Alban Butler

Born in Northamptonshire, he studied at the English College, in Douay, France where he later taught philosophy and theology.

[1] His father died when he was young and he was sent to the Lancashire boarding school run by Dame Alice.

He also prepared material for Richard Challoner's Memoirs of Missionary Priests, a work on the martyrs of the reign of Elizabeth.

[2] In 1745, Butler came to the attention of the Duke of Cumberland, younger son of King George II, for his devotion to the wounded English soldiers during the defeat at the Battle of Fontenoy.

[4] Butler returned to England in 1749 and was made chaplain to the Duke of Norfolk, whose nephew and heir, the Hon.

He laboured for some time as a missionary priest in Staffordshire, and was finally appointed president of the English seminary at Saint Omer in France, where he remained until his death.

[2] During his term as President of the English seminary, Butler also served the bishops of Arras, Saint-Omer, Ypres, and Boulogne-Sur-Mer as their Vicar-General.

B. by C. B., i.e. by his nephew Charles Butler (London, 1799); and Joseph Gillow's Bibliographical Dictionary of English Catholics, vol.

Charles Butler's assertion that "all the notes" were left out of the first edition at the suggestion of Bishop Challoner is exaggerated.

Butler published his original edition of his Lives, many successors have revised and updated the work.