Butterworth, John

Introduction:

During the last decade of the C18th Leeds-born JOHN BUTTERWORTH ( 1765-1822 ), a second generation engraver and copper-plate printer of the town, began crafting skilled profiles on card, ivory and flat glass. Well regarded by collectors, his extant works are extremley rare as his profile taking endeavours seemingly ceased when he assumed control of the family's engraving business some time before his fathers death in May 1804.

Butterworth produced bust-sized and 3/4 length profiles on card and exclusivly bust-sized work on flat glass and ivory. Doubtless a topically commercial 'memento mori', his earliest recorded work, dated May 1790 was sold at Bonhams (London) 7th October 2003. The sole example of a plain black profile it was painted on card, housed in a pressed brass frame and inscribed under the truncation 'The Reverend John Wesley. Died March 22nd 1791 aged 88. Taken from the life by J. Butterworth, Leeds, May 1st 1790'.

All other known profiles evidence quality detailing of sitter's attire, all bust-lines evidence a 'nick', or occasionly two, to indicate the demarcation of a sitter's arm. As befits an engraver's practised hand etched works on flat glass are deftly deliniated. And it would be instructive to have been able to view his, probably unique, rendition of a Leeds (?) Fruit fair. Painted on flat glass, signed and measuring 38.5 cm by 10 cm, numerous figures were said to be worked in gold and sepia. Framed in giltwood it sold at Sothebys (London) 26th March 1962.

While never advertising profile taking in newsprint his trade-label, headed by the image of a female profile, was doubtless engraved and printed by a Butterworth hand. It reads 'PROFILES IN MINIATURE, Taken in the most perfect Likeness & Reduced to any Size suitable for Rings, Broaches, &c. By JOHN BUTTERWORTH Jnr. Opposite the Vicarage, Kirkgate, LEEDS'.

In May 1759, John Butterworth Snr (ca 1730-1804) first advertised '...all kinds of Engraving Work' from Bull-and-Bell Yard, Briggate in the LEEDS INTELLIGENCER. Seven years later, the same newspaper recorded 'Painter' Joseph Butterworth (1742-1828) at the same address. Offerng coach, sign and house painting, crests and gilding, interestingly he also offered to '...clean, line and copy pictures Large or in Miniature for Rings and Bracelets' which suggests profilist Butterworth's artistry was already 'in the blood'. Almost certainly Joseph was John Butterworth Snr's brother and likely the 'Painter-unattributable' in the 1772 Manchester directory as William, the profilist's brother, mentions a Manchester-based uncle in his seafaring memoirs.

Regarding his personal circumstances, John Butterworth was the eldest of 5 children, 3 sons and 2 daughters, born in Leeds to Ann, née Rushforth (1735-1791) and John Butterworth Snr,  between 1765 and 1776. His mother Ann died of 'dropsy' in 1791, and his father's obituary appeared in the WAKEFIELD STAR in May 1804. Of his siblings, Robert, born in 1774, died aged 19 in September 1793. Ann, born in 1767, married a 'warehouseman' in 1791, and died of 'childbed' in August 1794, while Charlotte, born in 1776, died of a 'decline' in December 1809.

Undoubtedly of all the siblings, William Butterworth, born in 1769, had the most singular experiences. Absconding from home in his mid-teens, and taking ship in Liverpool as an inexperienced 'landsman', his unvarnished account of serving on slave ships and merchantmen became his well-written, often harrowing narrative 'Three Years' Adventures of a Minor in England, Africa, West Indies, South Carolina, and Georgia', published in Leeds in 1831. Cordially reunited with family, perhaps unsurprisingly, he became an engraver. The frontispiece of 'Three Years...' , engraved by himself, depicts a well-executed self-portrait and, perhaps encouraged by his brother, he describes in the book '...painting in crayons and oil for improvement'. And the book's portrait is certainly an improvement on another held by Leeds Art Gallery. Marrying in September 1791, then again in June 1800, before dying at Headingley, aged 65, his fulsome obituary appeared in the LEEDS MERCURY 11th October 1834.

Regarding the engraving enterprise, John Butterworth Snr relocated to Kirkgate ca.1760, where the venture remained until 1822. In January 1811, the LEEDS INTELLIGENCER recorded the merging of the business with that of Christopher Livesey (1757-1815). Formerly apprenticed to Butterworth Snr, Livesey's daughter Ann (born 1779) had married widower William Butterworth in June 1800, and in November 1819, Livesey's son John (1796-1862) was employed by the company, which between 1811-1859 traded as Butterworth, Livesey and Co.

John Butterworth Jnr, like his surviving brother, was twice-wed. In September 1784, he married Dinah Swift (1762-1814). Born in 1794, their only offspring, John #3, died of 'dropsy' in 1797. A LEEDS MERCURY  obituary 16th April 1814 records his wife's death '...aged 51, after a long indisposition sustained with Christian fortitude...'. A year later, in August 1815, he wed Mary Widdop (1796-1860). Their only child, William Henry Butterworth, born in March 1819, eventually ran the business until his death aged 40 in 1859. Four years after John Butterworth Jnr's own death, the LEEDS INTELLIGENCER 26th October 1826 records the marriage of his widow Mary to widowed engraver John, the son of the Butterworths' deceased partner Christopher Livesey.

Dying at his New End Road abode, his obituary in the LEEDS INTELLIGENCER 11th February 1822 related 'on Friday [8th February], aged 57, Mr. John Butterworth, engraver of this Town'. He was interred at Chapel Allerton, Leeds, on 10th February.

REVISED: 28 March 2026 (Brian Wellings)

 

 

 

 

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