Biography

Little is known about Katherine Butler, a compiler of St. Paul's Cathedral Library MS 52.D.14. She received the volume as a gift from her father in 1693 . Butler wrote prose and poetry in the volume from 1696 to 1745. When she received it, the volume contained sermons transcribed by Knightley Chetwode, whom G.R. Potter and E.M. Simpson, editors of The Sermons of John Donne, have identified as the eldest son of Richard Chetwode, Esquire, of Chetwode, Buckinghamshire, and Oakley, Staffordshire, and his wife Anne, a daughter and co-heiress of Sir Valentine Knightley, of Fawsley, Northamptonshire (p. 41). It seems reasonable to suggest that Katherine Butler's father may have had some link with this family. A pedigree of the Chetwodes of Chetwode indicates that the compiler of the manuscript died without offspring, but that he had a nephew, John Chetwode, who became chaplain to James, Duke of Ormonde, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (Stephen Tucker, Pedigree of the Family of Chetwode of Chetwode, co. Bucks; of Oakley, co. Stafford; Worleston, co. Chester; and of Warkworth, co. Northampton; with their Charters and Other Evidences... (London: Mitchell and Hughes, 1884), p. 30). The Dukes of Ormond were Butlers. Another link has been found between the Butler and Chetwode families: in a summary of wills proved in the Prerogative Court of the Archbishop of Armaugh, a James Butler of Dublin mentions two nieces, Ann and Elizabeth Chetwode. His will is dated 1734 and was probated in 1742 (Wallace Clare, ed., The Testamentary Records of the Butler Families in Ireland (Genealogical Abstracts) (Peterborough: privately printed, 1932), p. 39, number 204). No link has been found between Katherine Butler and the Chetwode family, but this potential Irish connection might lead to further discoveries.

St. Paul's Cathedral Library: MS 52.D.14
Commonplace book of poetic and prose extracts, begun 1696 (1696-c.1745. The flyleaf suggests that Butler acquired the manuscript in 1693 from her father. The two sections of her commonplace book (poetry and prose) each begin with the date 1696. The final item Butler compiled in the poetry section is probably taken from a printed work of 1720. The penultimate item Butler compiled in the prose section is dated 1745. Three later hands added to the volume after this.)
Katherine Butler (owner, scribe)

St. Paul's Cathedral Library: MS 52.D.14
Commonplace book of poetic and prose extracts, begun 1696 (1696-c.1745. The flyleaf suggests that Butler acquired the manuscript in 1693 from her father. The two sections of her commonplace book (poetry and prose) each begin with the date 1696. The final item Butler compiled in the poetry section is probably taken from a printed work of 1720. The penultimate item Butler compiled in the prose section is dated 1745. Three later hands added to the volume after this.)
Katherine Butler (owner, scribe)