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Born circa 1781. Son of Richard Butcher. Christened on 10th February 1781 at Hascombe, Surrey. Formerly of Parkhurst, Surrey, England. Arrived in Van Diemen's Land 19th June 1822. J.P. and Magistrate at Richmond. Original grant was located at Hamilton. Butcher purchased land at Richmond from Lieutenant-Governor William Sorell and named it Lowlands. Rodric O'Connor on 20th May 1826 states that:
"Mr. Butcher paid us a visit about a piece of land adjoining his, which we conceived both from the extent of Butchers land and the Chart to belong to Government, consequently we valued it as such. Mr. Butcher said he had given Col. Sorell two thousand acres and five hundred pounds for this land, and he was assured that the whole peninsula was his, and that his Grant mentioned it. Of course we referred him to the Surveyor General. Major de Gillern mentioned that immediately after the sale of this Grant to Mr. Butcher, it was found necessary to buy one hundred acres from him for the Township of Richmond, but it might not look well on the part of Government buying it directly from Butcher, a third person was employed, Mr. David Lord bought it from Mr. Butcher for one pound an acre, and it was shortly after disposed [of] to government for two thousand acres."
Later, on 25th April 1827, O'Connor puts the transaction in a somewhat different light:
"Mr. Butcher owed Mr. D. Lord, about one hundred pounds, Mr. Lord had been given to understand that one hundred acres of land were required for Richmond Township, Mr. Butcher, not having the money to pay Mr. Lord, sold him the land, Lord immediately exchanged it for fourteen hundred acres, which he located in York Plains."
Butcher was raided by bushrangers in September 1825, the Colonial Times reporting:
"We are sorry to state, that a daring robbery was committed last week, at the house of Mr. Butcher, at the Coal River, which was entered by ten armed men, with their faces blackened, who plundered the house of everything valuable."1
The bushrangers appear to have been Brady and McCabe, and within several weeks they had raided a hut belonging to Mr. Dry under the "Western Mountains". They were tracked to a hut near the Tamar River. The bushrangers escaped, but left behind most of their belongings, including loot:
"just as the soldiers came up, the plunderers escaped out the back of the hut, leaving behind them all their arms, a considerable quantity of plate, supposed to be the same as stolen from Mr. Butcher, at the Coal River."2
Butcher was Vice-President of the Richmond Market Association in 1829. Had at least the following children: Harriet (b. 1811, Surrey, England), Sarah Ann (b. 1821, d. 1835), Edward William Burchell (b. 1829, Richmond) and Martha.
John Hunt Butcher died circa 1839, and was buried in St. David's Cemetery, Hobart, on 23rd March 1839.3
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1 Hobart Town Gazette and Van Diemen's Land Advertiser, 23 September 1825, p.3, c.2.
2 Colonial Times, 7 October 1825, p.4, c.2.
3 Richard Lord, Inscriptions in Stone, p. 172.
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