Êtes-vous un étudiant de l'EPFL à la recherche d'un projet de semestre?
Travaillez avec nous sur des projets en science des données et en visualisation, et déployez votre projet sous forme d'application sur GraphSearch.
Concept
John Jeffcott
Résumé
Sir John William Jeffcott (1796 – 12 December 1837) was the first judge of the Supreme Court of South Australia. He also served as Chief Justice of Sierra Leone.
Jeffcott was born in Kerry, Ireland. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and was called to the English Bar at the Inner Temple in February 1826. Jeffcott was installed as Chief Justice of the colony of Sierra Leone on 26 April 1830. He was the only judge in the colony, and much of his work arose from attempts to end the Transatlantic slave trade. Jeffcott was knighted on 1 May 1833, when he returned to England on leave.
Jeffcott had been engaged to be married but the engagement was broken off by his fiancée or her family. Whilst in England, Jeffcott received news that a Dr Peter Hennis had made derogatory comments about Jeffcott's conduct in the affair. Jeffcott confronted Hennis, but refused to accept his explanation. On Friday, 10 May 1833 a duel with pistols was organised at Haldon racecourse near Exeter, between the two men, in the course of which Hennis was fatally wounded. A warrant was issued for Jeffcott's arrest on charges of murder, and he went into hiding. The three organisers of the duel were tried as accessories to the murder, but were acquitted, apparently due to a misunderstanding of the applicable law on the part of the jury.
Following that verdict of acquittal, Jeffcott surrendered, was arraigned, and no evidence being tendered, he too was acquitted. However, he was removed from his position of Chief Justice of Sierra Leone, and his reputation was greatly damaged. On 27 May 1836, Jeffcott accepted appointment as the first judge of the new colony of South Australia, a position he had first applied for when the colony was proposed in 1834. Jeffcott never officially held the title "Chief Justice of South Australia", which was not created until 1856.
Jeffcott travelled to Australia in September 1836, on the Isabella in the company of J. B. Hack and family, his arrangements for passage being made secretly to defeat the efforts of creditors to recover money from him.
Source officielle
À propos de ce résultat
Cette page est générée automatiquement et peut contenir des informations qui ne sont pas correctes, complètes, à jour ou pertinentes par rapport à votre recherche. Il en va de même pour toutes les autres pages de ce site. Veillez à vérifier les informations auprès des sources officielles de l'EPFL.