Access to Archives

The Butler family entered Sussex life in September 1648, when James Butler of London, merchant, purchased Amberley Castle and manor from the Commissioners of sequestrated estates, for £3,341 14s. 2½d. (Close Rolls, 24 Car. 1. p. 20 M.7. Quoted in detail in Sussex Archaeological Collections, vol. 17, p. 218.); the castle had formerly been leased by the Bishops of Chichester for periods of 21 years (see no. 110). The family continued to prosper during the Commonwealth and James Butler received enormous rights of fee-farm in 1652 (see no. 175), which perhaps indicate the beginnings of the family wealth. At the Restoration, the Castle reverted to the See, and it is likely (Sussex Archaeological Collections, vol. 62, p. 41n.) that a lease for 21 years was granted to James Butler in 1661; this lease would have terminated in 1682, at which date there is evidence that his son was granted a lease of the same duration from Bishop Guy Carleton of Chichester. In 1683 the lease was assigned to Sir John Briscoe of Great Harrowden, Northamptonshire, for £4,800, and the Butler family resided at Patcham, and at Michelgrove in Clapham, during the next twenty years; Grace, the widow of the second James Butler, afterwards lived at Rowdell House in Washington.
The third James Butler bought Warminghurst Park in 1702, from William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, who had acquired it in 1676 from Henry Bigland of Gray's Inn, London. Butler created a deer park, and built a new house to the south-east of the old one, which was converted into a farm building (Sussex Archaeological Collections, vol. 55, p. 79n.). The new house 'though it could boast of no architectural beauty... had an appearance of grandeur, and was a very good specimen of a country gentleman's seat (E. Cartwright, The Parochial Topography of the Rape of Bramber (1830), p. 256.).' The property descended to Ann Jemima, the eldest daughter and coheir of the fourth James Butler, her two brothers having died in infancy. In 1805, the estate was sold to Charles, 11th Duke of Norfolk, by the Rev. Roger Clough, husband of Ann Jemima, who bought, instead, Bathafern Park in Denbighshire. On becoming part of the settled estates of the Dukedom, the house was pulled down and its pond and parks were converted into farm land.
There is little evidence of what either house at Warminghurst looked like. A drawing in elevation on an estate map (British Museum Add. MS. 37420; photograph in W.S.R.O., Add. MS. 2155.) by Francis Hill of Canterbury (1707) illustrates the old house, previously owned by William Penn. Until the present collection was deposited, our knowledge of the later house was restricted to two tinted views, each 10½ in. x 7½ in., executed by the water-colour painter Samuel Hieronymus Grimm (1734-94), who was engaged by William Burrell,(For the story of William Burrell, and his connections with Grimm, see W. H. Godfrey and L. F. Salzman (eds.), Sussex Views (Sussex Record Society, 1951.) pp. viii, ix.) the antiquary, to illustrate the antiquities, churches and houses of Sussex. These views of Warminghurst are now in the Burrell Collection (Add. Burrell, 5673, fol. 35.) in the British Museum; the north view is reproduced in Cartwright, (Op. cit., p.256.) the south view can be compared with that by Mrs. Clough (see no. 236). It is a coincidence that the south views were both executed in the same year (1789), because, whereas the house is substantially the same in each picture, the pond is shown by Grimm as scooped out of the ground, and with a long precipitous bank like the edge of a gravel-pit, while the pond in Mrs. Clough's drawing is about on a level with the lower lawn, which is separated by only a small bank from the upper garden and house.
Mrs. Clough's view of Rowdell House (see no. 237) should also be compared with two views by Grimm, also in the Burrell Collection.
The Butler family were active in Sussex affairs. James Butler of Amberley was returned as M.P. for Arundel in 1678/9, 1679 and 1680/1; James Butler of Patcham was returned, 1689/90, and another James Butler in 1705. In one of the county seats, James Butler of Warminghurst was returned in 1714/5, 1727/8, 1734 and 1741, and John Butler (A John Butler was M.P. for East Grinstead, 1741/2.) of Warminghurst in 1747, 1754 and 1761. The latter gentleman has another claim to fame in the much-repeated story (The fullest account is in Sussex Archaelogical Collections, vol. 14, pp. 33, 34.) of his ghostly appearance at Warminghurst at the time of his death some distance away. In more concrete terms, his decease meant the election of a new M.P., and Lord George Henry Lennox was a candidate (see no. 6).
