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OCR Rendition - approximate
The Ancestry of Francis Galton 37 .to some weakness in the stock, . probably on the Batt side. But we have to realise that during the 20 years of the married life of Robert and Edith Button, Robert spent additional time in gaol. George Fox visited Taunton in 1656 and 1663, in which year Street was visited. Fox's meetings in Bristol were very frequent, and he married Margaret Fell there in 1669 ; his last ministry there was in 1677. There can be little doubt-that Robert Button like Jaspar Batt came personally into contact with George Fox.- John Galton must have been already a Friend in 1700, when he married Sarah Button, but we do not know at what date or under what influences. Originally he had been apprenticed to William Wake of Shapwick, a gentleman grazier of Dorset (d. 1705) and father of Archbishop Wake. He moved from Yatton to Taunton' on the day of his marriage,-which he tells us was "a sunshine day,"-and his children were born and he died there. Probably the great mortality of the Button family opened some. field of activity for him in Taunton. His sons Robert and John moved to Bristol, where their widowed mother also resided.. But the worst persecution of the Friends in the West was over before the date of John Galton's marriage (1703). The severest years were 1682 and 16832-the former ' Yatton is 12 miles from Bristol, Taunton 45 miles, and Street, near Glastonbury, about halfway between Bristol and Taunton. 2 Probably the Grace Button who was fined with Elias Waymouth, an innkeeper of Taunton, and 20 others in 1670 for being at a meeting was a relative of the then imprisoned Robert (Besse's Sufferings, Vol. i, p. 607). In 1678 we find Robert Button is confined again in Ilchester by Justices' warrant for contempt in not appearing at the Bishop's Court on processes for tithes at the suit of Robert Collier, Priest of Chard. He and other Friends were confined in a place called the Friery, and it would seem that he had been there since 1675 (Besse's Sufferings, Vol. i, p. 612). In 1683 we again find a record of imprisonment for Robert Button. °' On the 12th of the Month called August, Henry Walrond, a Justice of the Peace and Capt of the Militia, came with some of his soldiers and a Constable to a Meeting at Gregory-Stoke where Jasper Batt was preaching. After some time he was silent, and they scornfully bid him Go on; He answered, It is not meet to cast Pearls before Swine. Then the Cap' took their names both men and women. He let the Women go, but committed the Men to the Constable's Custody except four, viz.- William Calbreath, John Powel, John Crocker and Robert Button, whose words he took to appear at his House next day, requiring the Constable to bring the others also thither at the same time (p. 637). Next day those four who had promised to appear, went to the Captain's House, who set one of them at liberty, fined William Calbreath and John Powel 101. 10s. each and committed Robert Button to prison " (Besse, Vol. i, pp. 626 and 627).
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