Apéndice III: Producción científica y trabajos realizados
1.6.7 Interfaces humano-máquina aferentes
1.6.7.7 Navegación autónoma
Existing accounts deal cursorily with Pedder’s application for colonial appointment. Correspondence with the Colonial Office reveals nothing of his reasons for pursuing judicial office, and historians of Van Diemen’s Land/Tasmania do not speculate on his possible motivations. Legal historians gloss over Pedder’s appointment as marginal to his judicial career proper, and analysis is framed by narrowly professional concerns. As a result, Pedder is uncritically cast as either ‘eminently suitable’ or an ‘eccentric’
choice.64 By way of corrective, this section maps Colonial Office selection
procedures, and the range of motives articulated by Pedder’s peers, through a close reading of contemporary applications for appointment to law offices in Van Diemen’s Land and New South Wales in 1823.
The early 1820s marked a return to relative social and political calm in England after a strained transition to peace, following the final defeat of
Napoleon in 1815.65 Economic conditions, however, were challenging: the
cost of living remained high and demobilisation increased competition for employment, especially among the professional classes. In response to continuing radical critique of ‘Old Corruption’ and the oppressive levels of taxation which had sustained the war effort, the imperial government also
faced pressure for retrenchment and reform.66 In this climate, Zoë Laidlaw
63 A.H. Manchester, A Modern Legal History of England and Wales, 1750-1950 (London,
Butterworths, 1980), pp. 73-74. Available information suggests that many ‘second or third rate’ barristers were earning between £500 and £1,500 a year as late as 1874.
64 See, for example, Bennett, Sir John Pedder, pp. 8-9; J.N.D. Harrison (ed.), Court in the Colony:
Hobart Town, May, 1824 (Hobart, Law Society of Tasmania, 1974), p. 20; R.W. Baker, ‘The early judges in Tasmania’, Tasmanian Historical Research Association Papers and Proceedings 8 (4) (1960), p. 72.
65 A. Burns and J. Innes, ‘Introduction’ in A. Burns and J. Innes (eds.), Rethinking the Age of
Reform: Britain 1780-1850 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2003), p. 28. Britain had fought a series of campaigns against the French from 1799.
identifies a ‘pseudo-gentry’ of financially insecure, landless professionals who sought colonial appointment as the means to maintain a genteel
lifestyle.67 While some became permanent economic migrants, others sought
respite in temporary employment outside England.
Applicants for colonial appointment considered a range of British colonies, including Upper Canada, Mauritius, and the Cape Colony. Lucrative positions in British India were also prized by those willing to endure the tropical
climate. With the publication of the Bigge Report in 1822 and 1823, the
southern colonies of New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land became the focus of renewed interest in Britain. Published in three volumes by the House of Commons, the reports of J.T. Bigge’s Commission of Inquiry provided a comprehensive, up-to-date account of colonial conditions for the
first time.68 In transition from their origins as penal settlements, the two
colonies were now promoted to voluntary emigrants. Economic expansion was underpinned by Indigenous dispossession and the bonded labour of convicts, and colonists with capital to invest were attracted by grants of land, other indulgences, and by the belief that life in the colonies was more
economical.69 To this was added the advantage of a salubrious climate,
especially in temperate maritime Van Diemen’s Land.70
c. 1790-1832’ in Burns and Innes, Rethinking the Age of Reform, p. 106. The legal establishment was ‘largely self-financing’, but remained a target for the critics of ‘Old Corruption’ as much of the income of judges and court officials came not from salaries, but fees. M. Lobban, ‘“Old wine in new bottles”: The concept and practice of law reform, c. 1780-1830’ in Burns and Innes, Rethinking the Age of Reform, p. 122.
67 Z. Laidlaw, Colonial Connections, 1815-45: Patronage, the Information Revolution and
Colonial Government (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2005), p. 102.
