Biography:John Buttery

Biographical notes
 JOHN BUTTERY was born in 1784 in Lincolnshire, England, and was recruited as a boy into the British army's 34 Regiment in 1797 from the parish poorhouse. At the time the army was recruiting boys 12-15 from the poorhouses to fill regimental ranks to 1000. He was first married in 1799 while in the army at the age of 15 to his spouse, Ann Maplestone, was aged 14, with the consent of their fathers. In 1800 he was shipped out to South Africa with his regiment for the Third Kaffir War and remained there for a few years (sometimes sick in hospital) until being sent to India. He remained with the 34th in India until 1812, where it was recorded he was both a drummer and fife musician. On returning to England in 1812 he served garrison duty with the Royal Veterans Battalion, and was finally discharged in July, 1814, where he returned to his wife and child. Buttery married a second time in Lincoln in 1816 to Mary Ann Talkes, and with her had another 11 children, surviving on his army pension and perhaps was employed in a nursery (the 1841 census finds him living with his family at Pennels Nursery, High Street, Lincoln). He and his wife, along with two of their children, emigrated to Canada in 1849 (the rest of the children remaining in England). Buttery died in 1854. He carried his music manuscript with him to Canada, tended by subsequent generations until donated by the family in 2019 to Fort York (City of Toronto).