12. Margaret Mary BUCKLEY (Elizabeth (Eliza) Mary BUTLER , George James , 'unknown' ) was born on 15 Jun 1849 in 16 West St., St. Giles, London.

Margaret appears to be listed as Mary in the 1851 census.

!Margaret's residence at the time of her marriage was 140 Cornwall Road, Notting Hill, London. After her marriage she and her husband, Hugh, lived in Liverpool.

Margaret married Hugh Joseph QUIGLEY, son of Duncan QUIGLEY and Hannah BRYAN, on 19 Aug 1873 in Church of St. Francis of assisi, Kensington, London. Hugh was born on 13 Apr 1840 in 14 Sea Lion Place, Lambeth, London. He died on 4 Mar 1895 in 4 Wolsey Road, Teddington, Middlesex.

Hugh's residence at the time of his marriage (1873) was 91 Gregson St., Everton, Liverpool. He was a "business manager" at the time. The birth certificate of his son, Joseph (1874) tells us Hugh was a "manager to a shoe manufacturer" and his death certificate (1895) tells us he was a "manager of boot stores". He died of influenza and bronchitis at the age of 54 at 4 Wolsey Road, Teddington. It is not known for certain if this was the family home at the time but it appears to have been as the informant was Hugh's son Joseph of that address. Note: Wolsey Road was the name at the time of the south side of the current Causeway in Teddington (with just the north side known at the time as the Causeway).

Marriage Notes:

Margaret's uncle Fr. Robert Butler officiated at the marriage of Margaret and Hugh. Witnesses were John Buckley and G. Connelly.     

16. Agnes Mary BUCKLEY (Elizabeth (Eliza) Mary BUTLER , George James , 'unknown' ) was born on 16 Apr 1854 in 28 Maiden Lane, St. Paul, Covent Garden, London. She was christened on 7 May 1854 in St. Patrick's Church, Soho Square, Westminster, London. She died on 10 Feb 1888 in 6 Euston Square, St. Pancras, London.

Agnes was Elizabeth's twin. Her baptismal sponsors were John Noble and Margaret Butler.

Agnes is listed in the 1871 census return for the household of her uncle, George Butler, as an "apprentice to dressmaking". Her name appears again in the 1881 census return for her uncle's household. Her occupation is now dressmaker. It appears that she and perhaps her sisters, Lucy and Mary Ann (who are also listed with the Butler family in the 1871 census), lived with their uncle. The sisters' mother died in 1864 when Agnes was only 10 years old and it appears likely that their father died young too, especially in light of the adoption of their younger brother George by a Mrs Brett of Aberdeenshire.

Agnes's address at the time of her marriage (May 1881) was 32 St. Mary Abbotts Terrace, Kensington, the residence of her uncle George Butler.

Agnes was only 33 years of age when she died in 1888.

Agnes married Alexander (Alex) BOOKER, son of Thomas BOOKER and Martha STEWARD, on 11 May 1881 in Our Lady of Victories Church, High St., Kensington. Alexander was born on 11 May 1842 in Liverpool. He died on 23 Aug 1914 in St. Scholastica's Retreat, Lower Clapton, Hackney, London. He was buried in St. Mary's Cemetery, Kensal Green, London.

Although born in Liverpool, Alex moved to London with his family as a child. In 1851 the family was living in Lambeth; by 1861 they were in Clapham; and in 1871 they were back in Lambeth. Alex is recorded in the census of that year as living with his parents and siblings at 5 Cowley Place. He was 29 years old and working as a stained glass artist, a profession in which he became highly regarded.     

In 1878 it is known that Alex was working from 64 Portland Road, Notting Hill, and between 1880 and 1894 he worked at his home at 6 Euston Square, St. Pancras. His first wife, Agnes Buckley, moved to 6 Euston Square after their marriage in 1881.