The list of High Sheriffs of Sussex (1129-1914) (Sheriffs of Sussex. 1129-1914 (Privately printed, 1914.).) shows that James Butler of Amberley was sheriff in 1653, and his son in 1677, and that a John Butler was sheriff in 1702. It has been pointed out (Sussex Archaeological Collections, vol. 81, p. 26n.) that T. W. Horsfield in his History of Sussex (vol. I, p. 380) states that William Wilson was appointed High Sheriff in 1653, but the quietus roll in this collection (no. 5) would confirm the appointment of Butler.
Among the distinguished families connected by marriage to the Butlers, the most interesting from the Sussex point of view, is the Rooper family. Edward Rooper, or Roper, of Eltham, Kent, married (see no. 39) Katherine, a daughter of the first James Butler of Amberley. Rooper's career (For his life, see Sussex Archaeological Collections vol. 15, pp. 74-82; The Earl of March, Records of the Old Charlton Hunt (1910); Earl Bathurst, The Charlton and Raby Hunts (1938); Victoria County History, Sussex, vol. 2 (1907), p.441.) was spectacular, and although not mentioned in the Dictionary of National Biography, he was important enough to pose for Sir Godfrey Kneller. (A photograph of this picture can be seen in Earl Bathurst, op. cit., facing p. 17.) He was master of the celebrated Charlton Hunt, near Goodwood, in the days when its fame was national and its patrons royal, and in this capacity he became friendly with the unfortunate Duke of Monmouth. A letter (Published in Sussex Archaeological Collections, vol. 7, pp. 168-172.) from Bishop Guy Carleton of Chichester, describing the reception of the Duke at Chichester in 1679, recounts that no-one had met him or hunted with him, save 'Mr. Butlr of Amberly... and his brother in law Rooper'. The latter was forced to leave the country after the abortive rising of 1685, but returned during the reign of William III and died while hunting at Findon, aged 84.
Katherine, one of the daughters of the second James Butler, married (see no. 40) Thomas Pope Blount, who was a son of Sir Thomas Pope Blount, the politician and author of Censura Celebriorum Authorum (1690), and a grandson of Sir Henry Blount, the traveller, both of whom are entered in the Dictionary of National Biography. The Blounts were connected by marriage to the Caesars of Bennington, Hertfordshire, of whom Elizabeth, possibly a grand-daughter of Sir Charles Caesar (A son of Sir Julius Caesar, who was a judge and Master of the Rolls. See D.N.B.) (an eminent judge and Master of the Rolls), married the third James Butler.
The Butler line terminated in two coheiresses, Ann Jemima and Patty, who married two brothers, Roger and Richard Clough (see nos. 43-46). The Clough family was one of the most distinguished and wealthy families in North Wales whose diversity of talents enlightened the years, from the days of Richard Clough, the Tudor merchant and partner of Sir Thomas Gresham, to the time of Arthur Hugh Clough, the poet and brother of Charles Butler Clough (see nos. 35-37), the inventor, who was Deputy Lieutenant and High Sheriff of Flintshire, and brother of Ann Jemima Clough, the first principal of Newnham College, Cambridge (see no. 10). Blanche Athena, a daughter of Arthur Hugh Clough, also became a principal of Newnham College (1920-23). To continue the name of Butler, most of the thirteen children of Ann Jemima and Patty Clough were given it as a middle name, and it has continued as such to this day in the main branches of the family.

It might appear that the archives in this collection lack homogeneity; that there are two principal families involved (Butler and Clough), with estates in Sussex and North Wales, and that there are properties elsewhere, particularly, large estates in Norfolk, of which the connection with either family is not apparent. This objection is valid, in that the archives available do not illustrate a complete family collection.
The value of this collection is that, besides enhancing our knowledge of local history, it connects with so many families in England and Wales of national importance. It is hoped that the arrangement and cataloguing of these archives have ensured, for all time, that, in the words of Arthur Hugh Clough,('The Silver Wedding' (part of 'Ambarvalia'); H. F. Lowry, A. L. P. Norrington, F. L. Mulhauser (eds.), The Poems of Arthur Hugh Clough (1951), p. 21, 1. 60.) they:
Shall gleam in glories of a deathless day