Clare College : William Butler manuscripts

Butler, William (1535-1618) physician

Clare College

William Butler matriculated as sizar from Peterhouse, Lent 1557/8, then took his BA in 1560/1 and MA in 1564, having already been made a Fellow in 1561. He was elected a fellow of Clare in 1572. Despite no formal qualification in medicine, he gained a significant reputation within the medical community; he is known to have acted as physician to James I. Widely considered an eccentric, his restorative techniques were uniquely imaginative. He is said to have once revived a man suffering from an opium overdose by putting him inside the chest cavity of a recently-slaughtered cow, and cured another patient of a fever by having him thrown off a balcony into the Thames. He died 29th January 1617/8 and is buried at Great St Marys, Cambridge.The collection comprises manuscript copies of correspondence and other texts written by William Butler. Evidently the vast majority are not the documents which were sent or received, but rather contemporary drafts or file copies. None of William Butler's letters are dated, neither are any of the recipients clearly identified. Most of the texts are in William Butler's own distinctive hand, some by another, possibly two, scribes.There are also a handful of letters received by Butler - some original, some copied - from significant contemporaries. The correspondents include Samuel Harsnett, Bishop of Chichester (1561-1631) [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(34);return false;'>32</a>], Robert Cecil (1563-1612) [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(32);return false;'>31-R</a>], Susan de Vere, Countess Montgomery (1587-1628/9) [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(35);return false;'>33-R</a>] and Samuel Collins (1576-1651) [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(38);return false;'>35-R</a>]. There is also a manuscript of what appears to be a latin eulogy by William Gager (1555-1622) [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(37);return false;'>34</a>], as well as another anonymous latin verse text [<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(26);return false;'>25B</a>].