11. Mary Theresa BUTLER (Jane LYNCH , John ) was born 1865 in Richmond, Surrey. She died after 1917.

At the time of the 1891 census, Mary and her husband, Thomas, were living at Albert Hall Mansions in Kensington which had been built by Thomas's father's company. They were still at Albert Hall Mansions at the time of the 1901 census (the surname appears as "Husey" on the 1901 return). By the time of the 1911 census Mary appears to have been living at the home of her father at 59 Rowan Road, Hammersmith with her six surviving children while her husband, Thomas, is listed alone at 150 Blyth Road, West Kensington. At the time of the death of their son Ted in 1917, by which time Thomas had died, Mary appears to have been living at 57 Gunterstone Road, West Kensington, London.

Mary married Thomas Aloysius HUSSEY, son of Thomas HUSSEY and Agnes DEVINE, in 1886 in Kensington, London. Thomas was born 1864 in probably 9 Mayfield Place, Kensington, London. He died 30 Mar 1916 in London.

Thomas, who was educated at St. Edmund's Roman Catholic College in Hertfordshire, followed in his father's footsteps and became a builder.

Thomas and his brother, James, were to marry two sisters, Mary and Jane Butler. It's possible the two families were neighbours at some point because at the time of the 1881 census, the Butlers were living at 32 St. Mary Abbot's Terrace in Kensington (they later moved but it's not known when), and at the time of the 1891 (and 1901) censuses, Thomas's parents were living at 23 St. Mary Abbot's Terrace (having moved there sometime after 1884). Perhaps that's how the Thomas and James first met the Butler girls; or perhaps the connection is through Mary's and Jane's younger brother, William, who may have attended St. Edmund's at the same time as some of Thomas's brothers.

Thomas died of sarcoma of the spine and post-operative shock at the National Hospital, Queen's Square, Holborn, London. His home address at the time was 110 Baron's Court Road, West Kensington (where his son Laurence was living in 1915).

12. Jane Frances BUTLER (Jane LYNCH , John ) was born 1868 in 18 Edwards Square, Kensington, London. She died 9 Mar 1946 in 35 Dewhurst Road, Hammersmith, London and was buried in probably St. Mary's Cemetery, Kensal Green, London.

Jane and her sister Mary married two brothers. Jane married James Hussey and Mary married his brother Thomas.

Jane's granddaughter Sheila Hussey remembers that she and her sisters used to refer to Jane as 'Granny Miaow' because she usually had a cat perched on her knee.

According to her death certificate, Jane died from (1a) cerebral haemorrhage, (1b) acute toxaemia, (1c) quincy [severe tonsilitis] and (2) chronic valvular disease of the heart. The informant was her son Martin.

Jane married James HUSSEY, son of Thomas HUSSEY and Agnes DEVINE, in 1891 in Kensington, London. James was born 27 Sep 1865 in 9 Mayfield Place, Kensington, London. He died 3 Apr 1936 in London and was buried in probably St. Mary's Cemetery, Kensal Green, London.

James went to school at St. Edmund's College near Ware in Hertfordshire. He went on to become a solicitor. At the time of the 1901 census, he and his wife, Jane, were living at 38 Westcroft Square in Hammersmith, and at the time of the 1911 census and the time of James's mother's death in 1913 they were at Olympia Mansions in Hammersmith. They later moved to 35 Dewhurst Road, Brook Green, Hammersmith where they lived for many years.

James seems to have retired from legal practice by 1919 because the marriage certificate of his son Michael from that year gives James's occupation as 'Clerk, Board of Trade'. James died in the West London Hospital in 1936 of a malignant prostate, the same disease that caused the death of his father. On his death certificate, James's occupation is given as church organist.

There follows a poem written about James, written many years after his death, by his granddaughter Maureen Gordon (née Hussey):

ODYSSEY

Grandfather,
Looking backwards through the years,
I see you sitting on my childhood bed -
Wizard of wonder,
Ancient innocence -
Weaving me webs of magic and myth.
Heroes and gods,
Enchanters, unicorns
Peopled the lucid air
Through which we voyaged
On translucent seas
To coral islands - Cathay - Camelot.

Later, on tired old legs,
You trudged the streets,
Trading your meagre pence on market stalls
For unconsidered treasure,
Argosies
Of well-thumbed books
Whose illustrations burned
Scarlet and gold through tissue coverings
Thin as the mists of time.

You were not reckoned a successful man,
Small value put on you or on your wares;
Though I recall you aureoled with love,
Your photos show you threadbare,
Down-at-heel.
You left no legacy the world calls wealth,
Only to me
The little golden key
To jewelled caverns,
Labrynthine ways
Into infinities of cosmic space.

You were my Homer and my Gutenberg.

Once you saw Venice,
And the spell it cast over your life
Suffused my youth with light.
When your great-grandson,
Your true avatar,
Caught in the same enchantment,
Took me there and I first recognised
The beauty floating on the mirroring water
That proved the truth of your mythologies,
You smiled at me again out of his eyes.

________________

from The Tug of the Undertow © 1995, Maureen Gordon

13. William John BUTLER (Jane LYNCH , John ) was born about 1870 in possibly 6 Brompton Square, Kensington, London. He died 2 Nov 1933 in Dublin and was buried in St. Fintan's Cemetery, Sutton, Dublin.

It's possible William may have attended school at St. Edmund's Roman Catholic College in Hertfortshire: in the course of my research into the Hussey family from Kensington (members of which attended St. Edmund's and later married into William's family), I came across information on a William Butler who attended the college from 1880 until 1882 and who was born about 1870 in Brompton, Middlesex; our William above was born about 1870 in Brompton which makes me think they could be the same person.

