The Butler family portrait (c. 1865)
This photograph captures the formality and severity that characterised the Butler household. Canon Thomas Butler (seated right) ruled Langar Rectory with an unflinching commitment to strict orthodox principles, which overshadowed his children’s upbringing and led to a complex and conflicted relationship with his son. The adult Samuel noted: ‘MY MOST IMPLACABLE ENEMY from childhood onward has certainly been my father. I doubt not whether I could not make a friend of my brother more easily than I could turn my father into a cordial genial well-wisher.’
When Butler emigrated to New Zealand in 1859, not one of his relations came to see him off. When they weren’t directly opposed to his work and ideas they generally remained indifferent.