William BUTTERS

BUTTERS, WILLIAM (b. Hibalstow, Lincs, England, Jan 1810; d. Brixton, Devon, England, 10 Oct 1887). Wesleyan Methodist minister.

The son of John and Mary Butters, William Butters was received into the Wesleyan ministry in 1833, and was sent as a missionary to VDL a year later. His first appointment was to the penal settlement at Port Arthur for two years. His next fifteen years were spent preaching and building up congregations in VDL, at Hobart, Campbell Town, Ross and Launceston. On 22 March 1842 he married Jane Middleton Waterhouse, eldest daughter of the Rev John and Mrs Waterhouse. In 1850 he was moved to Melbourne, where in 1851 he became the first chairman of the newly formed Victoria District of the Wesleyan church.

Butters' considerable talents as a preacher administrator and innovator were severely tested as Vic coped with the gold rush. Under his leadership, the Wesleyan Immigrant's Home was established to give temporary accommodation, the Rev Samuel Waterhouse was appointed to a bush ministry; money was raised to pay for another six ministers to be brought from England. As chairman of the District he visited all the new areas and applied to the government for the land grants that were needed for new churches. Not only churches but schoolhouses were built with the aid of government money so that the Wesleyans became active in education through their day schools in Victoria.

In 1855 the first Australasian Conference of the Wesleyan Methodists was held in Sydney and under the itinerant system Butters was moved to Adelaide, where he was chairman of the Adelaide District for seven years, stationed first at Archer St, then at Pirie St. In 1858, he was the president of the Australasian Conference. Butters returned to Melbourne in 1861, but ill-health made a trip to England desirable, where he represented the Australasian Conference at the British Conference in 1863. He did not return, but became a supernumerary of the Australasian Conference and resided in Brixton, where he died on 10 Oct 1887.

His official obituary described him as 'a preacher of great power' of sound judgment, and wide tolerance; a wise administrator unsparing of himself in the performance of his duties'. 'His long life bore indisputable testimony to his unwavering faith and hope in God through Christ.'

Wesleyan Methodist Minutes etc, UCA Archives Melbourne; The Spectator 28 Oct 1881; Wesleyan Methodist Conference Minutes (English) 1888, 16-7

AUSTIN HEAD