George Crawford sets protocol, clears backlog in South Australian supreme court but dies in 1852 after two years
A young portrait of Justice George Crawford, who was brought from Ireland to help Charles Cooper in 1850.
Image courtesy State Library of South Australia
A second judge, George Crawford, arrived from Ireland in 1850 to help the ailing Charles Cooper in hearing the big workload of cases in the South Australian court.
Crawford, who had a stricter approach to court protocol and arrangements, was a major assistance to Cooper.
Crawford insisted on the dignity of his office. He was the first judge in South Australia to wear a judicial wig, and reuired counsel appearing before him to do the same. He was quick to reprimand unpunctual barristers or sleepy jurymen.
Crawford was welcomed by the legal profession with a breakfast at the Freemasons’ Hotel. Two days later, despite protests from the contractors, the new supreme court building on the eastern corner of Angas and King William streets was forcibly entered so it could house the judicial papers that had been left in a cart in Victoria Square.
In August, 1850, Crawford presided at the first sittings in the new courthouse and, despite a petition from Anglican bishop Augustus Short and other community leaders, he had to sentence to death a prisoner convicted of murder.
Later that year, the judges' salaries were raised: Crawford's to £1200. Cooper, who had been one of the British colonial office’s worst-paid judges since 1839, only reached £1500 in 1859 – three years after he was given the official title of chief justice. Cooper also had filled in to administer the government as a member of the executive council, in the absence of governor Richard MacDonnell in 1860.
Crawford's hard work soon cleared up the lagging court lists but he died of bladder and kidneys disease in 1852. The late Justice Crawford’s family left for England in 1853 on the Adelaide, which caught fire about 500 miles from Mauritius. For four days, the passengers were towed in lifeboats. The fire was controlled but all the passengers' luggage destroyed. Crawford’s widow appealed to the colonial office, claiming that her husband had lost heavily by moving to South Australia. A pension was refused. With a grant of only £250, she took her four young children to live with her brother-in-law at Gibraltar.
In 1853, the controversial Benjamin Boothby, the only judge to be removed from office, was appointed puisne judge.
With Crawford gone and left to deal with the eccentric Boothby, the sick and exhausted Cooper retired to England on a pension in 1861. He regained his health and survived to the age of 92.
