Butterfields of Haworth, Stanbury, Keighley and Bingley

[Sherry10]

Thank you for your help which is much appreciated. I think you are right about SarahAnn and her death. I'll go through my records and see. There is one other thing that might be relevant to others also. George Henry Butterfield and his own family later moved into an old house called Fields Farm in Norland. It was very old indeed - dating from about 1600 or so. When it was demolished - about 1956 - there was an article in the paper about it, which quoted him as saying that his Butterfield family had been connected with the property for 200 years. Now GHB knew very well that his family came from the Keighley area - in fact they always said they were connected by family to the 'famous' mill owners, and to Cliffe Castle - so I am puzzled by his statement about Fields Farm?  Was it all pie in the sky - wishful thinking -  or did he have some information, now lost, from SA? Apparently there was some information about the property and the family held by the Halifax Antiquarian Society, but we've not had the opportunity to look properly for it as yet.

[Cliffelinks65]

This is interesting - I wonder why he would say that? Could he have meant a Stark connection, rather than a Butterfield one?

The family was almost certainly right in saying there was a connection to the Butterfields of Cliffe Castle. All my research points to a common ancestry shared by Butterfields in this area, and the Cliffe Castle family definitely are included in that.

There are other "famous" people too - the artist Tom Clifton Butterfield of Keighley appears in the extended tree (maybe I should say VERY extended tree!) as does Sir Herbert Butterfield, the philosopher, who lived in Oxenhope.

I have recently been examining the 1841 census for the area, and, with due regard to the difficulties that this sometimes throws up re ages etc, it is clear that many Butterfields would have had connections with each other, going back into the 1700s, and of which they were probably not aware. Indeed, this may be the subject of another post I should make, as I have some unanswered questions about some families in Keighley on a piece of paper right in front of me now!

All good fun!

Cliffelinks65

[Sherry10]

Wow. This is fascinating. Sounds like you have done some amazing work to produce such an extended tree. Well done. Seems we are short of some documentation though.
 The info from GHB very definitely referred to the Butterfield's - he was quite specific about that. It certainly wasn't the Starks, as they were a Palatine family from County Limerick, where Henry Stark senior was born (despite all the differing answers regarding his birthplace he put in the various census!).

Looking at the Oakworth area, it's still such a rural area - even wild in places with those moors around up, for example at Stanbury, Ponden, and Pitcher clough. In those days it must have been even more so. The directories suggest that even then the population was small. I can quite see that it must have taken quite an effort to trek down the hill to Keighley - no wonder they sometimes used Haworth though even that wasn't exactly handy, especially given Oakworth church wasn't built until the mid 1800s. I'm getting the feeling that they didn't bother to go to church that much, or get children baptised, because it was too much trouble to get there. It feels like they could pretty much do what they wanted up on those remote farms. That may explain those batches of baptisms, when the local vicar did the occasional round up. What do you think? I do agree with you that this is one extended family. They seem to have been tough, independent, and self reliant.

I did manage to persuade one of them to take a DNA test, but not sure how much use that will be!

[Cliffelinks65]

You have raised a very relevant point here - when I started researching and revisited the area a couple of years ago after many years of living elsewhere, it struck me forcibly how remote parts of this area still seem to be.

Of course the Aire Valley itself is really built up now but you don't have to stray far from it to be in open countryside. Travelling from Howarth to Stanbury, and then across the valley to Harehills and Two Laws and back towards Keighley it was striking to think of so many Butterfields living around there 200 or so years ago....and I was left with the strong impression that there must be close relationships between them. This encouraged me to further the research and although I haven't connected everyone, I have connected enough of them to give rise to the tree I now have....and that, as they say, has "grown and grown". I constantly revisit it to correct the amateur errors I made at that time, and I have no doubt there are many more to check out more thoroughly. This is the pleasure of the activity!

In very general terms, it seems to me that Butterfields moved into the towns from the outlying areas as a result of the wool trade. Some settled nearer to Keighley, some went over the hills to the Colne area and  later some moved on to Bradford. There are "early" Butterfields in Bingley too. Again, as a generalisation, farming was supplanted by mill workers at various levels, and with varying degrees of success, e.g the Butterfields of Cliffe Castle being easily the most successful.

My tree also shows evidence of Butterfields moving to America and Australia, although I haven't followed up many of those instances yet.

The biggest downside of all this is the number of Butterfields with the same Christian name - in this case "John" - there are so many! I suppose this applies in most family research, but it can be very frustrating. 

I think you may be right about church attendance too - I think a previous poster in this thread mentioned that people possibly jumped on the nearest cart to take their children to be baptised, and were not particularly fussy about which church they went to - I have many examples of baptisms within the same family being performed in varied locations.

I also wish there were more Non Conformist records available, which I think would help a lot - hopefully these will come in time.

Rambling over....

Cliffelinks65

[sallyyorks]

Hi, another cousin here, most likely descended from Elijah Butterfield and Ann, nee Hoyle, via their son, John Butterfield and Alice (Newell), and their daughter Sarah Ann, b c 1854 in Oakworth. However like the other twigs, mine is equally slippery. We have done so much original research, wading through the records, but still can't be positive...

