Charles Butler
Encyclopedia
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
Roman Catholic lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
and miscellaneous writer.
Biography
Charles Butler was born in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, the son of James Butler, a nephew of Alban Butler
Alban Butler
Alban Butler , English Roman Catholic priest and hagiographer, was born at Appletree, Northamptonshire.He was educated at the English College, Douai, where on his ordination to the priesthood in 1735 he held successively the chairs of philosophy and divinity...
. He was educated at Douai
Douai
-Main sights:Douai's ornate Gothic style belfry was begun in 1380, on the site of an earlier tower. The 80 m high structure includes an impressive carillon, consisting of 62 bells spanning 5 octaves. The originals, some dating from 1391 were removed in 1917 during World War I by the occupying...
. In 1769 he became apprenticed to the conveyancer John Maire
John Maire
John Maire was a leading English Roman Catholic conveyancer.Maire was son of Thomas Maire of Lartington, Yorkshire, and an elder brother of the Roman Catholic priest William Maire. He was admitted to Gray's Inn in 1727; as a Catholic, Maire could not be called to the bar, and so he built up a...
, and subsequently (on Maire's death in 1773) to Matthew Duane
Matthew Duane
Matthew Duane was an English Roman Catholic conveyancer and art patron.Of obscure family origins, by the 1730s Duane had established himself as a 'chamber counsel' and conveyancer in Newcastle and London. He married Dorothy Dawson in 1742. He became a member of Lincoln's Inn in 1748. Amongst his...
. In 1775 he set up his own conveyancing practice and entered Lincoln's Inn
Lincoln's Inn
The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn. Although Lincoln's Inn is able to trace its official records beyond...
.
A 1777 pamphlet supporting naval impressments won him the patronage of John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich
John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich
John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, PC, FRS was a British statesman who succeeded his grandfather, Edward Montagu, 3rd Earl of Sandwich, as the Earl of Sandwich in 1729, at the age of ten...
, but Butler withdrew from general political activity to press for Catholic relief. Secretary of the Catholic Committee from 1782, he was appointed by them to draft a new relief bill in 1788: despite controversy within the English Catholic community over the extent to which the Catholic condition should be assimilated to that of Protestant dissenters, a bill passed on 24 June 1791. In 1792 Butler helped found the Cisalpine Club
Cisalpine Club
The Cisalpine Club was an association of Roman Catholic laymen formed in England in the 1790s to promote Cisalpinism, and played a role in the public debate surrounding the progress of Catholic Emancipation.- Overview :...
"to resist any ecclesiastical interference which may militate against the freedom of English Catholics". Relations between cisalpine
Cisalpinism
Cisalpinism was a movement amongst English Roman Catholics arguing that Catholicism, while not rejecting the supreme teaching authority of the Pope, should not be based on his dominance....
Catholics, minimising the authority of the Pope over English Catholics, and vicars apostolic (especially Butler's long-time opponent John Milner
John Milner (bishop)
John Milner was an English Roman Catholic bishop and writer who served as the Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District from 1803 to 1826.-Early life:...
) were strained; in 1807 a Catholic Board was formed after efforts to repair relations, but Milner would censure Butler in 1822 as 'a rebel to ecclesiastical authority and a public sinner'.
He had considerable practice as a conveyancer, and after the passing of the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791
Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791
The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791 is an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain passed in 1791 relieving Roman Catholics of certain political, educational, and economic disabilities. It admitted Roman Catholics to the practise of law, permitted the exercise of their religion, and the existence of...
was the first Catholic to be called to the bar since 1688. His only appearance at the bar was in Cholmondeley v. Clinton at the House of Lords, which set a precedent for judgements on land removal. In 1832 he took silk, and was made a bencher of Lincoln's Inn.
Butler married Mary Eyston in 1776; they had one son (who died young) and two daughters.
Works
His literary activity was enormous, and the number of his published works comprises about fifty volumes. The most important of them are:- Reminiscences (1821–1827)
- Horae Biblicae (1797), which passed through several editions
- Horae Juridicae Subsecivae (1804)
- Book of the Roman Catholic Church (1825), which was directed against SoutheyRobert SoutheyRobert Southey was an English poet of the Romantic school, one of the so-called "Lake Poets", and Poet Laureate for 30 years from 1813 to his death in 1843...
and excited some controversy - lives of Erasmus, GrotiusHugo GrotiusHugo Grotius , also known as Huig de Groot, Hugo Grocio or Hugo de Groot, was a jurist in the Dutch Republic. With Francisco de Vitoria and Alberico Gentili he laid the foundations for international law, based on natural law...
, BossuetJacques-Bénigne BossuetJacques-Bénigne Bossuet was a French bishop and theologian, renowned for his sermons and other addresses. He has been considered by many to be one of the most brilliant orators of all time and a masterly French stylist....
, FénelonFrançois FénelonFrançois de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon, more commonly known as François Fénelon , was a French Roman Catholic archbishop, theologian, poet and writer...
He also edited and completed the Lives of the Saints of his uncle, Alban Butler
Alban Butler
Alban Butler , English Roman Catholic priest and hagiographer, was born at Appletree, Northamptonshire.He was educated at the English College, Douai, where on his ordination to the priesthood in 1735 he held successively the chairs of philosophy and divinity...
, Fearne
Charles Fearne
Charles Fearne was an English jurist.The son of Charles Fearne, judge-advocate of the admiralty, he was born in London, and was educated at Westminster School...
's Essay on Contingent Remainders and Hargrave's edition of Coke upon Littleton
Thomas de Littleton
Sir Thomas de Littleton was an English judge and legal writer.-Early life:He was born, it is supposed, at Frankley Manor House, Worcestershire, England in about 1407. Littleton’s surname was that of his mother, who was the sole daughter and heiress of Thomas de Littleton, Lord of Frankley. She...
's Laws of England (1775).
A complete list of Butler's works is contained in Joseph Gillow
Joseph Gillow
Joseph Gillow was an English Roman Catholic antiquary and bio-bibliographer, "the Plutarch of the English Catholics"....
's Bibliographical Dictionary of English Catholics, vol. i. pp. 357-364.
External links
- Charles Butler - article from the Catholic EncyclopediaCatholic EncyclopediaThe Catholic Encyclopedia, also referred to as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia and the Original Catholic Encyclopedia, is an English-language encyclopedia published in the United States. The first volume appeared in March 1907 and the last three volumes appeared in 1912, followed by a master index...
online