We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 December 2020
All his life William Blake was a poor man, earning his living as a professional engraver, transcribing the genius and feeding the avarice of other men. Those who recognized his own genius were rare and unfashionable; their scarcity made Blake at times a bitter man, but their existence kept him alive. The man who most faithfully and consistently nourished Blake with cash and commendation was Thomas Butts.
1 Ada Briggs, whose useful article “Mr. Butts, the Friend and Patron of Blake,” The Connoisseur, xix (Oct. 1907), 92–96, is the soundest, was sister-in-law of the Capt. Butts who inherited the original Thomas Blake collection. Mona Wilson, The Life of William Blake (London, 1948), p. 363, acknowledged her “account of Thomas Butts is based on information kindly supplied by Mrs. Colville-Hyde,” widow of Capt. Butts. The Gilchrists and Rossettis depended on Capt. Butts himself.
2 Briggs says 1844; G. Keynes, Letters from William Blake to Thomas Butts 1800–1803, facs. ed. (Oxford, 1926), p. vi, says 1846.
3 E.g., J. Bronowski, William Blake 1757–1827: A Man without a Mask (Pelican Books, 1954), p. 62; D. V. Erdman, Blake, Prophet Against Empire (Princeton, 1954), pp. 268, 356; Mona Wilson, p. xv; Mary Butts, The Crystal Cabinet (London, 1937), pp. 16, 164.
4 The early part of the Butts genealogy in Sophia Kelly, The Life of Mrs. Sherwood (London, 1854), p. 5, was unopposedly condemned by a number of correspondents in N&Q in the 1850's and 1860's; no descendant of Bishop Butts is identified; and there is no chance that Mrs. Sherwood, who was born Mary Martha Butt, was closely related to Thomas Butts (cf. p. 8). Briggs says the bishop was great-uncle to our Thomas.
5 According to his death registration in the General Register Office, Somerset House, London, presumably on the authority of the informant, Thomas Butts [Jr.].
6 This grandson was at the time a schoolmaster. Cf. the “Last Will and Testament of Thomas Butts,” dated 27 Sept. 1844, proved 23 June 1845, now in Somerset House, London; hereafter referred to as Will.
7 Née Cowper, called Betsy, according to Briggs. She seems to have had children by an earlier marriage, for, in his will, Butts speaks of Mary Ann Song, “a daughter of my wife,” Caroline Matilda Baker, who “is also a daughter of my wife,” and “Mary North (the daughter in law of my said Wife).”
8 See statement of 16 May 1816 in the Outletters from the Office of the Commissary General of Musters, P.R.O., London, hereafter referred to as C.G.M., with a date appended if one was attached to the document. Most of the relevant information comes from the biannual or quarterly estimate or record of the expenses of the office.
9 The Selected Work of Tom Paine, ed. H. Fast (London, 1948), Rights of Man, Pt. ii, p. 245. Though the bulk of the correspondence of the office went out over the signature of his chief clerk(s), the Commissary General as late as 1817 earned more than the other 12 men in the office put together.
10 C.G.M., 15 June 1798. According to a note dated 18 Feb. 1805, Butts was appointed Assistant Commissary of Musters on 23 Aug. 1798, presumably on the same terms (to be described later) under which he held the office of chief clerk.
11 C.G.M., 10 Aug. 1807. George Aust was also Secretary and Register of Chelsea Hospital; cf. The Nineteenth Report of the Commissioners of Military Enquiry; Appointed by ACT of 45 GEO. in. Cap. 47. Royal Hospital at Chelsea. Commissary General of Musters. Royal Military Asylum. Ordered, by The House of Commons, to be printed, 26 May 1812, pp. 371–474 of Reports from Commissioners Session 7 January-30 July 1812, Vol. iv.
