Sir Arthur Butterman

Like many terms we use today - sandwich, for example - Sir Arthur Butterman has nothing to do with the invention of butter itself. Nevertheless, Butterman, born on this day in 1810, was responsible for bringing butter out of rural obscurity and onto the crumpets of the metropolitan elite.

The first Butterman to prosper was Sir Arthur’s father. The Buttermans had long been greengrocers in Tottenham Hale, serving the poor community of timber workers in the area. Henry Butterman took the decision to relocate his family to central London, where his shop, on the north bank of the Thames at Blackfriars, became a financial success selling to the households of the growing numbers of comparatively wealthy clerks and administrators of the city’s financial district. Arthur Butterman grew up the eldest of four sons, and upon coming of age, Henry purchased a new lease for each of them. Having begun as simple greengrocers, the Buttermans were now a chain.

Arthur’s brothers sold their shops to him over the course of the 1850s, and by 1857, he was the sole proprietor of four shops in the city of London and controlled distribution to shops as far west as the Strand. Among his best-selling products was a dairy alternative to lard, preferred for its light flavour and smooth spreading at relatively low temperatures. Marketed initially as ‘Butterman’s Dairy Lard’ and subsequently as ‘Butterman’s Spread’, it rapidly came to be known simply as ‘Butter’.

It is unclear how a portion of Butterman’s Spread made its way to Windsor, but by 1870, Butterman could include the royal seal packets of his spread, proudly proclaiming that he was a supplier by royal appointment. He was knighted for services to commerce shortly before his death from apoplexy in 1891.