Edward Butler was in the mercantile business and involved with trade from China and Singapore in the 19th century. He married Caroline H. Butler (no relative) in 1822 and the couple settled in Northampton, Massachusetts, the hometown of Mr. Butler, even though he was mostly elsewhere carrying out his business interests. They kept in touch through correspondence. Between 1822 and1834 the couple had five children. In 1836 as a result of poor health (likely consumption), Caroline Butler joined her husband, Edward, on a journey to China. Upon her return to Northampton she subsequently gave birth to four more children.
Edward died in July 1849, and Caroline turned to writing in an attempt to support her family. Her short fiction was published in Graham's Magazine, and she published a number of novels (The Little Messenger Birds, or The Chime of the Silver Bells in 1850 and The Ice King, and the Sweet South Wind in 1851). In 1851 she married Hugh Laing and relocated to Brooklyn, New York. She died in 1892.
From the guide to the Butler Family Correspondence MS 242., 1817-1848, (Mortimer Rare Book Room)
