EDWARD & FRANCIS BUTT

          By Martin R Warburton     

There have been three major shortages of regal coins in the last five hundred years:

- of copper coins in the mid-seventeenth century, which led to the emergence of unofficial copper farthings by traders and town councils.  They are usually referred to as seventeenth century tokens.

- of copper coins in the late eighteenth century, leading to the production of copper traders’ tokens; mostly farthings and halfpennies.  These are often referred to as eighteenth century provincial tokens or ‘Conders’ after the first listing of them by James Conder of Ipswich who both issued and collected the tokens himself.

- of silver coins in the early nineteenth century, which led to Bank of England tokens for three shillings, eighteenpence and ninepence, together with traders’ tokens for denominations up to five shillings.

Each of these events led to a significant increase in the Royal Mint production of copper coins under Charles I and George III and, in the case of silver coins, to the great silver and gold recoinage of 1816.

This article is concerned with the silver nineteenth century tokens.  There are 17 silver tokens listed for Lincolnshire towns in Dalton’s The Silver Token Coinage of 1811 & 1812 published in 1922.  Stamford has two varieties of an eighteenpence token; D17 illustrated above and D16 which is very similar, but the crown is larger and not radiated.  Both tokens were issued by Edward and Francis Butt, and are considered rare.

There is much online about Edward and Francis, and what follows is no more than a brief summary of their lives.

Edward and Francis were probably brothers, or possibly cousins.  Both were born in the late 18th century.  Edward married Elizabeth Sculthorpe; Francis married Ann Welby in 1808.  Edward had two sons Edward (b.1799) and Francis (b.1807), while Francis had at least one child – Francis (b.1812).  These three children would have been too young to have produced the token in 1811, so we are concerned with their fathers.

Edward purchased his Freedom of the Borough in 1799, and Francis in 1810.  Both were described as Drapers and were probably in business together, although when Edward retired in 1823 his business as a Linen and Woollen Draper in the High Street passed to a Mr Beasley.

Both Edward and Francis published their support in The Lincoln, Rutland and Stamford Mercury of July 15, 1814 for Johnson & Eaton’s Bank in Stamford.

Both Edward and Francis were Mayors of Stamford; Edward in 1828 and Francis in 1834, 1835 and 1840.

Edward died in about 1835 in Stamford.  Francis, described as a Mayor and Magistrate, died on 19th February 1840 apparently of apoplexy before or after falling from his horse Ivanhoe.

Many thanks for assistance go to Chris Hunt of the Stamford Local History Society.

A print version can be downloaded HERE