John Pedder
Sir John Lewes Pedder (10 February 1784 – 24 March 1859) was an
Early life
Pedder was born in London, the eldest son of John Pedder, a barrister.[1] Pedder junior was educated at Charterhouse and the Middle Temple from 1818 where he was called to the bar in 1820.[1] Then he entered Trinity Hall, Cambridge, graduating LL.B. in 1822.[2]
Career
Pedder was appointed Chief Justice of Van Diemen's Land on 18 August 1823.
The issue of trial by jury was first argued before the newly established Supreme Court of New South Wales and Chief Justice Forbes held that civilian juries were required for Court of Quarter Sessions.[7] Despite his initial address, Gellibrand subsequently vacillated in his views. In July 1825 the issue came before the Supreme Court of Van Diemen's Land, with the Second Law officer of the Crown, Solicitor-General Alfred Stephen, seeking an order requiring juries to be assembled while Gellibrand as the 1st Law Officer opposed it. Pedder, in a long and weighty judgment took a different view to Forbes, holding that the right to trial by civilian jury was taken away by section 19 of the New South Wales Act 1823.[8]
As Chief Justice, Pedder was automatically a member of the
On 19 July 1854 Pedder had a paralytic seizure while on the bench, and shortly afterwards retired on a pension of £1500 a year under an act passed in the previous May. Pedder's wife died on 23 October 1855 after suffering from paralysis.[1] Pedder returned to England and died in Brighton on 24 March 1859. He was knighted in 1838. As a judge he has been called slow in decision and fearful of overstepping the written word of a statute. He was not a great lawyer, but he was upright and thorough, always careful that the accused should suffer no injustice. Fenton, who had personal knowledge of him, says that his "prudence and foresight often prevented grave injustice and dangerous blunders in the administration of affairs under the peculiar and difficult conditions of a colony half bond and half free".[3][10]
Legacy
Lake Pedder in south-west Tasmania was named after him.
References
- ^ ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
- ^ "Pedder, John (PDR822J)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
- ^ a b Serle, Percival (1949). "Pedder, John Lewes". Dictionary of Australian Biography. Sydney: Angus & Robertson. Retrieved 3 November 2009.
- ^ a b Castles, Alex C. "The Judiciary and Political Questions: The First Australian Experience, 1824-1825" (PDF). (1975) 5(3) Adelaide Law Review 294.
- ^ Bigge 2nd Report (1923), p. 53.
- Hobart Town Gazette and Van Diemen's Land Advertiser. 28 May 1824. p. 2. Retrieved 4 March 2019 – via National Library of Australia.
- ^ R v Magistrates of Sydney [1824] NSWSupC 20, [1824] NSWKR 3, Supreme Court (NSW)
- ^ R v Magistrates of Hobart Town [1825] TASSupC 8, Supreme Court (Van Diemen's Land).
- ^ Fenton (1884), p. 236.
- ^ Fenton (1884), p. 254.
- Fenton, James. "A History of Tasmania From Its Discovery in 1642 to the Present Time" (PDF). [1884] Australian Colonial Law Monographs 2.
- John Thomas, Bigge (1823). Report of the Commissioner of Inquiry on the judicial establishments of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land.
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