South Australia's legal system begins with Edward Wakefield, an abductor, and John Jeffcott, killer in a duel
Edward Gibbon Wakefield formed his ideas for South Australia's legal system while in London's Newgate prison.
Image courtesy State Library of South Australia
Key figures in the founding of South Australia’s justice system, Edward Gibbon Wakefield and John Jeffcott, both had experience of the English system as defendants.
South Australia’s early legal system was decided even before the colony was settled, based on Wakefield’s ideas that he formed while in London’s Newgate prison from 1827 for abducting a 15-year-old heiress. Jeffcott, who became South Australia’s first judge before the colony was settled, was available for the position because he’d been removed as chief justice of Sierra Leone and the Gambia after being charged with murder in 1834 over the killing of a young doctor in a duel in Exeter.
Edward Gibbon Wakefield’s time in Newgate prison transformed his life. It led to his study of emigration and his solution: systematic colonisation. His also produced ideas on the justice system by investigating fellow prisoners: their punishments and prospects. This led to his Facts Relating to the Punishment of Death in the Metropolis (1831), Swing Unmasked, or the Causes of Rural Incendiarism (1831), The Hangman and the Judge (1833) and Popular Politics (1837). His anonymous Sketch of a Proposal for Colonizing Australasia was printed in 1829.
Called to the English Bar at the Inner Temple in 1826, John Jeffcott was appointed chief justice of Sierra Leone and the Gambia in 1830. He returned to England in 1832 on leave that was extended on medical grounds.
The next year he was knighted and about to return to Africa when, in a duel at Exeter, he shot and killed Peter Hennis, a young doctor. After the duel, Jeffcott sailed for Africa before he could be caught. A warrant had been issued for Jeffcott's arrest on a charge of murder. No one wanted to press the charge and it was arranged that, if he returned to England and stood for trial, no evidence would be tendered.
He surrendered at Exeter Assizes in 1834, was arraigned on the murder charge and was acquitted. He had been removed as a chief justice, and was unemployed 1834-36 before being appointed to South Australia.
