South Australia loses two judges – John Jeffcott and William Wearing – to the sea
South Australia's first judge John Jeffcott drowned at the River Murray mouth in November, 1837.
South Australia lost two judges to drownings in separate 19th Century incidents. On November 19, 1837 heading for Hobart Town, the colony’s first chief justice and judge John Jeffcott was waiting in a whaleboat to board his ship at Encounter Bay when the whaleboat capsized, and he drowned at the River Murray mouth.
South Australia lost another supreme court judge William Wearing to drowning in 1875 when the Gothenberg was wrecked on the Great Barrier Reef.
The first criminal sessions of the South Australian courts were held under the colony’s first judge, John Jeffcott, on May 13, 1837. But Jeffcott’s term was short. Dismayed at the “dreadful dissensions” in the colony between governor John Hindmarsh (supported by Jeffcott) and his opponents, he was soon looking for a position elsewhere.
At his first sitting of the criminal courts 1837, he congratulated the colony, unlike others, in allowing trial by jury. The jury foreman was Colonel William Light. At its first hearing, the court admitted the public prosecutor as a practitioner to the court. Seven prisoners were presented for trial on charges of burglary, break and enter, and rioting.
Jeffcott left South Australia for Tasmania – to adjudicate on a dispute over whaling rights – in June 1837 and didn’t return until October when he started setting up the colony’s supreme court.
Not long after, upset at the quarrels with governor John Hindmarsh in South Australia, he sought a judicial post elsewhere. He was given leave to go to Hobart Town to consult with the judges there on South Australian legal difficulties. He drowned at the River Murray mouth while waiting to board a ship on December 19.
South Australia lost another judge to the sea in 1875. That’s the year Justice William Wearing, appointed to the supreme court in 1867, was sent to Northern Territory – then administered by South Australia – to conduct circuit sittings in Palmerston (now Darwin).
The sessions saw the trial of Ah Kim, a Chinese cook originally committed on theft charges, who was tried instead for committing an “unnatural offence” with another prisoner in the gaol lockup.
Ah Kim’s legal counsel was granted a trial by a jury including six fellow Chinese, but Ah Kim was convicted.
On the return journey to Adelaide, Justice Wearing was drowned when his ship the Gothenberg was wrecked on the Great Barrier Reef.
