William à Beckett

Sir William à Beckett (28 July 1806 – 27 June 1869) Australian judge, was the first Chief Justice of Victoria.

à Beckett was born in London, England. He was the elder brother of Gilbert Abbott à Beckett, one of the original staff of Punch magazine. He was educated at the Westminster School, and initially wanted to be a poet, publishing a youthful volume of verse, The Siege of Dumbarton Castle, in 1824. However he could not earn enough money to support his family, and so he decided to become a barrister. In 1829 he was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn.

In 1837, à Beckett travelled to New South Wales, where he was appointed acting solicitor-general in March 1841, and solicitor-general in March 1843. In July 1844 he was appointed an acting judge, and was made a full judge in 1846, when he was appointed to the Court of the Resident Judge, the branch of the Supreme Court of New South Wales in Melbourne, the main city in Victoria, then called Port Philip District. When Victoria became a separate colony in 1851, à Beckett was made Chief Justice of Victoria. Later that year he was knighted. When the Supreme Court of Victoria was established in January 1852, he was made Chief Justice of that court.

Politically conservative, à Beckett was strongly opposed to the social disruption caused by the Victorian Gold Rush and under the pseudenym 'Colonus' espoused his views in an influential pamphlet somewhat cumbersomely entitled Does the Discovery of Gold in Victoria Viewed in Relation to its Moral and Social Effects as Hitherto Developed Deserve to be Considered a National Blessing or a National Curse? late in 1852. He presided over a number of important trials including the robbers of gold from the barque Nelson in Hobson's Bay in 1852, but growing disillusion with the state of society in Victoria saw him leave for England with his family in February 1853. He returned to Melbourne in December 1854 in time to participate in the Eureka Stockade trials - although often accused of the inflamatory comments at the trial of the arsonists of the Eureka Hotel that sparked the Eureka uprising, it was the Acting Chief Justice Redmond Barry who was actually responsible.

à Beckett retired as Chief Justice in 1857 due to poor health, and in 1863 he returned to England. He died in London on 27 June 1869 and was buried in West Norwood Cemetery. He was married twice and was survived by four sons from the first marriage. He wrote a number of books, including several volumes of his poetry, and a manual for magistrates of the Court of Petty Sessions, the predecessor of the Magistrates Court of Victoria.

à Beckett's son, William Arthur Callendar à Beckett, (1833-1901) married Emma Mills (1838-1906), the daughter of a convict who later founded a brewery in Melbourne. Their daughter Emma Minnie, a successful painter, married another painter Arthur Merric Boyd, to found the artistic Boyd dynasty. A nephew, Thomas à Beckett, was also a judge in Australia.

References

Australian Dictionary of Biography. Canberra: National Centre of Biography, Australian National University. ISBN 978-0-522-84459-7. ISSN 1833-7538. OCLC 70677943 http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/{{{id}}}.htm. {{cite encyclopedia}}: External link in |Link= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |First= ignored (|first= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Last= ignored (|last= suggested) (help)

• Bennett, J. M., Sir William à Beckett: First Chief Justice of Victoria, 1852-57, Sydney, The Federation Press, 2001, ISBN 1862874093
• Peter Balmford "A'Beckett, Sir William (1806–1869)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press 2004, http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/28, accessed 24 Nov 2006 (subscription required)

External links

• Review of biography