Author: Butt, George
Biography:
BUTT, George (1741-95: ODNB)
He was the second son of Carey or Cary Butt (1708-81), a surgeon in Lichfield, Staffordshire, and his wife Elizabeth Marten, the daughter of an apothecary. They had married on 3 Apr. 1737. George Butt was born on 26 Dec. and baptised at St. Mary’s, Lichfield, on 30 Dec. 1741. He began studying at Westminster School in 1754 and became a King’s scholar in 1756; in 1760 he was captain of the school. His performance as Demea in Terence’s The Adelphi while at school earned him both praise and money from well-wishers. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, on 21 May 1761 (BA 1765, MA 1768, BD and DD 1793); he was called a Westminster student (that is, a college fellow) from 1761-72. He was ordained deacon in 1765 and priest in 1767. After several years as a private tutor to Edward Winnington of Stanford Court, Worcestershire, he became rector of Stanford and vicar of Clifton-on-Tame in 1771. On 26 Apr. 1773 he married Martha Sherwood at St. Mary Magdalene, Richmond, Surrey. They had two daughters and a son, all of whom became writers. Marriage improved his financial situation and Martha Butt insisted upon a strictly regulated approach to expenditure (and, according to her daughter, to family life). He prospered in his career, serving as vicar of Newchurch on the Isle of Wight and chaplain in ordinary to George III. Later he became vicar at Kidderminster where he lived from 1788 to 1794. He was associated with the literary groups around Anna Seward of Lichfield and Anna Miller (qq.v.) of Batheaston Villa near Bath. Isaiah Versified made his name but he also published Sermons (1791) and wrote a novel which his daughter Mary Martha Sherwood edited and issued as The Spanish Daughter in 1824. He moved back to Stanford in 1794 and died there of a stroke on 30 Sept. 1795. He was buried in the churchyard of St. Mary’s, Stanford. Martha Butt died in 1817. (ODNB 1 Sept. 2023; Westminster School Archives online at collections.westminster.org.uk; Alumni Oxonienses; CCEd 1 Sept. 2023) SR