- Charles Butler (beekeeper)
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Charles Butler (1560–1647), sometimes called the Father of English Beekeeping,[1] was a logician, grammarist, author, minister (Vicar of Wootton St Lawrence, near Basingstoke, England), and an influential beekeeper. He was also an early proponent of English spelling reform. 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.
Contents
Biography
Butler was born into a poor family but was admitted to Oxford as a working student with scholastic scholarships. He remained at Oxford ten years, probably teaching, and graduating with his Master of Arts in 1587. In 1593, Rev. Butler became Rector of Nately Scures in Hampshire, and later Master at the Holy Ghost School, Basingstoke. He resigned to accept a pastorage at Wootton St Lawrence in 1600 and served that rural post to his death in 1647.
Beekeeping
Butler was engaged in beekeeping in rural Hampshire and made the first recorded observations about the generation of beeswax, which was previously thought to be gathered by honeybees from plant materials. He was not the first to described the largest honeybee as a queen, rather than king (see Swammerdam) but he popularized the notion with his classic book The Feminine Monarchie, 1609. Butler misinterpreted the queen's function and thought that the workers lay eggs. An influential beekeeper, he was the first to assert that drones are male and the workers female, and is sometimes called the Father of English Beekeeping.
The Feminine Monarchie
The Feminine Monarchie, 1609, is the first full-length English-language book about beekeeping. The book's first edition was revolutionary for Natural history, being the first known natural history of bees. It remained a valid and practical guide for beekeepers for two hundred fifty years, until Langstroth and others developed and promoted moveable comb hives. Butler revised The Feminine Monarchie in 1623 and 1634. It was translated into Latin in 1678 and 1682, then from Latin back to English again in 1704. The book gives an excellent account of skep beekeeping, including methods of predicting - from tone pitch of the buzzing bees - when swarming will occur. Butler even transliterated the tones and included them on a musical score in the book.
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 orthology.
Other Writings
He also authored a bestselling school textbook, The Logic of Ramus (1597), an introduction to the mould-breaking Renaissance philosophy of martyred Protestant French contemporary Pierre de la Ramée. He also published a book on music theory, The principles of musik (1636), and a theological defence of marriage between first cousins, coinciding with the engagement and subsequent marriage of his daughter to his nephew.
References
- ^ The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Beekeeping, Roger Morse and Ted Hooper, 1985, E.P. Dutton, Inc.
Categories: Beekeepers | 1560 births | 1647 deaths | Grammarians of English | Orthographers | English Christian ministers | English music theorists | People of the Tudor period | 16th-century English people | 16th-century writers | 17th-century English people | 17th-century writers | English writers
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