Hi there Sherry! and welcome to rootschat. Another Butterfield 'cousin' ! and great new info.

...most likely descended from Elijah Butterfield and Ann, nee Hoyle, via their son, John Butterfield and Alice (Newell)

Especially as John and Alice named one of their sons Elijah, and the mass baptisms at 'Oakworth' on Christmas day 1851. Elijah senior was buried there after the cart accident
I have also done a lot research on the Hoyles, as well as the Butterfields. Sending you a PM about this, as don't want to stray too far off Cliffelinks Butterfield topic, but they are quite interesting as well, with a possible link to the Coiners.

...I have a lot of further information about Elijah and Ann, their children,  and the extended family - please let me know if you have any questions and I'll try to help...

Regards,
Cliffelinks65

Hi again Cliffelinks
Do you have anymore up to date info about Elijah, Ann and their children, that is not in the topic? and how is the search for James going?

...The family was almost certainly right in saying there was a connection to the Butterfields of Cliffe Castle. All my research points to a common ancestry shared by Butterfields in this area, and the Cliffe Castle family definitely are included in that.

There are other "famous" people too - the artist Tom Clifton Butterfield of Keighley appears in the extended tree (maybe I should say VERY extended tree!) as does Sir Herbert Butterfield, the philosopher, who lived in Oxenhope...

Not forgetting another 'famous' Butterfield, Henry, the physical force chartist. Convicted of secretly drilling men during the chartist disturbances and sentenced at York in 1848.
posts number #37 and #41
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=694553.36

[Cliffelinks65]

Hello Sally again,

No more info about Elijah I'm afraid, except what has been added by Sherry here, and certainly no further forward with my James - it is still a choice of two! Whoever he is, he ended up in Kildwick, so its not clear whether he came from Stanbury or Newsholm, although Mary in Stanbury, and Isaac and Betty in Newsholm both have clear places in the tree. I don't really see any way forward with this one.

Thanks also for the reminder about Henry!

Cliffelinks65

[sallyyorks]

I do hope you find which one is your James Cliffelinks. You have done so much hard work on the Butterfields, a one name study really.
Something might turn up in the nonconformist records one day, or another record not available at the moment

[Sherry10]

I agree with Sally, I hope you can pin down your James too, I've some time this evening so will sit down and try to produce a tree of it all.

I got into family history really early - whilst at primary school - which meant was able to ask the older relatives for information. I later realised they were evasive about anything they thought unsuitable.
However as they all died out, various things came this way, including SA's bible. Is there any way to post a photo as I'd love to share the inscription with you?

I been away all week and didn't get home till late last night, but am currently surrounded by piles of Butterfield papers, and have found something that is a photocopy from a publication, which on the top of the page says by the 'Halifax Antiquarian Society', and is from pages 136 and 137. It's in that very old typeface style , which suggest it was written a long time ago. It came from my uncle so no detailed reference I'm afraid, but it does refer to Norland Fields farm, and the Butterfield's. It starts 'much might be said of the Butterfield family, who were well known in Halifax in the 18th century, but this is not within our province '. ( More's the pity!).
With the previous page being missing it is hard to get the early part correct, but it goes on to detail the connection with what it calls Norland Fields. In simplified terms, it says that Robert Butterfield acquired the property through marriage to his wife Dorothy, who appears to have inherited it in 1668. Robert left the property to be divided equally between his two sons, James and Robert, when the younger, Robert, should come of age. In 1714 their mother Dorothy obtained their share in the property. She then remarried, to Thomas Holdsworth. From 1730 to 1760 the estate was divided up between the two brothers. In 1760 James conveyed his share, by deed, to his brother Robert ( deed dated November 6th 1760). A month later James made his will, which mentioned lands at Halifax, Pelion and Norland, all of which were to go to Robert. Robert subsequently left the estate to his son, also Robert. It appears it was sold on in 1810 to George Naylor.

It's all interesting, but I'm not convinced that this is actually linked to our Butterfield's. I'd love to know when this was published. Did GHB read of it, put 2 and 2 together and get 5, or did he have some other information?

Yet again nothing is straightforward!

[Sherry10]

Back to Oakworth etc. Looking at a copy of the 1847 map, it's striking how sparsely populated it is. Pitcher Clough appears to be just one or two buildings - a farmhouse perhaps, with a barn - same with Deanfield, ditto with Throstles Nest just across the field. Old Snap has a single building. Ponden has two buildings, plus a third marked 'ruin'. Ponden Mill has a small corn mill, and a larger one marked cotton mill - but it's nothing like the bigger mills of later years. There's a small cluster of cottages around Oldfield House, and perhaps 40 at Stanbury - Haworth isn't much bigger. Its mainly seems to be all little farmsteads.

Incidentally it looks as if Deanfield is up for sale at the moment. The photos show how sparsely populated the area is , even today.  The link is
https://www.primelocation.com/for-sale/details/44455551?search_identifier=8bb3e30db5bc8073687a6882fb577d9a#CCVz6PyRTBJrpYQH.97

I like the bit about the 'wastes of Oakworth' in the description!