Gamaliel Butler (1783–1852), lawyer and free settler, emigrated to Van Diemen’s Land in 1824 with his wife, Sarah (née Paine, 1787–1870). A London-born lawyer of merchant stock, Butler had come to the colony to attend to an investment in a valuable cargo of sugar and to the business interests of his brother-in-law, Edward Paine, who had died soon after arriving in Van Diemen’s Land in 1820. Though initially intending to return to London (and to the six children he and Sarah had left there in the care of relatives), Butler recognised the business potential of the colony and decided to stay. He was admitted as a practitioner of the Supreme Court soon after his arrival and later, in partnership with a man named Robert Nutt, established his own legal firm in Hobart. Butler also became a significant landowner in the colony, acquiring properties such as Shene, an estate near Pontville, north of Hobart, originally granted to Edward Paine; and the Battery Point villa, Stowell. Each of Gamaliel and Sarah’s six surviving English-born children – four sons and two daughters – eventually came to Van Diemen’s Land. Their eldest son, Edward (1811–1849) and another brother, Charles (1820–1909), both followed their father into the legal profession and joined Gamaliel’s Hobart firm having completed their training in London. Butler’s third son, Francis, (1823–1916) became a successful architect, his designs including the Commercial Bank building on Macquarie Street, Hobart, and the gothic sandstone stables at Shene. Another six children were born to Gamaliel and Sarah in Hobart. A director of the bank of Van Diemen’s Land and a supporter of various charitable causes, Butler remained in Tasmania until his death at Stowell in February 1852. Butler’s law firm, now known as Butler, McIntyre and Butler, is still in operation and is the oldest law firm in Tasmania.
