Call us for a free consultation
801-531-0920
Home
Resources
Immigrant Servants Database
Services
Contact Us
Testimonials
About Us
Case Studies
Blog
menu
Home
Resources
Immigrant Servants Database
Services
Testimonials
About Us
Case Studies
Blog
Contact Us
Immigrant Servants Database
Search
Advanced Search
Learning Center
About
Research Services
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
Individual Record
Name
Surname:
Butler
Given Name:
Eleanor
Soundex Code:
B346
Birth, Christening and Other Information
Gender:
Female
Nation:
Ireland
Orphan:
Unknown
Position in Parent's Family:
Unknown
Landowner:
Unknown
Literate:
Unknown
Convict:
Unknown
Length of Indenture
Year of Indenture:
about 1681
Place of Indenture
Colony:
Maryland
Research Notes
Proof of Immigrant Servant Status:
"A very interesting case came up which brought about the repeal of the law of 1681. Among the servants brought over by Lord Baltimore was one named Eleanor, who later became famous in the court records as 'Irish Nell.' When Baltimore returned to England, he sold her to a planter, who soon married her to a negro slave named Butler. When Baltimore learned of this, he used his influence in securing the repeal of the law, but as Nell was married while the law was in force she and her children were held as slaves. Nearly a century later - September 1770 - William and Mary Butler, descendants of Irish Nell, petitioned the court for freedom ont he ground that they had descended from a white woman. The Provincial Court granted them freedom, but the Court of Appeals reversed the decision on the ground that Nell was a slave before the passage of the act of 1681. Once more the case was revived in 1787, when Mary Butler, daughter of William and Mary, petitioned for freedom. This time the slave was successful, both courts deciding in her favor."
Source Citations:
(1) Eugene Irving McCormac, "White Servitude in Maryland 1634-1820," Johns Hopkins University Studies in Historical and Political Science, ser. XXII, no. 3-4 (1904), 68-69, quoting Harris and McHenry's Reports, I, 374, 376; (2) Paul Heinegg, "Butler Family Data," Free African Americans in Colonial America, http://www.freeafricanamericans.com/Butler.htm; (3) Daniel Meaders, Dead or Alive: Fugitive Slaves and White Indentured Servants before 1830 (New York: Garland Publishing Inc., 1993), 169-170, quoting Ira Berlin, Slaves Without Masters: The Free Negro in the Antebellum South (New York, 1974), 33-34.