AN AMERICAN searching for long-lost relatives is set to take his hunt to Winchester.

This September, New Yorker Jeff Daly will scour the streets of the city, which was home to his great-great grandfather.

Sharp St John Butt was reportedly Mayor of Winchester in the 1860s - the portrait of which Mr Daly believes still hangs in the Guildhall.

The Butts were bookmakers and shoe shop owners and ran a shop in High Street from about 1800 to 1968 – which is today still shoemakers’ Clarks.

Speaking to the Chronicle, Mr Daly said: “I’m hoping to see the portrait of Sharp and locate his gravesite in West Hill Cemetery on St James Lane. I was also wondering if I could find any other descendants of Sharp St John Butt still living in the area.”

Sharp St John Butt was named after his mother’s father, Sharp Maxwell, and his father William may have had something to do with the Hospital of St John or the Baptist parish in Winchester, Mr Daly believes.

Sharp had five sons and three daughters in all.

“Sharp’s father William began a boot making and retail shop in Winchester in 1806 at 49 High Street,” Mr Daly said. “I’m told that High Street was later renumbered around 1870 and that #49 became 114 High Street. I believe William Butt had an uncle or father also in the shoe business prior to 1806 in the region.

“Sharp’s grandson William Ernest Butt (a son of Sharp’s son Edwin) married Ethyl Harrod of the London retailing family. William lived into the 1950s. He had three daughters and I think a son. But I have not been able to confirm if any of his children stayed with the shop until it closed around 1968.

“Sharp’s middle son Henry James Butt (1839-1910) was my great grandfather. He chose to emigrate to America in 1870. Another of Sharp’s sons was Frederick St. John Butt. We don’t know too much about him except that in his brother’s obituary in 1910 Frederick is listed as being the editor of the Winchester Gazette and Hampshire Chronicle.”

As per the book In Black and White – a history of the Hampshire Chronicle – Frederick St John Butt is listed as a member of staff between 1851-1860.

“However, some research I’ve done indicates that Frederick died in Cyprus around 1900,” Mr Daly added. “So either his brothers family didn't know this when Henry died in 1910, or the obituary just made an error. Or Frederick really didn’t die in Cyprus in 1900. I’d love to know if Frederick really was an editor in Winchester.”

Hampshire Chronicle:

Frederick St John Butt, former editor of the Winchester Gazette and Hampshire Chronicle

Mr Daly has spoken to officials at the Guildhall to see the portrait of his great-great grandfather during his visit late September as to visit the Hampshire Cultural Trust to see some of their artiefacts, including shoes made in the Butt shops in the mid 19th century.

He also hopes to visit the last known home of Sharp, at 134 St Cross Road, which he knows his son Walter inherited and owned well into the 1920s.