12 C.G.M. note, 8 Dec. 1812. Aust listed Butts's duties more fully in a note of 28 March 1810: “First Clerk, & Assist': Comsry of Musters—To attend the Muster Master General, or the Deputy Muster Master General; at the time of mustering the Household Troops quartered in London;—to examine, compleat the Docquet, and prove the Rolls;—to muster such of the Household Troops as are out of London;—compleat, and swear to, their Rolls;—to sign the Regimental Commissions, Certificates of Deaths, Services &c. and to superintend the entry of them; to prepare all Letters, and to answer all Letters on Business to Individuals; to attend personally, as well the various Department of Government as, the War Office, and all other Offices that communicate with this Office;—to receive, pay, and keep, the Cash Account;—prepare the Estimate, Debentures, & other public Documents; to examine the several Adjutants Rolls as received, & to enter the receipt of them; to report their deficiencies and inaccuracies; and to give daily attendance to inspect every matter and proceeding relative to the Office.”
13 E. W. Gilboy, Wages in Eighteenth-Century England (Cambridge, Mass., 1934), p. 220, says that the annual wage of a London laborer in 1790 averaged? 30.
14 See Erdman, p. 268; cf. n.22 of this article.
15 Poetry and Prose of William Blake, ed. G. Keynes (London, 1948), pp. 836–837; 840. There are over 100 colored drawings and paintings which once belonged to Butts that might be described as “small Pictures from the Bible.” Cf. A. Gilchrist, The Life of William Blake, ed. W. Graham Robertson (London, 1907), catalogue of Blake's art work.
18 23 Sept. 1800. All the Butts-Blake correspondence is quoted from the facs., ed. Keynes, op. cit.
17 But see n.40 of this article. In a C.G.M. note of 11 March 1813 asking for a raise, Butts complained that he had to travel 500 miles a year for the government without being paid expenses.
18 Inexplicably dated 1801 in the catalogue of his works; cf. Gilchrist, op. cit. It is reproduced in Briggs. The miniature of Thomas Butts, Jr., in the British Museum, signed “WBlake Pinx,” was probably painted shortly after Blake returned from Felpham in 1803, though it is dated ca. 1810 in the catalogue. There is also a miniature of Mrs. Butts in the British Museum signed “1809 WBlake pinx.”
19 Letters of William Michael Rossetti, eds. C. Gohdes and P. F. Baum (Durham, N. C, 1934), p. 15.
20 John Birch (1745?—1815), surgeon of St. Thomas Hosp., London, enthusiastic àdvo cate of the use of electricity in medicine, frequently mentioned by Blake; e.g., “My -wife continues well, thanks to Mr. Birch's Electrical Magic,” letter to Hayley, 18 Dec. 1804, Poetry and Prose, p. 902.
21 Quoted in Briggs. Wilson, p. 84, quotes the diary as follows; 13 May 1800: “Mr. and Mrs. Blake and Mr. T. Jones drank tea with Mama,” and 13 Sept. 1800: “Mr. Blake breakfasted with Mama.” One of these transcribers must have been unforgiveably careless, and since no reference is given in either case, the facts cannot be verified. Briggs gives the dates of Thomas, Jr. as 1788–1862.
22 According to his letter of 11 Sept. 1801 Blake asked his new friend John Johnson, Cowper's cousin, to call on Butts, but Johnson characteristically forgot. However, a passage in Blake's letter of 10 Jan. 1802 seems to indicate that Butts was not familiar with either Blake's close friend John Flaxman or his sister Maria Flaxnan, both of whom were well-known artists.
23 Presumably as one of the additional clerks needed because musters were taken monthly instead of bi-annually from 1798; cf. Nineteenth Report, p. 392.
24 C.G.M., 12 April 1810. According to Briggs, Joseph Edward Butts was the eldest son, who ran through a fortune, and was disinherited. The present will indicates no disinheritance, but his wife Sarah is mentioned there as a widow.
25 In Jan. and Feb. 1811 a sharp series of notes was exchanged between the Commissary. General of Musters and the Secretary at War because J. E. Butts had, without the knowledge or permission of the Muster Master General, rented several rooms in the C. G. M. office to a person who had no connection with the office, and had pocketed the rent himself. Aust did his best to conceal the culpability and identity of his light-fingered clerk.
