Class

Samuel Way makes controversial rise to dominate the supreme court for decades

Samuel Way makes controversial rise to dominate the supreme court for decades
Chief justice Samuel Way refused an offer to sit on high court of Australian in 1906.
Image courtesy State Library of South Australia

Samuel Way’s Australian-record 40 years (1876-1916) as chief justice of South Australia’s supreme court were a triumph of hard work over qualifications and social advantage.

Born (in 1836) and educated in England, Samuel Way joined his family (his father was a Bible Christian minister) in Adelaide in 1853.

Articled to Alfred Atkinson, Way was admitted to the Bar on 1861. He took over the legal practice as a junior lawyer when Atkinson died. As a barrister, Way soon led the legal community and in 1868 joined a partnership with a James Brook. A young Josiah Symon later joined Way in this firm.

Way became involved in several high-profile cases, including appeals in England to the Privy Council. He took silk in 1871, despite only being admitted to the Bar for 10 years.

Way was elected to the House of Assembly in 1875 and became attorney general in James Boucaut’s ministry. When chief justice Richard Hanson died the next year, Way replaced him – an appointment that caused other judges to ostracise him. Since the attorney general made judicial appointments, it was suggested Way nominated himself.

Edward Gwynne, despite his seniority, was never appointed chief justice. His judge colleague Randolph Stow (appointed 1875) was also unhappy at Way's appointment. Gwynne refused to talk privately with Way and his unwillingness to adjust to Way’s new court procedures led to him retiring retirement in 1878.

Way dominated the court for 19 years with the same puisne judges: James Boucat (the former premier, appointed 1878) and William Bundey (1884)

Way presided over royal commissions, notably (1883) into the Destitute Act and the plight of boys on a rotting hulk used as a reformatory; and the servitude of unmarried mothers.

Honoured by Oxford and Cambridge universities, Way sat as a colonial judge on the Privy Council’s judicial committee in London in 1897.

Controversially appointed (by the governor, the earl of Kintore – a fellow freemason, without the government cabinet’s knowledge) as lieutenant governor for life in 1890, Way became vice-chancellor and chancellor of the University of Adelaide, despite criticism that he had no tertiary qualifications. President of the public library, museum and art gallery, he was active in Freemasonry and Methodism.

While not officially part in the Australian federation movement, he tried behind the scenes to prevent leave of appeal from the Australian high court to the Privy Council in England. Way distrusted the high court and in 1906 he refused a seat on it. In 1909, he had a decision (Dashwood v. Maslin) reversed, for the first time in 43 years, by the high court.

 

 

 

 

 

Other related ADELAIDE AZ articles

The Isis, South Australia's largest privately-owned yacht, belonging to industrialist Samuel Perry, moored with other Royal South Australian Yacht Club craft at Birkenhead, Port Adelaide, in 1923. The Isis was sold to W.L. Buckland of the Royal Yacht Squadron, Melbourne, in 1932 and later wrecked in Port Philip Bay.
Class >
Royal South Australian Yacht Squadron origins in 1869 as a mooring place for the province's social establishment
READ MORE+
Queen Elizabeth II watching champion stallion Without Fear at Lindsay Park stud in 1977. The former Angas family property as a stud retained heritage features such as the gatehouse (top left) and the stables (bottom left) with the original ladder to access hay in the loft. 
Heritage >
Collingrove, Lindsay Park seats of Angas colonial empire in South Australia have heritage preserved in new ways
READ MORE+
Offices of the South Australian Company, founded by George Fife Angas, on North Terrace, Adelaide city. The company continued for 100 years but did not exert growing influence.
Business A (19th Century) >
George Fife Angas the biggest landholder of early South Australia, exploiting his special surveys of 4,000 acres
READ MORE+
The opening day, with the main building, for Prince Alfred College (inset, in 21st Century) at Kent Town, Adelaide, in 1869.
Education >
Methodist-born Prince Alfred College a social class and sporting rival in Adelaide to Anglican St Peter's since 1869
READ MORE+
Philip Levi made Vale House, one of Adelaide's oldest surviving large homes in the later suburb of Vale Park, a centre of the city's social activities after he bought it 1853.
Agriculture >
Philip Levi, a Jewish founder of Adelaide Club, with pastoral interests, makes Vale House a social centre
READ MORE+
Derek Jolly with the Moog Modular 3 synthesiser he brought to his Gamba Studios in North Adelaide.
Class >
Derek Jolly introduces electronic music to Australia with Moog synthesiser at 1960s North Adelaide studio
READ MORE+

 

 
©2025 Adelaide AZ | Privacy | Terms & Disclaimer | PWA 1.1.58