Alex worked for a time for the firm of Cox, Sons & Buckley, an ecclesiastical furnishings company based in London. Note that there appears to no family connection whatsoever between Irish-born Michael Joseph Cunningham Buckley (1848/49-1905), the Buckley partner in Cox, Sons & Buckley, and Alex's wife, Agnes. However, just in case they were related, here is some further information on Michael, taken mainly from the Dictionary of Irish Architects, 1720-1940:

Michael was an antiquarian and designer of church furnishings, of London, Youghal in Co. Cork and Bruges in Belgium, and was active from the 1860s until his death in 1905. He was a son of John George Buckley of Carrick-on-Suir, Co. Tipperary, although the New Zealand Tablet edition of 28 September 1905 tells us that Michael came from an old Youghal family. John, Michael's father, had attempted to emigrate to Newfoundland in 1815 but was captured en route by a French privateer and taken as a prisoner to France where he remained for some time after his release. Michael himself was born in Cahir, Co. Tipperary in 1847 or 1848 and educated at Mount Melleray Abbey School, Co. Waterford, and in Louvain, Belgium. He subsequently served his time as an architect under Brangman of Brussels and in 1881 became a partner in the firm of Cox, Sons & Buckley, ecclesiastical art manufacturers of London. However the firm failed, possibly about 1893 (as the company was taken over by Curtis, Ward & Hughes in that year), causing Michael severe financial loss. He moved back to Ireland, where he established a stained glass and metal works in Youghal, Co. Cork. He also acted as agent and designer for the Decorative Arts Guild of Bruges and was about to bring a number of Belgian art workers to work in Youghal at the time of his death. He died after a short illness on 2 August 1905 at his home, 'Montmorenci', Gillets Hill, Youghal and was buried in the North Abbey churchyard in Youghal. He was unmarried.      

Interestingly Alex's brother Clement, also a stained glass artist, was living in Youghal at the end of the 19th century. As the Bookers had no known Youghal connection it many have been that Clement moved to Youghal because he was offered employment at Michael's stained glass works in the town.

Getting back to Alex, his commissions includes glasswork in All Saints Church, Salhouse, Norfolk (1874 - 1899); St. Thomas's Church, Ryde, Isle of Wight (1883); Stoke St. Gregory Church, Somerset (1886); St. Edmund's Church, Costessey, Norfolk (1889); St. Michael and All Angels Church, Booton, Norfolk (1891); St. Mary's Church, Mold, Flintshire, Wales (1891); St. Michael and All Angels Church, Appleby, Leicestershire (1893); St. Edmund's Church, Fritton, Norfolk (1900); and St. Patrick' Cathedral, Auckland, New Zealand (1906 and 1907).

In the early 1990s Alex moved to Bruges, Belgium, where some of the above works were executed. Perhaps he worked with or for Michael Cunningham above who had a branch of his business in the city. We know that Alex was resident in Belgium in 1894 as an article in the Cheshire Observer of 14 April of that year on the installation of his stained glass window in Mold Parish Church refers to him as having moved to Belgium from St. Pancras. It appears that he had moved to Brussels from Bruges by about 1907 as mention is made of the stained glass window by 'the well-known artist Alex Booker of Brussels' (according to the New Zealand Tablet edition of 14 February 1907).

Sometime after returning to London Alex and his second wife, Theresa (a sister of his first wife, Agnes) lived in St. Scholastica's Retreat, Kennington Road, Clapton. The Retreat, now demolished, was designed by architect E. W. Pugin and was built to provide accommodation, in self-contained units, for elderly Catholics of diminished means.

Marriage Notes:

Witnesses to the marriage of Alexander and Agnes were George Butler, James Butler and Eustace Booker.

19. George Charles BUCKLEY (Elizabeth (Eliza) Mary BUTLER , George James , 'unknown' ) was born on 4 Jul 1861 in 17 Brydges St., Covent Garden, London. He was christened on 21 Jul 1861 in St. Patrick's Church, Soho Square, Westminster, London. He died on 17 Aug 1932 in Woodend Hospital, Aberdeen. He was buried on 19 Aug 1932 in Huntly Cemetery.

George's baptismal sponsors were Charles Hobbs and Mary Ann Butler.