26 C. G. M., 23 Jan. 1809; 26 Jan. 1810; 9 Jan. 1811.
27 C. G. M., 22 March 1810: “the ordinary attendance in my Department is daily from ten to three o'Clock, Sundays excepted”; an hour can be subtracted for lunch, surely. In 1808, and 1809 the brothers were paid for putting in 950–1,160 hours of overtime.
28 Besides the statement signed by the Chief Clerk to the effect that his sons had performed the specified overtime, a note by Aust, 10 April 1812, states that “My Chief Clerk is the sole Person through whose Hands the Money transactions of this Department … pass…”
29 After 1810 no more overtime was permitted, and the hours were increased to 10–4 o'clock, according to a note of 31 July 1810.
30 See H. M. Margoliouth, William Blake (Oxford, 1951), p. 2. Gilchrist was told “by those who remember him” that James was “ill calculated for great prosperity in the hosiery, or any other line,” and that he found getting or keeping money a difficult task (Gilchrist, Life, ed. R. Todd, London, 1942, p. 243). It should be noted that the Imperial Calendar is unreliable. The C.G.M. makes no mention of James Blake, but obvious omissions are frequent in these documents, particularly after 1812, when the expense records ho longer carry the names of the officers.
31 In 1801 the penny post became the two-penny post. The Clerk of the Letter Bills was Tho. Butts. The Imperial Calendar gives the same informatiom from its start “in 1809.
32 At this time the C.G.M. hours were 10–3 o'clock.
33 C.G.M., 10 Aug. 1807. It was thought until 1803 that Woodman would be able to return.
34 Cf. Nineteenth Report, pp. 454–455, quoting C.G.M. account of 1810.
35 C.G.M., 16 May 1816; the amount over? 600 which Butts would have earned in fees was to be added to the salaries of the junior clerks.
36 These same figures for 1811 are given in the Nineteenth Report, pp. 393 and 454–455, where it is further pointed out that though Butts received a total of? 802 4s. 6d. in 1811, he paid a tax of ?12 18s. 5d., and as a “Gratuity to a Superannuated First Clerk, ?197 6s. 6d.”
37 Butts was paid ?706 Is. in 1804, ?799 in 1805 and ?746 in 1806 (C.G.M., 11 April 1807), all of which of course had to be exactly divided with Woodman.
38 Blake to Butts, 10 Jan. 1802.
39 These Ballads may be referred to in Blake's letter of 22 Nov. 1802, in which he says he is enclosing some Ballads by Hayley. It seems likely that these 4 entries for Hayley's Ballads represent 1 entry for each of the 4 printed.
40 Item 23 of the Sotheby “Catalogue of Drawings by William Blake, the property of Captain Butts, grandson of Thomas Butts, Muster Master General, the Friend and Patron of Blake,” 24 June 1903, was an “Account in W. Blake's Autograph amounting to? 14 14s. due from Mr. Butts for eleven drawings delivered on July 8 and August 20,1803, mentioning the Three Maries”; I do not know the whereabouts of this account. Blake mentioned “the three Marys” in his letters to Butts 2 Oct. 1800, 6 July and (probably) 16 Aug. 1803, seven drawings being sent with the last letter. This credit entry probably summarizes the earlier account. Evidently Butts gave Blake some money in advance before he left London, for on 11 Sept. 1801 Blake expressed his sorrow that “I am still so much your debtor.” On 22 Nov. 1802 Blake mentioned that there were still 18 drawings which Butts had ordered but which Blake had not yet produced. At the usual rate of a guinea apiece, only 4 of these seem to have been paid for in advance. If all the pictures sent from Felpham not paid for ahead of time are included in the above credit entry, then if Butts did visit Felpham, as the credit entry hints, it must have been after 22 Nov., and after Blake had had time to complete about 14 more drawings. Perhaps he went in the fall of 1803 to help Blake arrange about returning to London.
41 These Ballads are obviously the 1802 issue, in which each Ballad was sold separately for 2s. 6d. This lot is referred to in Blake's letter to his brother James of 30 Jan. 1803: “I send with this 5 Copies of N4 of the Ballads for Mrs. Flaxman & Five more, two of which you will be so good as to give to Mrs. Chetwynd if she should call or send for them,” Poetry and Prose, p. 864; the odd 3 obviously went to Butts.
