John Butler

John Butler (1728-1796), British Indian agent and loyalist leader during the American Revolution, was famous for his military exploits along the New York and Pennsylvania frontiers.

Born in Connecticut, the son of Capt. Walter Butler and Deborah Butler, John moved with his family to the Mohawk Valley of New York in 1742. As a captain in the British military, he served in the French and Indian War (1754-1763) in engagements at Crown Point, Ticonderoga, and Ft. Frontenac. He became a trusted representative of Sir William Johnson, at first commanding Native American auxiliaries and later conducting Indian affairs.

With the coming of the American Revolution, Butler fled with his son and other loyalists (American colonials who felt allegiance to the English crown rather than the urge for independence of the Colonies) to Canada. He continued to take an active role in Indian affairs and in military activities along the frontier of New York. He participated in St. Leger's fruitless British expedition of 1777. Then he began the recruitment of a band of refugee loyalists, called Butler's Rangers. As a major, he commanded these and other loyalists and their Native American allies in an invasion of Pennsylvania's Wyoming Valley in the spring of 1778. His march culminated in an encounter with American colonial troops near Forty Fort, with the subsequent surrender of that post on July 4, 1778. The slaughter of some of the captives (the Wyoming Valley "massacre") has been the occasion of later, highly colored criticism of Butler. Actually, he seems to have tried, with some success, to limit the scope of the atrocities. In the following year Butler's Rangers and the Native American allies were defeated at Newton during the only pitched battle of the American general John Sullivan on his expedition into Iroquois country. In 1780 Butler reached his highest rank, that of lieutenant colonel. His military career was an exceptional one for a loyalist leader: he and his fellow exiles, his son and Sir John Johnson, were successful in raising, commanding, and making real use for the British of the loyalists who had fled from the rebel forces among the Americans. The Revolutionaries responded with the Act of Attainder in 1779 and by confiscating all Butler's property in New York. His wife and younger children were held temporarily as hostages but were eventually exchanged for other prisoners. Butler's eldest son also participated in loyalist military activities until he was killed in action in 1781.

After the war the British rewarded Butler's services with a pension and a grant of land near Niagara. Butler was prominent in the development of a Tory settlement there and served as Indian commissioner. Variously described as sturdy or fat, he lived the remainder of his years in exile, respected by the British and by other refugees for his loyalty and detested by his former fellow colonists in the United States. He died in 1796.

Further Reading

The best account of the activities of John and Walter Butler is Howard Swiggett, War out of Niagara: Walter Butler and the Tory Rangers (1933).

London architect, who in 1895 was appointed Architect and Surveyor to the Metropolitan Police. He collaborated with Norman Shaw on the extensions to New Scotland Yard (1904–6), and himself designed the Police Court and Station, Old Street, Shoreditch (1906), a Mannerist building with a Baroque centrepiece.

Bibliography

• A. S. Gray (1985)

The full bibliography for this book is available to download as a pdf file.
Download the bibliography for A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (PDF: 1.2MB)

Butler, John (b Greenwood, Miss., 29 Sept. 1918, d New York, 11 Sept. 1993). US dancer, choreographer, and ballet director. He studied at the Graham School and at the School of American Ballet. He danced with the Martha Graham company (1945-55), where he inherited some of Merce Cunningham's roles, and appeared in musicals and on television. In 1944 he appeared on Broadway dancing the lead role of Dream Curly in Agnes de Mille's Oklahoma! ballet. He founded his own company in 1955 (later renamed American Dance Theater), which toured Europe; it disbanded in 1961. He was best known as a choreographer, both prolific and well-travelled, and enjoyed a higher reputation in Europe than in the US. He was one of the first dancemakers to marry classical ballet and modern dance. He choreographed for Broadway, New York City Opera, Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Australian Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, Batsheva Dance Company, Harkness Ballet, Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet, Netherlands Dance Theatre, Paris Opera Ballet, Pennsylvania Ballet, and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. He choreographed the world premiere of Menotti's The Unicorn, the Gorgon and the Manticore (1956), later taken into the repertoire of New York City Ballet, and frequently collaborated with Menotti. He made Carmina Burana for New York City Opera in 1959, staging it for Netherlands Dance Theatre in 1962, and for Pennsylvania Ballet in 1966. Carmina Burana became his most popular work, produced by more than 30 companies. After Eden (mus. Lee Hoiby, 1967), a pas de deux created for the Harkness Ballet, also achieved widespread success. Portrait of Billie, based on the life of the blues singer Billie Holiday, was choreographed for Carmen de Lavallade and himself in 1960 and premiered at the Newport Jazz Festival. It was taken into the repertoire of the Ailey company in 1974. At the Spoleto Festival in 1975 he choreographed Medea for Fracci and Baryshnikov, the first new work created for the Russian following his defection to the West; Medea was taken into the ABT repertoire in 1976. He was dance director for Menotti's annual Spoleto festival, and choreographed Menotti's television opera, Amahl and the Night Visitors, in 1951. He also choreographed for television and for ice shows. A noted teacher, he counted Lar Lubovitch and Glen Tetley among his pupils.

