It is likely that Buttersworth never visited America, but he provided an important link between the English and emerging American marine schools of painting. Several of his works depicted American naval battles from the war of 1812, and aquatints of his work by Joseph Jeakes were popular among American collectors. Another link is through his son, James E. Buttersworth, who immigrated to America around 1850, and soon became one of the most popular marine painters of his day.

Thomas Buttersworth exhibited from 1813 to 1827 at the Royal Academy, the British Institution in 1825, and the Suffolk Street Galleries. His work is held in the collections of the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, England, the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, and the Mariners Museum, Newport News, Virginia.

References: Brewington, Dorothy E. R.,  Dictionary of Marine Artists,  Mystic Seaport Museum, Inc., 1982;  Cordingly, David, Marine Painting in England 1700-1900, Clarkson N. Potter, Inc., 1973; Wilson, Arnold, A Dictionary of British Marine Painters, F. Lewis, Publishers, Limited, 1967.