Ezra Butler

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Ezra Butler (September 24, 1763 – July 12, 1838) was an American clergyman, lawyer, judge, and politician from Vermont. He served as the 11th governor of Vermont from 1826 to 1828 and was a United States representative from Vermont from 1813 to 1815.

Born in Lancaster, Province of Massachusetts Bay, he moved with his family to Vermont as a child. He spent early years working on farms and served six months in the Continental Army in 1779 during the American Revolution. Butler settled in Waterbury, Vermont, married Tryphena Diggins, and had eleven children. He studied law in 1785, was admitted to the bar in 1786, and became Town Clerk in 1790.

Religion shaped much of his life. He became a Baptist in 1791, began preaching in Bolton in 1800, and helped organize a Waterbury Baptist church in 1800, which he led for more than thirty years.

Butler held many public roles. He served in the Vermont House of Representatives at various times (1794–1797, 1799–1804, 1807, 1808). He was the first judge of the Chittenden County Court (1803–1806), Chief Justice of Chittenden County (1806–1811), and Chief Justice of Jefferson County (1812–1825, with gaps for congressional service). He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democratic-Republican (1813–1815). He helped organize Vermont’s constitutional convention in 1822. He was elected governor of Vermont as a National Republican and served from 1826 to 1828; during his term lotteries were banned and teacher examinations were required.

In the 1832 presidential election, Vermont’s electors backed William Wirt of the Anti-Masonic Party, and Butler was one of them. He died in Waterbury on July 12, 1838, and was buried in Waterbury Cemetery.