68 The State of the Colony of New South Wales, 19 June 1822 (House of Commons Paper 448);
The Judicial Establishments of New South Wales and of Van Diemen’s Land, 21 February 1823 (House of Commons Paper 33); and The State of Agriculture and Trade in the Colony of New South Wales, 13 March 1823 (House of Commons Paper 136).
69 Grants were proportionate to a settler’s capital. Indulgences included victualling, convict
labour, and livestock on credit. L.L. Robson, A History of Tasmania, Volume I: Van Diemen’s Land from the Earliest Times to 1855 (Melbourne, Oxford University Press, 1983), pp. 111-115; Laidlaw, Colonial Connections, p. 103.
70 The healthy climate was popularised in Britain in articles like [J. Barrow], ‘A geographical,
historical, and topographical description of Van Diemen’s Land, with important hints to emigrants, and useful information respecting the application for grants of land’, Quarterly Review 27 (53) (1822), pp. 99-110.
During the 1820s, applications for colonial appointment were directed to
Robert Wilmot Horton, Undersecretary of the Colonial Office,71 and
ultimately approved by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord
Bathurst.72 In an age of recruitment by personal recommendation, selection
procedures favoured early application from prospective candidates: as a
result, the ‘merest rumour’ of a colonial vacancy could stimulate enquiries.73
Correspondence relating to the Australian colonies between 1819 and 1823 reveals a number of personal and professional reasons for seeking
employment outside England.74 While some expressed interest in particular
postings, most applicants sought general assistance from the Colonial Office, indicating their capacity for a variety of tasks or expressing interest in several positions.
In July 1823, therapeutic émigré, Edward Butler, made a general application for assistance, confessing that ‘permanent residence abroad is absolutely
essential to the establishment of my health’.75 A bookseller and tax collector,
Butler emphasised his willingness to embark upon any colonial employment. As he reassured the Colonial Office, ‘My life having been devoted to active pursuits together with my general knowledge of business and accounts, I presume there are very few departments where I should feel myself a
stranger’.76 Under the patronage of Lord Auckland, the consumptive Butler
71 Parliamentary Undersecretary of the Colonial Office, 1821-1827, Robert Wilmot assumed
the additional name of Horton by royal licence in May 1823, but for the sake of consistency is referred to as Wilmot Horton throughout. E. Richards, ‘Horton, Sir Robert John Wilmot-, third baronet (1784-1841)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 <http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/13827> accessed 23 September 2009.
72 Bathurst was Secretary of State for the Colonies, 1812-1827, in the Tory ministry.
N. Thompson, ‘Bathurst, Henry, third Earl Bathurst (1762-1834)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 <http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/1696> accessed 23 September 2009.
73 Laidlaw, Colonial Connections, p. 105.
74 Applications for Colonial Appointments, 1819-1822, CO 323/117, and Applications for
Colonial Appointments, 1823, CO 323/118, AJCP reel PRO 934.
75 Butler to Wilmot Horton, 1 July 1823, CO 323/118, f. 66a, AJCP reel PRO 934; P. Howell,
‘Shovelling out distressed gentlefolk? A reconsideration of the Colonial Office’s use of its powers of patronage in Van Diemen’s Land’ in G. Winter (ed.), Tasmanian Insights. Essays in Honour of Geoffrey Thomas Stilwell (Hobart, State Library of Tasmania, 1992), pp. 67-70.
