SAMUEL BUTLER: A SKETCH

by Henry Festing Jones




Samuel Butler was born on the 4th December, 1835, at the Rectory,
Langar, near Bingham, in Nottinghamshire. His father was the Rev.
Thomas Butler, then Rector of Langar, afterwards one of the canons of
Lincoln Cathedral, and his mother was Fanny Worsley, daughter of John
Philip Worsley of Arno's Vale, Bristol, sugar-refiner. His
grandfather was Dr. Samuel Butler, the famous headmaster of
Shrewsbury School, afterwards Bishop of Lichfield. The Butlers are
not related either to the author of 'Hudibras', or to the author of
the 'Analogy', or to the present Master of Trinity College,
Cambridge.

Butler's father, after being at school at Shrewsbury under Dr.
Butler, went up to St. John's College, Cambridge; he took his degree
in 1829, being seventh classic and twentieth senior optime; he was
ordained and returned to Shrewsbury, where he was for some time
assistant master at the school under Dr. Butler. He married in 1832
and left 1 Shrewsbury for Langar. He was a learned botanist, and
made a collection of dried plants which he gave to the Town Museum of
Shrewsbury.

Butler's childhood and early life were spent at Langar among the
surroundings of an English country rectory, and his education was
begun by his father. In 1843, when he was only eight years old, the