George was adopted by Charlotte Annie Brett (1829-1882) of Huntly in Aberdeenshire in Scotland. Charlotte was the widow of Major Reginald Brett who had died in 1859 on board ship (the Eastern Monarch) on his way from India to England. She was a member of the Drummond family of Megginch Castle in Perthshire; her parents were Adam Augustus Drummond and Sandelia Symon, and her grandparents were Admiral Sir Adam Drummond and Lady Charlotte Murray. Charlotte and Reginald had had a child, Reginald Charles Augustus Brett, who was born 3 September 1846 and died in infancy.

The circumstances of George's adoption are not known, and I have no proof that he was in fact adopted by Charlotte. However, it is not surprising he was adopted because his mother died when he was just two years of age and some of his older siblings appear to have been raised by relatives subsquently. It seems George's father had died before he had reached the age of 13, by which time he was living in Huntly. The 1871 census of Scotland lists nine-year-old George in Charlotte's household at Lonach Lodge in Strathdon, Aberdeenshire. I can find no trace of George in the 1881 census. Charlotte died aged 52 in 1882 when Charles was about 19 years old. The 1891 census places George in Chapel St. in Huntly, his occupation being a painter's apprentice. At the time of his marriage in 1898 he was living at 5 Bogie St. in Huntly and was a journeyman house painter; and at the time of the 1901 census, he and his family were at 15 Littlejohn St., also in Huntly.

George's residence at the time of his death in 1932 was Nazareth House, Claremont St., Aberdeen. His occupation on his death certificate was "House Painter (Journeyman)" and cause of death was "Chronic Myocarditis and Pulmonary Oedema". He and his wife, Mary, are both buried in Huntly Cemetery, next to Charlotte.

Note: Major Brett mentioned above died either from consumption on board the Eastern Monarch in February 1859 or in a fire aboard the same vessel in June 1859.

George was in a common law marriage with Isabella BROWN, daughter of 'unknown' BROWN. Isabella was born in 1864 in Kennethmont, Aberdeenshire. She died on 22 Jun 1907 in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire.

According to the birth certificate of her son William, Isabella was a domestic servant.

George also married Mary INGRAM, daughter of Thomas? INGRAM and Ann? WATT, on 29 Jan 1898 in St. Margaret's Catholic Church, Huntly, Aberdeenshire. Mary was born about 1864 in Huntly, Aberdeenshire. She died on 16 Nov 1917 in 22 Deveron St., Huntly. She was buried in Huntly Cemetery.

Mary's occupation at the time of her marriage in 1898 was "stocking weaver", and her address was Back St., Huntly.

Mary died of bowel cancer at the age of 53.

Marriage Notes:

Witnesses to the marriage of George and Mary were Alex Innes and Ellen Jane Mark.

21. Mary Theresa BUTLER (George Patrick , George James , 'unknown' ) was born on 29 Mar 1865 in 2 Duncan Place, Vineyard, Richmond upon Thames, Surrey. She died in Mar 1953 in Wandsworth, London.

Mary was born in Richmond upon Thames, where her family lived briefly prior to moving to Kensington. Around the 1890s Mary's birthplace in Richmond, 2 Duncan Place, became 31 The Vineyard; and in 1994 one home was created from nos. 31 and 33 The Vineyard, forming an enlarged no. 31 (no. 33 no longer exists).       

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). Mary and Thomas later separated; by the 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 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, it appears Mary was living at 57 Gunterstone Road, West Kensington, London; and the 1939 Register tells us that Mary was living at the time at 32 Ferry Road, Barnes, London with her daughters Mamie and Kate.

It is worth noting that Mary was remembered with fondness by her grandchildren.

Mary married Thomas Aloysius HUSSEY, son of Thomas HUSSEY and Agnes DEVINE, in 1886 in Kensington, London. Thomas was born on 8 Apr 1864 in probably 9 Mayfield Place, Kensington, London. He was christened on 9 May 1864 in Our Lady of Victories, High St., Kensington. He died on 30 Mar 1916 in London.