secured appointment as Registrar of the Supreme Court of Van Diemen’s
Land, but died en route to the colony.77
Writing to Wilmot Horton in August 1823, barrister, Joseph Hone, sought
assistance to proceed to Van Diemen’s Land ‘to practise at the bar’.78 He had
already made ‘more than one application’ for assistance.79 Having been
informed in 1822 that there was ‘no probability of a situation’ in the
colonies,80 he tried another tack in 1823. This time, Hone applied for passage
for his family to Van Diemen’s Land ‘on the same Terms, as to expense, as the
public Officers of His Majesty’s Government’.81 With a wife and three
children to support, the struggling barrister confessed that he had ‘no other
plea to urge in support of this application than that of Poverty’.82 Hone
offered to reimburse the cost of his passage by ‘performing any Business for the Colonial Government gratuitously’ until he had ‘worked out the pecuniary
Amount of the obligation’.83 With several vacancies created by the imminent
foundation of the Supreme Court of Van Diemen’s Land, Hone’s supplication was successful. By early October, he was writing again to ‘thankfully accept’
the unsolicited situation of Master of the Supreme Court.84
There is no evidence that Pedder had considered colonial appointment
before his application of March 1823.85 His judicial biographer, J.M. Bennett,
speculates that the young barrister ‘thought upon a new career in the British
77 Butler to Wilmot Horton, 9 September 1823, CO 323/118, ff. 94-94a, AJCP reel PRO 934;
Sorell to Bathurst, 6 May 1824, HRA III, IV, p. 128; Hobart Town Gazette, 23 April 1824, p. 2.
78 Hone to Wilmot Horton, 30 August 1823, CO 323/118, f. 294, AJCP reel PRO 934; P. Crisp,
‘Hone, Joseph (1784-1861)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, <http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hone-joseph- 2195/text2833> accessed 1 August 2011.
79 Hone to Wilmot Horton, 30 August 1823, CO 323/118, f. 294, AJCP reel PRO 934.
80 William Courtenay to Bathurst, 12 April 1822; Courtenay to Wilmot Horton, 12 April 1822;
and marginal note, CO 323/118, ff. 50-52a, AJCP reel PRO 934; Hone to Wilmot Horton, 30 August 1823, CO 323/118, f. 294a, AJCP reel PRO 934.
81 Hone to Wilmot Horton, 30 August 1823, CO 323/118, f. 294a, AJCP reel PRO 934. 82 Hone to Wilmot Horton, 30 August 1823, CO 323/118, f. 294a, AJCP reel PRO 934. 83 Hone to Wilmot Horton, 30 August 1823, CO 323/118, f. 295, AJCP reel PRO 934. 84 Hone to Wilmot Horton, 1 October 1823, CO 323/118, f. 302, AJCP reel PRO 934.
85 Pedder to Wilmot Horton, 8 March 1823, CO 323/118, ff. 446-447, AJCP reel PRO 934;
Applications for Colonial Appointments, 1819-1822, CO 323/117; and Applications for Colonial Appointments, 1823, CO 323/118, AJCP reel PRO 934.
Colonies’ in 1823, following the death of his father.86 A search of English civil
registration records reveals, however, that Pedder père did not die until
1844, more than twenty years after his son’s appointment as chief justice.87
In a letter written on black-edged mourning paper in April 1845, Lady Pedder confirmed the recent death of her father-in-law, telling a family friend that she had received a letter from her sister-in-law in England, which ‘came
with a box of mourning things (for Sir John Pedder’s Father)’.88 If a death in
the family did stimulate Pedder’s interest in a colonial career, it is more likely
to have been that of his mother, Jane, who died at Brighton in January 1823.89
The year 1823 was significant in another way for Pedder père. Having begun
his involvement with the Gas Light and Coke Company as company solicitor
by 1808, Pedder’s father helped to obtain a Royal Charter of Corporation.90
In 1812, he was rewarded for his ‘constant diligence, solicitude and ability throughout the various proceedings’ with appointment as company secretary
at a salary of £500 per annum.91 In 1823, his association with the firm ended
abruptly, however, when it was discovered that ‘Mr Secretary Pedder’ had
been embezzling company funds.92 As an ‘awful example to others who
might be tempted to copy his lead’, the cheque for three months’ salary then due was ‘solemnly burnt before the whole Court [board] of Directors by the
Governor’.93 Pedder père was only one of several embezzlers whose activities
86 Bennett, Sir John Pedder, p. 8. Bennett concludes it ‘seems likely’ that Pedder’s father died
in 1823 as his name no longer appeared in the London directories.
