Melksham Times Past

Butler died alone

 column about days gone by in Melksham by local historian Lisa Ellis

“James Butler, aged 61, a pensioner who resided alone in Chapel Yard, was found dead on Saturday morning sitting in his chair. Richard Paradise had occasion to call at the house at about eight o’clock, and as he could get no answer to his knock at the door, he went in, the door being unfastened. Butler appeared to be asleep, and he tried to rouse him, as he did not succeed, he called Joseph Colborne, who found that the man was dead. Dr Keir was afterwards sent for, and he was of the opinion Butler must have been dead some ten or twelve hours. An inquest was held at the Police Station on Monday, before Mr Coroner Sylvester, when the jury, after hearing the evidence, returned a verdict to the effect that death was due to syncope, from heart disease.” Wiltshire Times, 13th May 1899

As a 15-year-old lad living at home with his parents at 6 Broughton Lane, James Butler worked as an engine feeder in a factory. He then joined the Army as a bugler and was stationed in Hampshire when he met a Winchester girl named Ellen Mary Thomas. After they married in 1857, they lived at the District Barracks in Winchester. He brought his wife back to Melksham, where they lived on Bath Road; he worked as a plasterer.

Ellen fell ill and was permanently disabled; James, unable to care for her, took Ellen back to Hampshire in August 1877, where he deserted her to the care of the Parish of St Mary at Southampton Union. On 23rd December, an account was received for her maintenance – the day she died. To my knowledge, they had no children.

Six months later, in July 1878, James married Emma Marks of Melksham. James and Emma lived at 13 Union Street, where James carried on as a plasterer; Emma brought in income doing laundry. Also in the family were Ernest Walter Marks, Emma’s illegitimate son, born six years prior to their marriage, and Iley Maud Mary, infant daughter of James and Emma.

Emma died in 1883. Stepson Ernest was sent to live with his maternal grandmother. Iley died at the age of seven in 1887.

In 1890, James married a third time, to widow Mary Ann (Smith) Webb. She and her first husband, Henry John Webb, had four children. At the time of their marriage, the oldest was 17 and the youngest was 12. The stepchildren were divided, sent to live with paternal and maternal grandparents.

It appears Mary Ann had an illegitimate daughter with James. Ellen Butler, “Nellie” Webb (name on birth register) was born in 1885 (seven years after the death of Mary Ann’s first husband and five years prior to her marriage to James). Nellie died at the age of four.

James and his third wife, Mary Ann, had a daughter, Emily Rebecca, 11 months after they married.

This story began with James’ death in May 1899, and mentioned he was living alone. This is because his wife Mary Ann died a couple of months before, and their daughter, Emily Rebecca, was sent to New Orphan House, Stapleton, Bristol. (She would be James’s only child that lived to adulthood.)

After three marriages, he sent away a disabled wife to die alone hours away in a poorhouse, five living stepchildren to assorted grandparents and a living natural child to an orphanage – I don’t know the full circumstances, so I’ll leave this with a kinder thought than I really had: he was fortunate to at least have a friend who routinely checked in on him.

Pictured: Reporting of Ellen Butler’s 1877 Removal Ordera