Our William became a musical instrument maker in the family business. Sometime after 1902 (he was still living at home at the time of the death of his mother in July of that year) he moved to Dublin to run the family's Dublin shop, located by then in Monument House at 34 Bachelor's Walk. During the 1916 Rising, the shop was taken over by rebels (who emptied the building of its musical instruments, some of which were later found on the bed of the River Liffey at low tide). To oust the rebels, the British shelled the building from what was then The Red Bank Restaurant on D'Olier St. The shop was badly damaged and the business was relocated the following year to the ground floor of nearby 2 Lower Abbey St. where further troubles were to be encountered during the Civil War (1920-1923): on 6 February 1923 the IRA targeted the Pathé Frères cinema company which occupied the first and second floors of 2 Lower Abbey St. A number of armed men entered the premises, poured petrol around the Pathé Frères offices and set it alight. It's thought the men also planted an incendiary bomb as an explosion followed the fire causing a number of Pathé Frères employees to be thrown off their feet as they fled the burning building. Miraculously, nobody was killed but the building was badly damaged. Although William did receive a small amount of compensation as a result of the Damage to Property Compensation Act of 1923, there was no proper insurance cover because the damage was caused by an act of war. As a result the company found itself in severe financial difficulties and was forced to close down in 1927.

William and his family, who had lived for a time at 2 Lower Abbey St. following the company's move there, later moved to Howth in Co. Dublin. William seems to have moved back to his old Abbey St. home sometime after 1923.

There are still Butler-made instruments in existence, both privately-owned and in museums. The Kenneth G. Fiske Musical Instrument Museum in Claremont, California, for example, has a Butler keyed bugle made in Dublin c. 1835. The Edinburgh University Collection of Historic Musical Instruments has a Butler flute and cornet (dates of manufacture unknown), and the Horniman Museum in London has a Butler harp acquired pre-1900, bright green in colour with Irish images, including round towers and an Irish wolfhound, painted on the soundboard. And the National Museum of Ireland has a Butler bugle in its Easter Week collection. This bugle, manufactured c. 1915, has an interesting history in that it was awarded to the Irish Citizen Army in 1915 for taking first place in a drill competition; then, following the surrender of Irish forces (which included the Irish Citizen Army) in the 1916 Rising, it ended up in the hands of the British Provost Marshall who subsequently gave it to a Dr. Laurence Moran who in turn gave it to a brother of Fianna Fáil TD (Teachta Dála, meaning member of parliament), John McCann. John McCann's brother later presented it to Éamon de Valera, participant in the Rising and founder of Fianna Fáil, who would, in 1959, be elected President of Ireland. On 4 September 1948, Éamonn de Valera donated the bugle to the National Museum of Ireland.

Note: The Bachelor's Walk shop is mentioned in James Joyce's 'Ulysses':
"From Butler's monument house corner he [Leopold Bloom] glanced along Bachelor's walk." (p. 151 of the Penguin Edition of 1960).

William married Eleanor (Nellie) GILROY. Eleanor was born in Ballyjamesduff, Co. Cavan. She died 16 Nov 1922 in Howth, Dublin and was buried in probably St. Fintan's Cemetery, Sutton, Dublin.

Nellie and William lived in 'Lismeen', Howth, Co. Dublin.

14. Winifrid BUTLER (Jane LYNCH , John ) was born about 1876 in Kensington, London. She died possibly 1919 in possibly Co. Wexford.

The name Winifred Butler is listed in the the 1891 census return for a boarding school on Twickenham Road in Isleworthin, Middlesex. This may well be our Winifred because the Winifred from the census was aged 15 at the time which is the approximate age our Winifred would have been.

By the time of the 1911 census of Ireland, Winifred was living in Mount Talbot, Co. Roscommon. Listed with her in the census return are her three children. At the same time, her husband, John, was in Wexford (where a branch of his nursery business was located).

Winifrid married John GALVIN, son of 'unknown' GALVIN, in 1901 in Fulham or Hammersmith, London. John was born about 1857 in possibly Mount Talbot, Tisrara, Co. Roscommon. He died 14 Apr 1941 in Co. Wexford.

The Galvin family had operated a nursey business in Co. Roscommon since 1790 and from about 1890 John and his brother James ran the Galvin nursery in the grounds of Mount Talbot House (owned by the Talbot family) in Tisrara, Co. Roscommon. The family then set up a branch of the nursery in Mount Avon, Rathdrum, Co. Wicklow (where it's known John was living with his wife and children in 1916). By the early 1930s the business had expanded to Co. Wexford with a branch at Park Cottage, just outside Wexford town, which John ran with his son Seamus. John moved from Roscommon to live in Park Cottage, a large property, which was eventually sold in 1976.

There's a 1901 census record on www.leitrim-roscommon.com for a John Gavin, a 43-year-old "nurseryman / county councillor" from Mount Talbot in Tisrara, Co. Roscommon. This is almost certainly our John above. The John Galvin from the census wasn't married at this time and the only other occupants of the household were a nursery foreman, a servant and two visitors, the visitors being a nephew named William Finnerty, aged 30, who was a clerk of petty sessions, and a cousin named William Byrne, aged 35, who was a veterinary surgeon.

John was in Stoneybatter, Wexford at the time of the 1911 census while Winifred and the children were back in Mount Talbot. Presumably John was working in Wexford. His occupation is given on the census return as nurseryman and county councillor.