John Butt (bishop)
John Baptist Butt was an English prelate who served as the fourth Roman Catholic Bishop of Southwark from 1885 to 1897.Life
Born in Richmond, Surrey, he was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Nicholas Wiseman, Vicar Apostolic of the London District on 15 July 1849. Rev. Butt served as a military chaplain.
Butt was appointed an auxiliary bishop of Southwark and Titular Bishop of Milo on 19 December 1884. He was consecrated by Arthur Riddell, Bishop of Northampton on 29 January 1885, with bishops William Vaughan and John Vertue serving as co-consecrators. Following the death of Bishop Robert Coffin on 6 April 1885, Butt was appointed the diocesan Bishop of the Diocese of Southwark on 26 June 1885.
He founded St John's Seminary, Wonersh, near Guildford, Surrey in 1889, and employed as his first rector the young priest Francis Bourne, later to become Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster.
Butt resigned as Bishop of Southwark on 29 March 1897, and appointed Titular Bishop of Sebastopolis in Thracia on 9 April 1897. He died in Arundel on 1 November 1899, aged 73, and was buried at St John’s Seminary, Wonersh. He had been a bishop for almost 15 years. There is a memorial to him Arundel Cathedral, and on the walls of the cathedral are the Stations of the Cross in relief to his memory.