Thomas's baptismal sponsors were Joannus Lejeune and Eliza Clube.

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 respectively. It is possible the two brothers met the two sisters through their families having possibly been neighbours at some point because at the time of the 1881 census, the Butlers were living at 32 St. Mary Abbots Terrace in Kensington (they later moved but it is not known when), and at the time of the 1891 and 1901 censuses, Thomas's parents were living at 23 St. Mary Abbots Terrace (having moved there sometime after 1884). Or perhaps the connection is through Mary and Jane's younger brother, William, who may have attended St. Edmund's at the same time as some of Thomas's brothers.

It is known that Thomas and his family were living in Albert Hall Mansions, Kensington, built by Thomas's father, from at least 1891 to 1901. It appears that by 1911 Thomas and Mary had separated as they are listed at different addresses in the census of that year, with Thomas appearing to be living alone at 150 Blyth Road, Fulham, London. It is thought that Thomas went to the United States to work at one point but no emigration records have been located to support this.

Thomas died in 1916, aged about 52, 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 Laurie was living in 1915).

22. Jane Frances BUTLER (George Patrick , George James , 'unknown' ) was born on 3 Dec 1867 in 18 Edwardes Square, Kensington, London. She was christened on 22 Dec 1867 in Church of Our Lady of Victories, High St., Kensington, London. She died on 9 Mar 1946 in 35 Dewhurst Road, Hammersmith, London. She was buried on 13 Mar 1946 in St. Mary's Cemetery, Kensal Green, London (grave no. 2845 XP).

Jane's baptismal sponsors were Charles Hobbs and Marianna Dunworth.

Jane and her sister Mary married two brothers. Jane married James Hussey and Mary married his brother Thomas. Apparently neither marriage was happy.

Following the death of her son Philip in World War I, Jane carried the letters from his commanding officers in her handbag everywhere she went and was distraught when the handbag was stolen. The thief must have realised their importance because a few days later they were put back through her letterbox.

The 1939 Register (data gathered in September of that year) shows Jane and her daughter Winifred, as vistors at a care home located at 14 Westbrooke, Worthing, Sussex. As patients and their visitors appear to be grouped together in the register, could they have been visiting Elizabeth Butler, the 70-year-old widow who is listed a couple of lines further down (with only a staff member entry separating the Husseys from Elizabeth)? If so, then how does Elizabeth fit in to the Butler family tree? She appears to be the Elizabeth Butler who died in Worthing in Q2 of 1942 aged 72.    

Jane's granddaughter Sheila Hussey remembers that she and her sisters used to refer to Jane as 'Granny Miaow' because when seated she nearly always had a cat perched on her knee. I have heard her described as a "formidable woman".

According to her death record, Jane died of (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, on 13 Aug 1891 in Our Lady of Victories Church (Pro-Cathedral), High St., Kensington. James was born on 27 Sep 1865 in 9 Mayfield Place, Kensington, London. He was christened on 29 Oct 1865 in Our Lady of Victories, High St., Kensington. He died on 3 Apr 1936 in West London Hospital, Hammersmith, London. He was buried on 6 Apr 1936 in St. Mary's Cemetery, Kensal Green, London (grave no. 2845 XP).

James's baptismal sponsors were John Barry and Ellena Lynch.

James went to school at St. Edmund's College near Ware in Hertfordshire and 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. It appears, however, that their marriage was not a happy one.

James seems to have retired from legal practice by 1919 because the marriage record of his son Michael from that year gives James's occupation as 'Clerk, Board of Trade'. James was a talented organist and played regularly at his local church in Brook Green. He died of a malignant prostate, the same disease to which his father had succumbed. On his death record, 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

Marriage Notes:

Jane and James were married by Jane's uncle Rev. Edward Lynch, assisted by another uncle of Jane's, Rev. Robert Butler, and an uncle of James, Rev. James Hussey.

