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Friday, August 21, 2009

If you are King, you have to be careful..

If you are King you have to be careful that your food and drink are safe, just in case someone in the kingdom wants you gone. That's how the Butlers got their name. William The Conqueror brought with him the chief Bouteillier(Bottle) wine taster with him to England around 1066 or so.
Tasting the drink to make sure it was safe was an important job and your life depended on how good you were at it.Theobald Fitzwalter was created chief Butler of Ireland in 1177. The family started to use the name Butler at about 1220. The title the Duke of Ormond was bestowed on the Butlers in 1328.
Now what does that have to do with the Butlers in America? Well as time passed more and more families took the surname Butler because of their occupation in serving the rich and famous, then branched out on their own into Planting, Carpentry, and yes even clergy.
Zach lists his trade as Planter and that turned into Farmer. Many Butlers were small land owners, and share croppers. Share cropping is growing a crop on someone elses land for a share in it. If you did not own land of your own you could live and work another mans farm and keep a share of the crop you grew. Not a way to riches but of survival.

Check out the link on Agriculture in Colonial America.

Zachariah Butler b 1736 m Sarah Bowe d 1758, Then Mary Edwards
Sons
James b1758 m Sarah?
Patrick b1760 m Elizabeth Fannin
Nathan(iel )b 1762? some say 1768 m Mary Ann ?
Joel b
These sons along with other children followed our grandfather Zach to Georgia after the revolution. James and Patrick were Rev War vets also. Nathan shows as a vet of The Indian Wars.

I am confident that one of the above sons is our grandfather after Zachariah. I have some evidence for all three but Nathaniel is my best guess.
How could a family carve out a place to live and do all that work?
They had help.......

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