John Buttery (c. 1829/31 – 29 November 1912) was a merchant operating in the Straits Settlements of Penang, Malacca and Singapore. He was, at the time of his death, the senior partner of Sandilands, Buttery & Co. (Penang and Singapore), and John Buttery & Co. (London, transferred from Glasgow in 1875).
It is uncertain exactly when John Buttery arrived in Straits Settlements or when he left, but his coming may have had to do with Walter Scott Lorrain, whose signature he (or his father) stood witness for, in Glasgow, when Lorrain gave notice of withdrawing from his partnership in Brown & Co., Penang, on 6 November 1847.
James Scott and David Brown, 1800–1808
Brown & Co. was established by David Brown, a qualified lawyer from Longformacus (Berwickshire, Scotland) who, when he arrived in Penang in 1800, helped sort out the financial problems plaguing the spice business of James Scott, Francis Light's former partner, who had overextended himself. And while Brown managed to extricate Scott from his situation, it wasn't long before Scott overextended himself again. Scott died a bankrupt in 1808 and Brown acquired much of Scott's property and set himself up as a planter. Brown died in 1825.
Walter Scott Lorrain, 1834–1836
In 1834 Walter Scott Lorrain was in the employ of Douglas, Mackenzie & Co. of Singapore, as manager. He applied for land at Sandy Point to form docks, soon after someone else had applied for land at 'Blakan Mati,' for the same purpose. Later, he joined Brown & Co., Penang, as partner. At the end of 1836, together with James Stephen, he served, in Singapore, as attorney to Elizabeth Poynton, the administratrix to the estate of John Poynton (deceased).
John Buttery's Origins, 1829–1852
John Buttery was born either in 1829, as suggested by the notice published at the time of his death, or 1831, according to the research of Mackintosh Architecture (Univ. of Glasgow). He was the son of John Buttery Sr. (c1766–1842) who, together with his brother A.W. (c1815–1877), successively owned the Monkland Iron and Steel Company. His father-in-law was Alexander Kay of Cornhill house, Biggar. If it was John Buttery Jr. who witnessed Lorrain's signature, and not John Buttery Sr., this would have meant he would have been either 18 years or 15 years of age at the time he witnessed the signature. If it was, indeed the same Buttery who would go on to join Lorrain as a partner in Lorrain-Sandilands later on, then it is more likely for him to have been born in 1829 rather than 1831. These dates and sequence of events also suggest his arrival at the Straits Settlements would have been after, rather than before, 1847, and it is possible that Lorrain, then well established in business after his experiences at Douglas, Mackenzie & Co. of Singapore, and Brown & Co. of Penang, sent for Buttery to join him at Lorrain-Sandilands. There is an entry in Allen's Indian Mail, showing that a J. Buttery, together with a "Dr. Lorain" (possibly a typographical error for what might have been "Mr. Lorrain") departed Southampton for Penang on 20 February 1852.
Grand Jury, Penang, 1853
According to an entry in the Straits Times, Buttery was a member of the Grand Jury in 1853. Under the foremanship of Stuart Herriot, he served alongside other prominent members of Penang like John Rodyk, Henry Smith, George Combe, Alexander Ramsay Clarke, Andrew Creem James MacLaine Fraser, Samuel Nicholson Greene, William Charles Spencer Padday, Charles Stevens, William Taylor, Charles Le Bouche De Lisle, James Lamb, Michel Jules Moniot, George Scott, Alexander Stuart Brown, Thomas Ferrao, Duncan Clerk Presgrave, Walter Scott, and George Evans Lidiard Dawson. Together, they considered cases placed before them from the island and Province Wellesley.
Expansion to Singapore, 1856–1858
By 1856 Lorraine, Sandilands & Co. was transacting business in Singapore. In 1858, John Buttery was in charge of Singapore, Sandilands was in charge of Penang and Lorrain was in Glasgow. Buttery is likely to have been 29 at the time. The entry in Allens Indian Mail (1852), the Straits Times (1853), coupled with the subsequent geographic expansion of Lorrain, Sandilands & Co.'s sphere of business operations, and the plans that Lorrain had for himself, together, suggest that Lorrain had, indeed, brought Buttery over in 1852. Buttery is recorded as having departed the Straits Settlements for Europe towards the end of 1859.