Charles Butler (beekeeper)

Charles Butler
Born	1571 Buckinghamshire, England
Died	29 March 1647 Wootton St Lawrence, England
Nationality	English
Occupation	Beekeeper
Known for	Father of English Beekeeping

Charles Butler (1571

. He observed that bees produce wax combs from scales of wax produced in their own bodies; and he was among the first to assert that drones are male and the queen female, though he believed worker bees lay eggs.

Biography

Butler was born into a poor family in Buckinghamshire, South East England, but became a boy chorister at Magdalen College, Oxford at the age of eight.^[4] At the age of ten, he matriculated, taking his BA in 1584 and his MA in 1587. In 1593, Butler became Rector of Nately Scures in Hampshire in 1593 and in 1595 became also Master at the Holy Ghost School, Basingstoke. He resigned to accept an incumbency at Wootton St Lawrence in 1600 and served that rural post until his death on 29 March 1647. He was buried in an unmarked grave in the chancel of his church.^[4]

Beekeeping

Butler was engaged in

later microscopic dissections. However, Butler popularized the notion with his classic book The Feminine Monarchie, 1609. Butler may have misinterpreted the queen's function when he found queenless colonies sometimes develop eggs laid by "laying workers", however there is no doubt he saw the queen as an Amazonian ruler of the hive. As an influential beekeeper and author, his assertion that drones are male and workers female, was quickly accepted. For his discoveries and his book, Butler is sometimes called the Father of English Beekeeping.

The Feminine Monarchie

Spelling reform

Charles Butler published an English grammar (1633) with proposals to improve spelling to a phonetic alphabet. In his book, Butler condemned the vagaries of traditional English spelling and proposed the adoption of a system whereby 'men should write altogeđer according to đe sound now generally received'. The 1634 edition of his beekeeping classic was written and published in his new orthography.

Other writings

Butler authored a bestselling school textbook,

Pierre de la Ramée

. He also published a book on music theory, The principles of musik in singing and setting (1636), and a theological defence of marriage between first cousins, coinciding with the engagement and subsequent marriage of his daughter to his nephew.

References

1. ISBN 0-7156-2827-5
   .
2. ISBN 978-1907322099
   .
3. ^ The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Beekeeping, Roger Morse and Ted Hooper, 1985, E.P. Dutton, Inc.
4. ^
   ISBN 978-1-904846-04-8
   .
5. ^ Sarton, George (1943). "The Feminine Monarchie of Charles Butler", Isis, Vol 34, No 6. pp. 469-472.

External links

• Free scores by Charles Butler (beekeeper) at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)