AGY-1044 | Lieutenant Governor’s Court of Van Diemen’s Land

Full description

The Lieutenant Governor’s Court under letters patent dated 4 February, 1814. The Court was established in the Colony of Van Die men's Land with full power and authority to hold plea of and to hear and determine in a summary way all pleas concerning lands, tenements, hereditaments and all manner of interests therein. The Court considered all pleas of debt, account or other contracts, trespasses and all manner of personal pleas whatsoever, where the sum in dispute or property value did not exceed £50 Sterling. The Court was appointed from time to time and consisted of the Deputy Judge Advocate plus two fit and proper inhabitants of Van Diemen’s Land. (1) The Lieutenant Governor’s Court dealt with plaints for debts not exceeding £50. To bring their claims within its jurisdiction, creditors divided their amounts owing into bills of £50. This method of 'legal evasion' lessened the business before the superior court in Sydney (the Supreme Court of Civil Judicature) and ameliorated the unfair aspects of local lawsuits. Previously wealthy creditors, especially ship owners, could carry their witnesses to Sydney and after the trial convey them home without delay; while the less opulent creditor or debtor was excluded from redress. (2). The Deputy Judge Advocate of Van Diemen's Land, Justice Abbott (late major in the 102nd Regiment and Sydney Magistrate), assumed office in 1816. (3) Justice Abbott regarded the Court as place of justice and right rather than a court of law or equity. The Court was, in essence, a court of requests as no appeal mechanism existed to dispute the judgments given. (4) At Justice Abbott’s first session 1400 complaints were entered as he insisted that northern residents make the journey to Hobart Town so that he might not have the inconvenience of moving the Court to Launceston. (5) Justice Abbott presided as Deputy Judge Advocate of Van Diemen's Land, until the office was abolished in 1823 with New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land becoming separate colonies under the New South Wales Act, 1823 (Act 4 Geo.IV c.96). The Lieutenant Governor's Court was replaced by the Supreme Court of New South Wales with civil and criminal jurisdictions. FOOTNOTES
(1) Letters Patent for the Lieutenant Governor’s Court, Historical Records of Australia, 4 February 1814, Series IV, Vol. 1, p.84.
(2) West, John, The History of Tasmania, (first published 1852) Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1971, pp. 56-57.
(3) Governor Macquarie to Earl Bathurst, 7 October 1814, Historical Records of Australia, Series I, Volume VIII, p.307.
(4) West, John, op. cit., p.57.
(5) Robson, Lloyd, A History of Tasmania: Volume I Van Diemen’s Land from the Earliest Times to 1855, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1983, pp.118-119.