Crest: Two hands issuing from a cloud in dexter, extended to the sinister and drawing an arrow in a bow all Proper.
Arms: Butter of Gormack Argent, a cross Sable between four mens' hearts Proper
A name of great antiquity in Perthshire where the Butters have held land around Fascally near Pitlochry since the twelfth century. Black suggests that the name may derive from the Gaelic "bothar", meaning "cattle road". In 1554 John Butter of Gormok was declared an outlaw for participating in the murder of George Drummond of Leidcreif during a feud with the Blairs of Balthycock. The Butters' bellicose tendencies continued, and on 24 November 1598 Patrick Butter was indicted for beseiging the House of Ashintully and imprisoning the laird, Andrew Spalding. The family was to channel its undoubted martial prowess into service in the armed forces, and in the 1850's Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Butter of Faskally served in the Crimea and survived the Indian Mutiny. The present head of the family, Major Sir David Butter of Pitlochry MC, is HM Lord Lieutenant of Pertshire and is related by marriage to the Russian former imperial house of Romanov. Her majesty Queen Elizabeth is godmother to his eldest daughter.
