John Butler was born on March 29, 1759, at Goshen Hill, Lebanon, Connecticut... At the age of seventeen he enlisted as a private in Captain Wills Cliffs Company, under Colonel Samuel Wyllys, Third Connecticut Regiment, and served as a corporal and sergeant from May 29, 1777 until January 1, 1780.
Having served his three year enlistment, John Butler was appointed in January 1781 an Ensign (lieutenant) by Governor Trumbull of Connecticut, and was in Captain Allen's Company, Colonel Samuel Canfield's Regiment... John Butler received an honorable discharge in 1781, as is stated in his application for a pension.
While trained to be a lawyer, his occupation was that of teaching school. After three children had been born in Lebanon, he moved to East Hartford. All the other children were born in East Hartford, and so it was not until after 1798 that he moved to Hartford Center and later to Lebanon Springs, Columbia County, New York.
In the War of 1812 when the British threatened the seaport towns of Connecticut, John Butler was the captain of a militia company under Colonel Elihu Sanford at New Haven... he finally went to Pittstown, Rensselaer County, New
York, where he died on September 4, 1819. In the Probate Court at Troy there is on record a will which bequeaths all of his property to a second wife, Deborah. The will does not mention any other children, and was not probated until May 28, 1827.
