Ignatius “Nace” Butler Jr. was born to Ignatius “Nace” Butler and Bibiana Mahoney about 1817. He grew up enslaved on St. Inigoes plantation in Maryland. Nace escaped the plantation and was labeled as “ranaway” in the bill of sale. When his parents and siblings boarded the Katharine Jackson, Nace stayed in Maryland as a free man. He married his first wife, Eliza Ann around 1847. Nace and Eliza Ann had 10 children together: Henrietta (b. 1848), John (b.1850), Robert (1851), Ellen (b.1854), Thomas Christopher (b. 1855), Walter (b. 1857), Susan (b.1858), James (b.1859), Nace (b.1862), and Josephine (b.1867). Nace and his family are included in the St. Mary County’s District 1 1870 census as a free family. Nace married his second wife, Linda Washington, on Valentine’s Day in 1884. By the time of his death in 1888, Nace had 25 grandchildren.
