William Butterfield and Martha Dalton

Photo © John Salmon (cc-by-sa/2.0)

St Mary & Holy Trinity, Bow Church, Wednesday, 1 May, 2013

Photo available for reuse under this Creative Commons licence.

William Butterfield, Batchelor, married Martha Dalton (b. 2 Oct 1780 in White Horse Street, Stepney), Spinster, daughter of William Dalton and Sarah Travally, on 18 Dec 1800, according to (London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1940 at Ancestry) at All Saints, Poplar. There's just a small problem with that: All Saints wasn't even a parish until 1817 and All Saints Church, Poplar, wasn't built until 1821-3, so it was impossible for them to have married there. Pallot's Marriage Index, 1780-1837, has stamped the venue on their record as "T St My Stfdle Bow", which I interpreted as St. Mary, Stratford, Bow (Bow Church), where Martha's parents married. That they were married by A H Eccles, Rector (Allan Harrison Eccles who is listed as a Rector of Bow Church and died in post in 1801), would confirm it. Both were of the parish at the time, but I've not [yet] been able to confirm anything about William Butterfield's origins. Witnesses to the marriage were Samuel Wardall, Sarah Dalton (Martha's mother or sister) and Ann Wardall.

William and Martha, it appears, had two daughters:

1. Sarah Ann Butterfield b. 6 Jan 1804, bap. 5 Feb 1804. Sarah Ann Butterfield, daughter of William & Martha died on 24 Jan 1808.
2. Eliza Butterfield b. 4 Nov 1805, bap. 24 Nov 1805

Both girls were baptised at Gravel Lane, Old, (Independent) - Old Gravel Lane Independent Chapel, Wapping, Middlesex, a Congregational church. These baptisms list the family's address simply as St George in the East.

Eliza Butterfield b. 4 Nov 1805, was baptised again on 10 Feb 1819 at the Anglican church of St George in the East. This baptism lists her address as Old Gravel Lane and her father's occupation as a Tailor. Eliza will then have been 14. Occasionally, one sees a baptism just prior to marriage and clearly this will not have been the case here. The reasons are not yet clear, but I wonder if Eliza was baptised prior to Confirmation in this church. (Her grandmother's Will was proven in 1818, so this might have been a factor too.)

Old Gravel Lane in Wapping, was a historic street, originally a route for hauling sand and gravel from the river, later becoming Wapping Lane, it ran south from the Ratcliff Highway towards the river (see 1750 map).

William Butterfield was presumably alive and certainly trusted as one of the executors of Sarah Dalton's Will, which was drawn up in 1813, but so far, I've been unable to find any further verifiable records for this family.