alias BROOKE
- 1650 - Alice BUTSON, alias BROOKE (widow) [location listed as Aller, Kentisbeare]
- 1659 - Margerie BUTSON (widow)
John Butson's research: The parish Church of St. Mary, Kentisbeare, Devon dates from December 9, 1259 and replaces an earlier Saxon Church. In the churchyard is a yew tree believed to be over 1,000 years old and therefore pre-dating the present church. It is quite likely that our Domesday ancestors stood by this tree and the Saxon church. Yew trees are poisonous to animals and were planted in churchyards primarily to discourage owners from allowing their larger livestock to graze there. The church has many impressive features but of most importance to the Butsons is the Anstice Gallery, named after its benefactor Mrs Anstice Wescombe who provided for it’s construction in 1632. On the front of the gallery is the following poem:
Anstice late wife of Robert Wescombe here
Built this loft in the church of Kentisbeer
For the convenient hearing of the word
And praising of the true and living lord
She also gave proffit of the same
Unto the poor in memory of her name
The donors are deceased and all we
Who now survive them their good acts do see
Wich if they should be quickly out of mind
Discourage ‘twill the piously inclined
The reason why these lines are set to view
It is because the poor shall have their due
There are two wooden panels in the gallery, with the "s" written as "fi'. The panel with Butson names is on the west wall of the church. Unfortunately, the loft is usually locked, so that John Butson has only had one opportunity to take a photo. The photo is slightly out of focus, but the transcription was possible for all but one surname.
Click on image to view full size. Photo by David Hopper |
A Table containing ye Names of such persons who have been benefactors to ye Poor of ye Parish of Kentisbeer as followeth;
[NOTE: The underlining is not in the original but is included here to highlight the BUTSON names.] |
The other panel is as follows.
Click on image to view full size. Photo by John Butson |
A Table containing ye Names of such Persons who have been Benefactors, to ye poor of ye Parish of Kentisbeer as followeth.
|
There is also text on the loft below the organ pipes.
Click on image to view full size. Photo by David Hopper |
Anstice late wife of Robert Wescombe here
|
Episcopal records of Exeter show that when the church was first built in 1275, the Vicar was Hamelin de Heantone.
William Sherwell was Rector of St Mary's from 1544 - 1554, the period when the Butsons on the panel lived in Kentisbeare. He would have performed their marriage ceremonies and christened their babies.
The following description of the protestation returns is, with a few clarifications added, from a web page on Gilberts in the Devon and Cornwall protestation returns.
|
The Protestation Returns relate to the years 1641/42, around the start of the Civil War. The Protestation was an Oath of loyalty to the King [Charles I], and was originally drawn up and taken by the members of the House of Commons on May 3rd 1641. The following day the Protestant Peers in the House of Lords also swore it. On July 30th the House of Commons passed a resolution that all who refused the Protestation were unfit to hold office in Church or Commonwealth. The scope was widened so that it should be sworn by all adults over the age of 18. In practice this meant all men; women were not usually asked to sign. A letter was sent by the Speaker of the House of Commons to the sheriffs instructing them to take the protestation with the justices of the peace in their county, and then the incumbent of each parish was to read the protestation to his parishioners and they were all to sign. This took place in February and March 1641/2. The Protestation Returns were then sent back to Parliament. The Oath:
|
The Kentisbeare protestation returns list all those who signed the return, including the following Butsons:
- Main List
- Edward Butson
- Edward Butson [two Edwards were listed]
- George Butson
- John Butson Sr.
- John Butson
- Robert Butson
- Thomas Butson
- William Butson
- Parish Officials List
- Thomas Butson - Constable [the other constable was John Westlake]
- John Butson - churchwarden
This makes it unlikely that the Thomas who signed the protestation oath in St. Merryn, Cornwall, was the same Thomas Butson who signed in Kentisbeare.
The Parish Return towards the Rebuilding of St. Paul's Cathedral for Kentisbeare, Devon (1678) [Guildhall Library MS 25565/7 f026-027] shows these Butsons:
- John BUTSON contributed 4 pence.
- Florence BUTSON contributed 1 pence.
- Goerge BUTSON was one of the two Church Wardens at Kentisbeare (the other was John Westlak).
In 1977, Helen Barrett published her book Our Heritage: A History of Kentisbeare and Blackborough. The book contains a great deal of Butson information. The book can be seen in the following two files, both of which are about 60 Megabytes and may be slow to open:
- PDF file of images of the book pages
- Searchable RTF file - Computers cannot index the words in an image file. Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software attempts to automatically read the words in an image and create a searchable textual document. This file is a completely unedited raw OCR output file, which is searchable for keywords and phrases. The format is roughly the same as the book itself, so that if you do find a word and want to see the original, you can go to the corresponding page in the PDF file to see the original page.
In May 2011, John and Carol Butson visited Kentisbeare. Here is John's excellent PowerPoint presentation of their successful expedition.
- Microsoft PowerPoint Files
Return to Wesley Johnston's main Family History page.
Return to main Early Butson page.
Return to Early Butson Records page.