William A'Beckett

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Sir William A'Beckett, State Library of Victoria Collection (H2003.1)
File:A'beckett3.jpg
William A'Beckett from Supreme Court Bench Victoria 1852-1894. Chuck Photographer. State Library of Victoria (H34675)
"Treason Trial Map", PROV, VPRS5527

Background

Sir William a'Beckett was born on 28 July 1806 in London, England. He left London for Sydney in 1936, but was detained due to shipwreck in Plymouth Sound. A'Beckett reached New South Wales in May 1837, and was appointed Solicitor-General in New South Wales in 1941, and served as Justice of Port Phillip and Victoria from 1846 until 1852. He was knighted in 1853, and in the same year was appointed first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria. He died in 1869.[1]

Mentioned on Rev. T.J. Linnane's List.[2]

Goldfields Involvement, 1854

In 1854 William A'Beckett was the Chief Justice of Victoria. [3][4]

Post 1854 Experiences

In conducting the business of his court à Beckett won the admiration of the legal profession. His reported judgments show a sound grasp of principle and a capacity to adapt the doctrines of English law to the novel conditions of the colony. The judgments are written in an admirably clear style and most of them, whether delivered in Sydney or Melbourne, survive in printed form. Although no reports were published in Victoria between December 1851 and October 1856, the weekly Victorian Law Times and Legal Observer, which then appeared, included reports of current decisions and some cases decided in 1853-55.</ref>E. G. Coppel, 'à Beckett, Sir William (1806–1869)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/a-beckett-sir-william-2862/text4079, published first in hardcopy 1969, accessed online 28 September 2015.</ref>

In February 1855 he presided over the trial of two of the miners charged with high treason arising out of the rioting at Ballarat, now known as the Eureka Stockade. His charge to the jury favoured a conviction, but popular feeling had more effect with the jury who brought in a verdict of not guilty. In ill health à Beckett retired in February 1857 on a pension of £1500. He lived in Melbourne until 1863 when he moved to England. He lived at Surbiton near Hampton Court Palace and later at Upper Norwood, Surrey, where he died on 27 June 1869.</ref>E. G. Coppel, 'à Beckett, Sir William (1806–1869)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/a-beckett-sir-william-2862/text4079, published first in hardcopy 1969, accessed online 28 September 2015.</ref>

See also

Clara Seekamp

Further Reading

References

  1. Dianne Campbell, Anglo-Irish Lawyers in Post Goldrush Ballarat, Masters theses, 2002, p.183.
  2. List of names of people who figured in the life of Ballarat before and during the Eureka Rebellion of 3 December 1854, unpublished.
  3. Blake, Gregory, To Pierce the Tyrant's Heart, Australian Military History Publications, 2009, p.214.
  4. Blake, Gregory, To Pierce the Tyrant's Heart, Australian Military History Publications, 2009, p.214.

External links

biography/akehurst-arthur-purssell-12769/text23033

http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/a-beckett-sir-william-2862