42 Presumably these are referred to in Blake's letter of 25 April 1803: “I now send the 4 Numbers for Mr Birch.” Evidently Birch kept one for himself and Butts got the rest. It is likely that both Birch and James Blake were supposed to market their stock of Ballads, but, failing this, they dumped their surplus stock on Butts.
43 Letters from William Blake to Thomas Bulls 1800–1803. Each sum has a check against it. All the first page seems to be in Blake's hand, while the credit side of the second part appears to be written by Butts. The second side is obviously a summary covering at least 3 years. The “History of Masf. Malkin” appeared in 1806 with an engraving and a blurb by Blake, and is probably the first entry on this page which dates after 1803.
44 E. Gosse, “Swinburne and Kirkup,” London Mercury, m (Dec. 1920), 162, quoting a letter from Kirkup dated 20 Nov. 1865. T. W. Reid, The Life, Letters, and Friendships of Richard Monckton Milnes (London, 1890), ii, 222, quotes a letter from Kirkup in which Kirkup said he went to school with Thomas Butts, Jr. The first letter continues: “I don't think they knew Blake's value”; but I don't think this statement calls for refutation.
45 Some of which are reproduced in Briggs.
46 Gilchrist, Life (1942 ed.), p. 392.
47 Most of the dates and sums are given in G. Keynes, A Bibliography of William Blake (New York, 1921), pp. 74–75; the sole exception is quoted in Gilchrist, Life (1942 ed.), p. 376, a receipt signed by Blake for 6 guineas dated 9 Sept. 1806, which paid “for Drawings, Songs of Innocence 6Vc.” This indicates that Blake was selling the Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience as separate works even at this late date.
48 Gilchrist, Life (1942 ed.), p. 223.
49 Will: Butts left money to his son's executors, who lived in Toulouse. Briggs says that besides Joseph and Tom, Jr., there were “several other children, who all died young.” 50 Quoted in M. Wilson, p. 84, no source indicated.
51 Nineteenth Report, pp. 393–394: “It occurred to us … that one or two at least of the duties were become unnecessary, and that at all events the expense greatly exceeded what ought to be deemed a fair remuneration for the execution even of the whole of the enumerated duties. … we suggest further, that the office of Commissary General of Musters might be wholly discontinued, by appointing a branch of the War Office, consisting of two or three Clerks, to carry on the business.” There were frequent complaints about this report by Aust and the clerks. The duties of the office were eventually absorbed by the War Office.
52 Of the 500 or so colored drawings and paintings by Blake which have been catalogued —(Gilchrist, Life, ed. Robertson)—over 200 are known to have belonged to Butts and his descendants. If from this number we eliminate those intended as models to be copied for Blake's great series on Job and Dante, Butts owned over half the remaining works.
53 E. Wolf, II, “The Biake-Linnell Accounts in the Library of Yale University,” Papers of the Bibliog. Soc. of Amer, xxxvn (1st Quart. 1943), 13. Cf. Blake's letter to John Linnell— Poetry and Prose, p. 926—which obviously should be dated 1823.
54 Keynes, Bibliography. The dates in parentheses indicate the watermark of the book; the Marriage, Songs and Urizen (which is not in the Bibliography) can be tentatively dated from the Creditor-Debtor Account. Butts owned a second copy of the Songs (1818) and perhaps another Europe; “On Homer's Poetry & on Vergil” (1821) and perhaps The Ghost of Abel. By Blake's prices in 1818—Poetry and Prose, p. 917—these would have cost well over? 40, not counting the Marriage, The Song of Los, or the last three items. It is likely that Butts bought those of Blake's prophecies and poems that are not included in this catalogue as well.
55 Letter from George Richmond quoted in Gilchrist, Life (1942 ed.), p. 353.
56 According to his death registration, Thomas Butts, [Jr.], was present when his father, “about 88 years” old, died of inflammation of the lung at 17 Grafton St. The day before he died Butts added a codicil to his will disinheriting his grandsons Wellington Halse and Edward Herringham, and reduced his granddaughter Elizabeth's inheritance from? 3,300 to? 2,200.
