Shep's Place Family Tree

Three letters have been preserved which were written by James to his father at Chesham. They seem to suggest that James became a junior schoolteacher and later a schoolmaster. The first letter, dated 6 June 1833, when James was eleven, was written at a school run by a Mr. Fentiman at Chesham. That one may have been a school exercise with James still living with his parents. The second letter, 28 April 1834, came from Manor House School at Kings Langley which is about seven miles east of Chesham. Probably James was living at the school, but had he simply transferred to a superior school, or had he become a junior teacher? Kings Langley is three miles south of Hemel Hempstead where his Uncle William Buttfield and Aunt Elizabeth were living at the time.

There is then a gap until 30 September 1842 when the third letter was written from Hinton Charterhouse in Somerset, which is about six miles south of Bath. the letter does not indicate whether James was writing from school, but his presence in his parent's house in Chesham when the 1841 census was taken might have been explained by a school being closed for the summer holidays.

From his marriage certificate, we know that James Buttfield, aged 29 years, son of Joseph Gutteridge Buttfield, grocer of Chesham, was married on 26 November 1851 at the Baptist Chapel Newbury, Berkshire to Mary Hughes, aged 21 years, daughter of Robert Hughes, farmer of Newbury. James was a bachelor who was residing at Northbrook Street, Newbury; and Mary was a spinster, living at Bartholomew Street, Newbury. They were married in the presence of Willilam Hughes, Elizabeth Keens, Joseph Druce, and Mary Keens. The Registrar was Thomas Ward.

In 1854 a book of poems by James Buttfield was published both in Leeds and London. it was entitled "The threefold Cord" with the subtitle "Musings of Faith, Hope and Love." After his death in 1874, his widow Mary was obliged to have some, or all, seven of their children cared for by Spurgeon's Home.