Gamaliel Butler (1783–1852), lawyer and free settler, emigrated to Van Diemen’s Land in 1824 with his wife, Sarah. A London-born lawyer of merchant stock, Butler had come to the colony to attend to an investment and to the business interests of his deceased brother-in-law. Though initially intending to return to London and to the six children he and Sarah had left there in the care of relatives, Butler saw opportunity in the colony and decided to stay. He was admitted as a practitioner of the Supreme Court soon after his arrival and later established his own law firm in Hobart. A landowner, director of the bank of Van Diemen’s Land and a supporter of various charitable causes, Butler died in Hobart in February 1852. His firm, now Butler, McIntyre and Butler, is still in operation and is the oldest law firm in Australia.
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