23. William John BUTLER (George Patrick , George James , 'unknown' ) was born about 1869 in possibly 6 Brompton Square, Kensington, London. He died on 2 Nov 1933 in Dublin. He was buried in St. Fintan's Cemetery, Sutton, Dublin.

It is possible that William may have attended school at St. Edmund's Roman Catholic College in Ware, Hertfordshire: 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 went on to become a musical instrument maker in the family business, frequently visiting its Dublin branch. Around the time of his marriage in 1906 to Nellie, one of his employees, he moved permanently to Dublin. The Dublin shop was located at that time in Monument House at 34 Bachelor's Walk and business was good, due in part to the fact that in those days every town had its own band (usually fife and drum). Part of William's work involved taking the train to large towns and then cycling to the smaller towns where he would presumably take orders for band instruments. While the company manufactured many of its own instruments (bagpipes, drums, flutes, bugles, etc.) William also travelled to continental Europe to buy violins, accordians and other instruments. About seven people were employed in the workshop, while one person worked solely on gramophone repairs. The shop also had a piano showroom.

The London branch of the business, run by William's brother, George, closed in 1913, apparently owing to financial difficulties; and in 1916 the Dublin business ran into trouble. During the Easter Rising of that year the Dublin 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, British forces 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. The family home up to this time appears to have been at this address and it seems that the family moved to Howth, Co. Dublin around this time.

By the early 1920s Irish towns no longer had their own bands as the authorities apparently regarded a band at that time as an "unlawful assembly" and band members actually buried their instruments (many of which were brought back to Butlers years later for repair). William's business suffered as a result. Around this time too William's wife, Nellie, died. Further troubles were encountered during the Civil War (1920-1923) when, 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 is thought that 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.

William's company was by now in severe financial difficulty. It appears William and his children moved back to their old Abbey St. home in 1927 and I have been told that the company closed down in the same year. However, from a newspaper clipping in a family scrapbook, dated 21 November 1933 (publication unknown), we know that "The firm of Messrs. J. Butler...is still being carried on at 2 Lr. Abbey St., although the head of the firm, Mr. W. J. Butler, died a few weeks ago." William had died in Jervis St. Hospital in Dublin on 2 November of pneumonia and cardiac failure.

I have been told by a family source that William had a cousin (type unknown) from Dublin named Kate Lynch (William'a mother's maiden name was Lynch), who worked in Paris in the mid-1910s, possibly as a governess. The story goes that she subsequently moved to St. Petersburg in Russia with the same family she worked for in Paris. Following the departure of this family from St. Petersburg, Kate stayed on as governess to the family of the crown prince, later Czar Nicholas II. It is said that during the Revolution of 1917, she escaped from St. Petersburg in a cattle-truck. A 1901 census record has been located for a Kate Lynch, a 27-year-old Dublin-born governess, who may possibly be our Kate. She is described in the census return as a visitor in the household of Joseph and Henrietta Scott who lived at 9 Synott Place, Inns Quay, Dublin and who had three children aged 10 and under.

William's cousin Kate had a brother, John J. Lynch, an electrician who spent many years in West Africa, including 10 years working for the Ashanti Goldfields Corporation in what is now Ghana. He was also a 'Togoland Volunteer' during the Togoland Campaign of 1914. We also know, from a letter to a newspaper in 1916, that John and Kate returned to Dublin for a holiday in March or April of that year and were caught up in the 1916 Rising. This letter, from a newspaper cutting in a family scrapbook (publication name and exact date unknown), was written by William and states that John "was on leave to meet his sister, who had been in the war area of France for 18 months, and they were to spend a quiet holiday in their peaceful native town. Mr Lynch was prevented from 'phoning from the G.P.O. by a man who pointed a pistol at him. They spent their holiday watching the fighting in many parts of the city." We have other information about John from UK incoming ship passenger lists. A list from March 1916 - when he was on his way to Dublin to meet up with Kate - tells us that he travelled from Seccondee (now Sekondi), Gold Coast (now part of Ghana) to Plymouth and his age was 45, which means he was born about 1870. A list from 1917 (Sekondi to Liverpool) has an address written underneath his details: 5 Leinster Road, Rathmines, Dublin; and a 1920 list (again Sekondi to Liverpool) gives an address of 59 Edenvale Road, Ranelagh, Dublin. Furthermore, the 1901 census of England lists a 30-year-old Dublin-born apprentice electrical engineer named John Lynch who is boarding in Broadstairs, Kent. I think it likely that this is our John J. Lynch. I would love to establish how exactly John and Kate are related to William. If you can help, please email Helen@HelensFamilyTrees.com.

