Giles Butcher Family, Debenham, Suffolk

[updated 13 August 2010]

Debenham lies in Loes District, about five parishes southwest of Wilby, about midway between Wilby and Stowmarket. The family of Giles Butcher and descendants is found there from at least the 1630s. I have not researched this family in any detail, but provide some notes based on correspondence (notably from Adrian) and records available in the IGI and elsewhere. In particular, the original register of Debenham has not yet been examined.

The first Giles Butcher in Debenham looks to have come from Polstead, on the southern edge of Suffolk east of Sudbury. There we find the baptisms of the following Butchers (parents names unfortunately not given in the register):

i. Margaret², bp. 28 Oct. 1571 Polstead

ii. Giles, bp. 8 Mar. 1572

iii. Edmund, bp. 4 Dec. 1575

iv. John, bp. 1 June 1578

v. Edmund, bp. 20 Oct. 1581.

The Giles² Butcher bp. in 1572 then appears to have had (the last by wife Elizabeth):

i. John³, bp. 20 Apr. 1600 Polstead

ii. Giles, bp. 17 Apr. 1603

iii. Giles, bp. 30 Oct. 1608 (see below)

iv. Thomas, bp. 19 Jan. 1611

Giles³ (I) Butcher of Debenham is the right age to be the one bp. Polstead 1608. He appears in Debenham on the 1638 list of Able Men of Suffolk and is apparently also there on the 1674 Hearth Tax. Giles mar. in Debenham on 1 Oct. 1633 Susan Daldy, who was bur. 26 Jan. 1658. Giles married secondly Frances “of Wettlesham” (surname not shown) in Debenham on 20 June 1657. She was bur. 20 Oct. 1688. My correspondent suggests that Giles died about 1680.

There are apparently gaps in the record of Giles’ children in the Debenham register, but they appear to have included the following:

i. William, bp. 9 Aug. 1639 Debenham, bur. 2 Feb. 1658

ii. Elizabeth, bp. 19 Dec. 1641

iii. probably Giles, b. abt. 1655 (see below)

iv. Mary, bur. 19 Jan. 1658.

Giles⁴ (II) Butcher, of Debenham, likely son of the previous, was likely born about 1655 and married in Debenham 16 June 1685 Mary Allen. There was a Giles Butcher bur. in Debenham 2 May 1715, likely him. However, there was also a Giles Butcher bur. Worlingworth 17 Aug. 1718 (not otherwise found in the Worlingworth register). Issue:

i. Giles⁵, bp. 14 Feb. 1685/6 Debenham (see below)

ii. Thomas, bp. 28 Jan. 1687/8 (see below)

iii. Marie, bp. 14 Nov. 1689

iv. John, bp. 24 Mar. 1692. Sarah, wife (widow?) of John Butcher was bur. Debenham 10 Feb. 1759.

v. Elizabeth, bp. 25 Dec. 1694. Elizabeth Butcher of Debenham married in Ashfield cum Thorpe 13 Oct. 1724 John Whitman (Wightman, 1694-1771) of Framlingham.

vi. James, bp. 6 Dec. 1703 Debenham (see below)

vii. Anne, bp. 21 Aug. 1706; acc. to tree on Ancestry.com, she married Alexander Cooke in Bedingfield in 1743 (but perhaps that is her niece, dau. of Giles⁵?)

viii. Honour, bp. 29 Nov. 1709, bur. 30 Oct. 1709

Giles⁵ (III) Butcher of Debenham, bp. 1686, appears to have married first in Offton Suffolk in 1709 Elizabeth Smith (Boyd’s Index). His second wife was Sarah. Giles was bur. in Debenham 17 Nov. 1749; Sarah was bur. there 5 Sep. 1754. Children of Giles (III) included:

i. Thomas, bp. Debenham 21 Sep. 1717 (FFHS database)

ii. Benjamin⁶, bp. Debenham 24 Oct. 1717, bur. 27 Oct. 1717

iii. Anne, bp. 22 Nov. 1719

iv. perhaps Giles (IV) who married in Layham, Suff. (next to Polstead) on 6 Nov. 1754 Sarah Newton. A family tree submitted to ancestry.com by J. Beauvais states that he was the father of:

i. Giles⁷ (V), b. Oct. 1755, bur. Debenham 15 June 1821, aged 65. Mar. there on 17 Apr. 1780 Susannah Harvey (1755-30 Jan. 1840) and left descendants.

v. Sarah, d. Giles & Sarah, bp. 17 Jul. 1743, bur. 23 Apr. 1745

vi. Mary (d. Giles & Sarah), bp. 41 Dec. 1745

Thomas⁵ Butcher of Debenham had the following children shown in patron-submitted records on the IGI

i. Mary⁶, bp. 2 July 1711 Debenham

ii. Thomas, bp. 21 Sep. 1718, bur. 25 Sep. 1718

iii. Joseph, bp. 19 May 1716

James⁵ Butcher, bp. Debenham 1703, seems likely to be the James Butcher found in Bedfield, Hoxne District, two parishes to the east, with wife Mary. James Butcher, aged 73, was bur. Bedfield 7 Dec. 1780 (NBI2) – a little off from the James bp. 1703, but possible. Mary Butcher aged 62 was bur. there 21 Oct. 1766. He was one of several James Butchers with wife Mary in this time period, the records being difficult to separate (see accounts of the Wilby family and Henry-Mark Butcher families). James Butcher of Bedfield had the following children:

i. Mary, bp. 1 Aug. 1736 Bedfield (d. of James and Mary)

ii. Elizabeth, bp. 10 Sep. 1738 (shown as d. of James and Elizabeth).

iii. James, bp. 3 Jan. 1740/1 (s. of James and Mary). Bur. Bedfield 19 Jan. 1792, aged 50 (NBI2).

iv. Sarah, bp. 30 Dec. 1743 (shown as d. of James and Elizabeth).

Much earlier in Debenham there was a John Butcher, tiler, of Debenham Market, who left a will dated 18 May 1573 and proven 22 June 1573 (Archdeacon of Suffolk wills, R24/360, W22/229). The will appoints his son Robert executor and leaves him a tenement in Debenham Market as well as lands held of the manors of Butley, Ely, and ____hall in Debenham Market. Also mentioned are the testator’s wife Alice, son Robert, daughter Winifred wife of William Cooper of Beccles(?), and daughter Elizabeth Butcher, along with a small bequest to Elizabeth Butcher, daughter of the late George Butcher of Stoke. Witnesses were Robert ffolkar, Robert Bonde, and Thomas Baton (?). I know nothing further of this family. However, there was an Elizabeth Butcher, dau. of George Butcher, bp. 8 Dec. 1560 Stoke by Nayland, Suff. This is in extreme SW Suffolk on the Essex border – and, intriguingly, is quite close to Polstead. So, perhaps the Giles Butcher line descends from this John Butcher?

A Giles Butcher who left a will in Rearsby, Leicestershire in 1614 does not appear to be directly related to this family.