Robert Thorpe (judge)
Robert Thorpe | |
---|---|
Chief Justice of Prince Edward Island | |
In office 1801–1804 | |
Preceded by | Peter Stewart |
Succeeded by | Caesar Colclough |
Robert Thorpe (1773 – May 11, 1836) was a judge and political figure in
Early life
Thorpe was born in Dublin, Ireland in 1773.[1] He was the second son of Robert T. Thorpe and Bonna Debrisay. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1788 and a degree in law in 1789 from Trinity College Dublin. He was admitted to the bar in 1790. At some point before 1815 he was given a Legum Doctor.[2]
In Canada
In 1801, he was appointed as
Sierra Leone
In 1808, Thorpe was appointed the first chief justice in Sierra Leone (chief justice and judge of the
Personal life
Thorpe was married and had seven children.[2]
Later life
In 1815 he published A Letter to William Wilberforce, Esq. M. P., Vice-President of the African Institution which was critical of the Sierra Leone Company and the African Institution which succeeded it.
- "After sixteen years experiment, trade having failed; cultivation being retarded, civilization unattempted; religion and morality debased, and the slave trade nourished; every plan defeated, every artifice exposed; the company desirous of relieving themselves from the enormous expense prevailed on government to accept a surrender of the colony, and formed (to uphold their old influence) a society called the African Institution: having taken leave of the expense, they demanded to be paid for their buildings, and did accordingly receive a large sum from the treasury, although they had before obtained (by pleading poverty) one hundred thousand pounds from the government for the improvement of the colony: their books and agents were removed; while many of the settlers who had toiled for them for years were left unpaid."[9]: 6–7
He died in London on May 11, 1836.[2]
Published works
- A Reply "Point by Point" to the Special Report of the Directors of the African Institution ... (1815) London: F. C. and J. Rivington. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
- A commentary on the treatises entered into between his Britannic majesty, and his most faithful majesty ... his catholic majesty ... and ... the king of the Netherlands ... for the purpose of preventing their subjects from engaging in any illicit traffic in slaves (1819) London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Browne
References
- ^ ISBN 978-1-55028-767-7.
- ^ ISBN 0-8020-3452-7. Retrieved 26 August 2016.
- ISBN 978-1-4426-4437-3.
- ^ Rordans, Joshua (1856). Upper Canada Law Directory for 1857: By J. Rordans. H. Rowsell. p. 53.
- ^ Thorpe, Robert (1815). A Reply "Point by Point" to the Special Report of the Directors of the African Institution. London: F. C. and J. Rivington. p. 3.
- ^ A gentleman (1813). Wikisource. . London: Sherwood Neeley and Jones – via
- ISBN 978-1-317-79235-2.
- ISBN 978-1-4426-4437-3.
- ^ Thorpe, Robert (1815). A Letter to William Wilberforce, Esq. M. P., Vice-President of the African Institution. London: F. C. and J. Rivington. Retrieved 28 February 2016.