{{Short description|British patron of art (1759–1846)}} {{for|the baseball player|Pee Wee Butts}} {{Infobox person | name = Thomas Butts | image =Portrait of Thomas Butts c1801 The British Museum.jpg | caption = Thomas Butts c.1801, watercolour on ivory by William Blake, in the British Museum | birth_name = | birth_date = 1757 | birth_place = | death_date = 1845 | death_place = | death_cause = | education = | alma mater = | occupation = | title = | term = | predecessor = | successor = | known for = | boards = | spouse = | children = | parents = | relations = | website = }} '''Thomas Butts''' (1757–1845) was an English senior civil servant, and the leading patron to the artist and poet William Blake.<ref name="British Museum">{{cite web |title=Thomas Butts (Biographical details) |url=https://research.britishmuseum.org/research/search_the_collection_database/term_details.aspx?bioId=130442 |website=British Museum |accessdate=20 December 2019}}</ref>
==Early life and family== Thomas Butts was born in 1757<ref name="British Museum"/> to Thomas Butts and Hannah Witham.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://bq.blakearchive.org/30.1.viscomi | title=A "Green House" for Butts? New Information on Thomas Butts, His Residences, and Family | Joseph Viscomi | Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly | Volume 30, Issue 1 }}</ref> He married Elizabeth Mary Cooper (1754–1825), who was a schoolmistress.<ref name="Blake">{{cite journal |last1=Johnson |first1=Mary Lynn |title=Newfound Particulars of Blake's Patrons, Thomas and Elizabeth Butts, 1767–1806 |url=https://blakequarterly.org/index.php/blake/article/view/johnson474/johnson474html |journal=Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly |date=4 April 2014 |volume=47 |issue=4 |doi=10.47761/biq.135 |s2cid=164989929 |accessdate=20 December 2019|url-access=subscription }}</ref> They lived at number 9, Great Marlborough Street, Soho, London.<ref name="Blake"/> Their great-granddaughter was the modernist writer Mary Butts (1890–1937).
==Career== Butts was Assistant Commissary of Musters, and chief clerk to the Commissary General of Musters.<ref name="British Museum"/>
Butts and William Blake first met in about 1799, and he regularly advanced Blake money to pay for future work.<ref name="British Museum"/> Blake taught engraving to Butts' son.<ref name="British Museum"/> Blake created a number of miniatures of the Butts family during the period from about 1801 to 1809, and these are in the collection of the British Museum.<ref name="British Museum"/> The patronage reduced from about 1816, although Butts purchased a set of the Job engravings in 1825, and in 1827 was a subscriber for the Dante engravings.<ref name="British Museum"/>
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Butts, Thomas}} Category:1757 births Category:1845 deaths Category:English civil servants Category:William Blake Category:English art patrons Category:People from Soho