Page:The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.djvu/89

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DICTIONARY OF AUSTRALASIAN BIOGRAPHY.
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cided to quit the colony and return to England, where he died in Aug. 1888. Sir William was knighted by patent in Nov. 1844. He married, first, on April 5th, 1827, Margaret, daughter of Leny Smith, of Homerton, who died in Sept. 1846; and secondly, on June 11th, 1849, Maria Alphonsine, daughter of John Beatty West, M.P. for Dublin, who survived him. Sir William was the author of a brochure, entitled "The State of Religion and Education in New South Wales," in which he drew a terrible picture of the state of the convict establishment at Norfolk Island in the year 1834, when he visited it as a judge to try a contingent of mutineers, of whom thirteen were subsequently hanged, though Judge Burton mercifully postponed the executions until he could consult with Sir Richard Bourke, in Sydney, secure that, at any rate, they should be provided with the consolations of religion before being launched into eternity. The pamphlet called forth a reply from Bishop Ullathorne.

Butler, Hon. Edward, Q.C., M.L.C., was born in the county of Kilkenny in 1829, and educated at Kilkenny College. At an early age he was a contributor to the Dublin Nation, and in 1849 he joined Mr. (now Sir) Charles Gavan Duffy in reviving that paper, which had been suppressed during the troubles of 1848. In 1855 he emigrated to New South Wales, and became a contributor to the Empire, being called to the colonial bar, at which he practised with great success, in 1855. Six years later he was nominated to the Legislative Council, but retired from it, and entered the Lower House in 1869 as member for Argyle. He was Attorney-General in the Parkes Government from May 1872 to Nov. 1873, when he resigned in consequence of not receiving the vacant office of Chief Justice which he alleged had been promised to him by Sir Henry Parkes, who passed him over in favour of his junior at the bar, the late Sir James Martin. He was reappointed to the Legislative Council in Oct. 1877, and died suddenly whilst engaged in a case in the Supreme Court in Sydney on June 9th, 1879.

Butler, Hon. Henry, son of Gamaliel Butler, solicitor, was born in Cornhill, London, on November 17th, 1821. In 1823 the family emigrated to Tasmania. Mr. Butler was educated in England, and chose medicine as his profession, becoming a member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1843, and in 1849 a fellow of that college. After studying at some of the hospitals on the Continent, he returned to Tasmania, and began the practice of his profession in Hobart. He was elected to the old Legislative Council as member for Brighton, and on the introduction of free institutions in 1856 he entered the new House of Assembly as member for the same constituency, holding the seat, with a short interval, until his death. In August 1869 he became a member of the Wilson Ministry without portfolio. In the following October he was appointed Minister of Lands and Works, a position which he held till Nov. 1872, when he resigned with his colleagues. He succeeded Sir Robert Officer as Speaker of the Assembly in April 1877, and having been twice re-elected in the interval, resigned in July 1885. Dr. Butler took a prominent part in educational matters. In 1853 he was appointed a member of the Central Board of Education for the colony. In 1856, when two boards were appointed, he became Chairman of the Southern Board. In 1863, shortly after the amalgamation of the two boards, he was appointed Chairman of the Central Board in succession to Mr. W. E. Nairn. As chairman he administered the educational system of the colony with ability and success until the abolition of the Board of Education in 1884 and the transference of the control of the education department to a Minister directly responsible to Parliament. Dr. Butler married Catherine Smith, daughter of Thomas Smith, of Glen Rock, Sydney. He died at Hobart on August 22nd, 1885.

Butler, Very Rev. Joseph, D.D., O.C.C., Prior and Commissary-General, Port Melbourne, was born in Limerick, Ireland, in Sept. 1844, and educated at the Catholic University, Dublin. He entered the Carmelite Order in Dublin in 1859, was ordained priest in 1868, and was for many years engaged as a professor in colleges attached to houses of his Order in Ireland. He was president of their seminary in Dublin until Feb. 1881, when he and other fathers of the Order left Ireland, on the invitation of Bishop (now Archbishop) Reynolds, of Adelaide, S.A., to

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