• Born: Mar 24, 1908 in San Francisco, California
• Died: Sep 18, 1964 in Studio City, California
• Occupation: Writer
• Active: '40s-'50s
• Major Genres: Western, Crime
• Career Highlights: My Pal Trigger, Don't Fence Me in, Flaming Fury
• First Major Screen Credit: Raiders of Sunset Pass (1943)

Biography

For other persons of the same name, see John Butler.

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Bust of John Butler at the Valiants Memorial in Ottawa

John Butler (1728-1796) was a Loyalist who led an irregular unit known as Butler's Rangers on the northern frontier in the American Revolutionary War. He led Seneca and Cayuga forces in the Saratoga campaign. He later raised and commanded a regiment of rangers.

Contents 1 Background 2 Revolutionary War 3 Post-war years 4 Legacy 5 References 6 References

Background

John was born to Walter Butler and Deborah Ely, née Dennison, in New London, Connecticut in 1728.^[1] His family soon moved to the frontier in the Mohawk Valley near modern Fonda, New York. In 1752, he married Catherine Bradt, and the couple raised five children. He knew several Indian languages and was employed as an interpreter.

In 1755, he was made Captain in the Indian department and saw service in the French and Indian War. He saw action at Fort Ticonderoga, the Battle of Fort Frontenac, the Battle of Fort Niagara, and Montreal. At the Battle of Fort Niagara he was second in command of the Indians.

After the war he came home, and built his estate up to 26,000 acres (105 km²) at Butlersburg, near Caughnawaga. He was second only to Sir William Johnson as a wealthy frontier land owner. He was a judge in the Tryon County court. he was appointed Lt. Colonel of Guy Johnson's regiment of Tryon County militia. Butler worked under Sir William Johnson in the Indian department. Butler was one of the two members representing Tryon County in the New York assembly.

Revolutionary War

Butler returned to service as a Loyalist when the American Revolution turned to war in 1775. In May, 1775, he left for Canada in the company of Daniel Claus, Walter Butler, Hon Yost Schuyler and Joseph Brant. On July 7, they reached Fort Oswego and in August, Montreal. He was involved in the defense of Montreal against an attack lead by Ethan Allen. In November, Carleton sent him to Fort Niagara with instructions to keep the Indians neutral.

His oldest son Walter Butler served with him, but his wife and other children were detained by the American rebels.

In March, 1777 he sent a party of about one hundred Indians to Montreal to force the Americans out of Quebec. In May, Butler received instructions to employ a body of the Six Nations in an attack on New York. On June 5 he received instructions to send as many Indians as he could to Fort Oswego for an attack on Fort Stanwix as a part of the Saratoga campaign. He was put second in command of the Indians, under Daniel Claus.

He led the Indians and a small number of Loyalists in a successful ambush in the Battle of Oriskany. As a result, after this expedition he was commissioned a lieutenant colonel and given authority to raise his own regiment, which became known as Butler's Rangers, initially with a strength of eight companies. He traveled back to Fort Niagara and the first company was completed in December.

In July 1778, Butler led his rangers and Iroquois allies at the Battle of Wyoming, in which he defeated Zebulon Butler and took Forty Fort. The Patriots suffered heavy losses, and after the battle many homes in the area were burned. Later, the battle was referred to as the Wyoming Valley massacre because some of the victorious Loyalists and Iroquois were said to have executed and scalped prisoners and fleeing enemy soldiers. Later that year, after the burning of Tioga, his son Captain Walter Butler led two companies of rangers and 300 Iroquois allies in a raid which was later referred to as the Cherry Valley massacre. The name of Butler was thereafter anathema to the rebels.

His unit of rangers was spread through frontier outposts from Niagara to Illinois. Butler himself commanded from Fort Niagara. In 1779, he was defeated by the Sullivan Expedition at the Battle of Newtown, and withdrew to Fort Niagara.

Post-war years

At the end of the Revolution, Butler once again turned to farming in the Niagara region. He became one of the leaders of Upper Canada, later called Ontario. He was a Deputy Superintendent for the Indian Department, a Justice of the Peace, and the local militia commander. He was also prominent in establishing the Anglican Church and Masonic Order in Ontario.

Butler died at Niagara on May 12, 1796. His wife had died earlier. He was survived by three sons and a daughter.

Legacy

In 2006, Lt-Col Butler was honoured by the Canadian Government with a life-sized bronze bust located at the Valiants Memorial in Ottawa. He was a key player in the founding of British North America.

References

1. ^ Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online

References

• An account of the actions of John Butler and his son Walter Butler during the American Revolution can be found in Williams, Glenn F. Year of the Hangman: George Washington's Campaign Against the Iroquois. Yardley: Westholme Publishing, 2005.
• Cruikshank, Ernest, The Story of Butler's Rangers and the Settlement of Niagara, 1893

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