Chapter 3.

Matthew Butler was the 13^th child of Charles and Jane Butler. He was born in Thrybergh and was baptised on 14^th May 1799 at St Leonard’s Church.

On 23^rd July 1822 at the age of 23, Matthew married 31 year old Mary Askew at St James Church in Ravenfield, which was Mary’s home village. Their first son John sadly died at the age of 7 months the following year. They went on to have 4 more children but at the age of 40 Mary died following the birth of a daughter also called Mary and she was buried on 22^nd May 1830 at St James' Church in Ravenfield. Her daughter Mary lived for only 2 months and she was buried on 24^th July. It was a very hard time for Matthew being left a widower, with three small children, at the age of 31.

On 21^st February 1832 Matthew remarried. His new wife was Frances Bell according to the entry in the parish register. On the birth certificates of their children her maiden name is given as Frances Tye.

I have found records of them having eight children. Sadly two of these died quite young. Jane born in 1834 died in 1838 two months short of her 4^th birthday and Ann their youngest child born in 1846 died at the age of 7 in 1853. Their son Matthew who was born in 1939 sadly died in 1859 at the age of 20.

Three of Matthew's children with his first wife Mary also died young, John at 7 months, Francis 20 years and Mary 2 months. Of the 13 children that Matthew had four them died in infancy and Francis and Matthew died when they were 20 and 19 respectively.

The line of descent follows on with William who was the sixth child born to William and Frances. He was born on 13^th December 1841 in Ravenfield.

Chapter 4

In 1861 William was working as a farm labourer in Kirk Sandall which in Doncaster not far from Ravenfield. He was living on the farm and there he met 18 year old Eliza Matthews who was also working on the farm as a house servant. They are seen there on the 1961 census. William and Eliza were married on 8^th April 1862 in St James' Church, Ravenfield. Very soon they had two young sons, George born in 1862 and Charles Henry in 1863. 

As he grew up things were quite hard and there wasn't much work for young men in the area. William worked as a farm labourer as did most young men at that time. In order to earn some extra money William helped the gamekeeper in the local woodlands. Because of the lack of work at that time people were unable to afford enough food to feed their families and they would go out poaching wildlife. The wealthy landowners didn't like this as they used the game on their land for sport. They employed gamekeepers to try and stop the poachers. On October 10^th 1865 William joined the gamekeeper and 2 other men in the hope of catching some poachers. Sadly things went very wrong and they were surprised by a group of about a dozen men who attacked them. They were beaten and bombarded with stones. This resulted in the death of the gamekeeper William Lilley. William Butler was also injured but managed to escape to get help.

It must have a been a frightening time for William who was 24 years old and father of 2 young sons with a very pregnant wife at home. Not only the attack but also having to give evidence in court about the attack must have been difficult for him. Four men were found guilty of manslaughter and were transported to Australia.

To get back to my family history now and more tragedy. William's wife Eliza gave birth to their 3rd child William in November 1865 just a month after the attack and she died on the 30^th November age 23 years. Cause of death given as Pthisis (tuberculosis) but maybe childbirth also played a part. So another young man with a young family was widowed. I have been unable to trace William's first son George who was born in 1862. I can find no record of a death or any mention of him on the censuses. His other 2 sons were Charles Henry and William.