Chapman makes mention of a trader "Butler who had long been in the area in 1753 which is probably referring to Maj. Hugh Butler. There is a record in the SC Historical and Genealogical Magazine that Hugh Butler, esq. of Exeter Plantation, J. P. married Anne Colleton [1901 p. 245.] We have not made any connection with the six Butler families who are listed in the 1790 census.
Passing out from Saluda to the neighborhocd of Big Creek, near where Butler Church, Methodist, now stands, we find the old homestead of the Butler family. Capt. James Butler, the founder of the family in Edgefield, came from Prince William County, Virginia, a few years before the breaking out of the Revolutionary war, bringing with him his family.
From Chapman's History of Edgefield County
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Mr. William P. Butler, in some notes. that he gave me of the Butler Family, says: "We have no knowledge of Capt. James Butler prior to his emigrating from Virginia between 1680 and and 1720." This is quite a mistake, as his son born in Virginia in 1759. He says also that: "Miss Sarah Butler, sister of Capt, James Butler, killed on Cloud's creek, by Cunningham's band of Tories, married first Capt. Smallwood, Smith, by whom she had two children, recollected Jacob B, Smith and Sarah Butler Smith, wife of Ryden G. Mays."