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, daughter of John GILROY and Mary REILLY, on 13 Aug 1906 in St. Andrew's Church, Westland Row, Dublin. Eleanor was born on 6 May 1885 in Lurgan, Ballyjamesduff, Co. Cavan. She was christened on 10 May 1885 in Lurgan, Ballyjamesduff, Co. Cavan. She died on 16 Nov 1922 in "Lismeen", Howth, Dublin. She was buried in probably St. Fintan's Cemetery, Sutton, Dublin.

Nellie was from Lismeen in the parish of Lurgan, near Ballyjamesduff, Co. Cavan. She worked in the Butler musical instrument shop in Dublin and that was how she met her future husband, William, who ran the business from London. Her address at the time of the marriage was 3 Lower Sandwith St., Dublin, while John's was 27 Brook Green, London. Nellie and William lived on the Summit in Howth, Co. Dublin in a house they named "Lismeen".

Nellie died aged only 37 from "acute gastritis". Her daughter, Jennie, was only 15 years of age at the time and her son, George just five.

24. Winifred Mary BUTLER (George Patrick , George James , 'unknown' ) was born about 1876 in Kensington, London. She died on 2 May 1919 in Park Cottage, Wexford.

The name Winifred Butler is listed in the the 1891 census return for a boarding school on Twickenham Road in Isleworth, 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.

It is not known how Winifred met her Irish husband, John, who was about 20 years older than her but who outlived her by about 20 years. One possibility is that they met through an uncle of Winifred's, Fr. Robert Butler, who was a friend of Cardinal Manning, Archbishop of Westminster, whose confidential secretary was (according to a brief aticle aboout John in the Irish Examiner of 25 April 1936) an uncle of John's. Of course this is just speculation about how they might have met.

Winifred is listed in the 1911 census as living in Mount Talbot, Co. Roscommon with their three children, while John is listed in Wexford, where a branch of his nursery business was located. In 1916 the family was living in Rathdrum, Co. Wicklow, and at the time of her death in 1919 Winifred and John were living at Park Cottage (located between Ballyboggan and Park) just outside Wexford town.

Winifred's death record tells us that she died of "Cancer of Uterus 3 years, Cancerous Cachexia", cachexia meaning wasting. Winifred was just 43 years old when she died.

Winifred married John GALVIN, son of James GALVIN, in 1901 in Fulham or Hammersmith, London. John was born about 1857 in possibly Mount Talbot, Tisrara, Co. Roscommon. He died on 14 Apr 1941 in Park Cottage, Co. Wexford. He was buried in St. Ibar's Cemetery, Crosstown, Co. Wexford.

The Galvin family had operated a nursery business in Co. Roscommon since the 1790s. The dictionary of British and Irish Botanists lists a William Galvin (1756-1832), a "nurseryman with Thomas Galvin, Mount Talbot, Co. Roscommon", presumably relatives of John above. From about 1890 John and his brother James ran the nursery in the grounds of Mount Talbot House (owned by the Talbot family) in Tisrara, Co. Roscommon. The brothers then set up a branch of the nursery in Mount Avon, Rathdrum, Co. Wicklow (where it is 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. The family lived in Park Cottage, a large property, which was eventually sold in 1976.

There is a 1901 census record for a John Galvin, 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 Finerty [a son of John's sister Mary], aged 20, who was a clerk of petty sessions, and a cousin named William Byrne, aged 35, who was a veterinary surgeon.

John was living 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.

John died in his mid-eighties of "gastric carcinoma" (stomach cancer).