Biography
He was educated at the English College, Douai, in France. In 1735 Butler was ordained a priest and promptly received the favor of the Duke of Cumberland for his devotion to the wounded English soldiers during the Battle of Fontenoy. Upon his ordination to the priesthood he held successively the chairs of philosophy and divinity. He laboured for some time as a missionary priest in Staffordshire, held several positions as tutor to young Roman Catholic noblemen, and was finally appointed president of the English seminary at Saint Omer in France (see Colleges of St Omer, Bruges and Liège), where he remained till his death.
In 1745 Butler was commissioned to act as tutor and guide to George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury and his two brothers, James and Thomas Talbot, both afterwards Catholic bishops, on the Grand Tour. On his return he acted as Catholic mission priest in his native Midlands. Butler returned to England in 1749 and was made chaplain to the Duke of Norfolk, whose nephew and heir, the Hon. Edward Howard, Butler accompanied to Paris as tutor. While he was in Paris, Butler completed his Lives.
See An Account of the Life of A. B. by C. B., i.e. by his nephew Charles Butler (London, 1799); and Joseph Gillow's Bibliographical Dictionary of English Catholics, vol. i.
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