87 Certified entry of death, John Pedder, Esquire, died 1 November 1844, General Register
Office December Quarter 1844, Lewisham, vol. 5, p. 233, no. 432.
88 Maria Pedder to Jane Clark, 12 April 1845, University of Tasmania Special Collections,
Royal Society of Tasmania Library Collection (hereafter RS), RS8/F44. Internal evidence supplies the date of Jane Pedder’s letter. Maria quotes a paragraph in which Jane Pedder recounts that Jane Clark’s sister, Mrs Weston, ‘very kindly called on me today (Novr 18th)’. The death of ‘John Pedder, Esq. of the Middle Temple, in his 82nd year’ was also reported without reference to the date or place in Jackson’s Oxford Journal, 4 January 1845, p. 4.
89European Magazine and London Review 83 (January 1823), p. 90; Gentleman’s Magazine,
and Historical Chronicle: From January to June 1823 93 (1) (1823), p. 94.
90 S. Everard, The History of the Gas Light and Coke Company, 1812-1949 (London, Ernest
Benn, 1949), pp. 23, 24. The company was the first commercial supplier of gas for lighting in London.
91 Everard, History of the Gas Light and Coke Company, pp. 21, 25, 27. 92 Everard, History of the Gas Light and Coke Company, p. 108. 93 Everard, History of the Gas Light and Coke Company, p. 108.
were discovered in the early 1820s,94 but the company rarely prosecuted.
Instead, embezzlers were dismissed and moneys recovered via the sureties
required of staff at the time of their appointment.95 It is unclear, then,
whether this potentially transportable offence became public knowledge.96
Pedder père was aged in his early 60s in 1823, and his dismissal might have
looked like retirement.
With the exception of this incident, Pedder’s family circumstances offer no immediate motive for seeking colonial appointment. While the ‘ill heath’ of William Pedder must have caused concern during the 1810s and early
1820s,97 the family was apparently able to support Pedder’s younger brother
and unmarried sister. Unlike many of his peers, Pedder was a single man with no large family to support, and, while uncertain career prospects may be inferred from the broader state of the metropolitan legal profession, his correspondence gives no indication that he was in the immediate distress of
his contemporary, Hone.98 Unaware of any particular catalyst – or writing
deliberately for Colonial Office consumption – Pedder’s former pupil-master, Henry Ker, told his protégé that, ‘I only regret that any thing should have
happened to make a situation out of England desirable to you’.99 If Pedder
père had supported his son’s practice at the bar by providing briefs, the end
of his career might well have represented an opportune moment for Pedder
fils to avoid embarrassment at home, establish himself independently, and
explore the new professional and financial opportunities presented by developments in the southern colonies.
94 Two other embezzlers were discovered in 1822, and ‘a spate of embezzlements of serious
proportions’ followed in 1824. Everard, History of the Gas Light and Coke Company, p. 108.
95 Everard, History of the Gas Light and Coke Company, pp. 118-120.
96 Under Acts of 1800 and 1823, thefts by employees from their masters were punishable by
transportation; earlier statutes had prescribed the death penalty for particular forms of embezzlement. C. Emsley, T. Hitchcock and R. Shoemaker, ‘Crimes tried at the Old Bailey: Explanations of types and categories of indictable offences’, Old Bailey Proceedings Online, <http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/static/Crimes.jsp> accessed 27 May 2011.
97 William Pedder’s ‘ill health’ between 1811 and 1825 is recorded in Arrowsmith,
Charterhouse Register, p. 289.
98 Butler to Wilmot Horton, 1 July 1823, CO 323/118, f. 66a, AJCP reel PRO 934; Hone to
Wilmot Horton, 30 August 1823, CO 323/118, f. 294a, AJCP reel PRO 934.
In early 1823, in consultation with Commissioner Bigge and colonial
lobbyists, the Colonial Office was preparing legislation to reform the
administration of justice in New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land. The creation of two new, discrete Supreme Courts was intended to separate the civil and criminal jurisdictions of the sister colonies. For the first time, Van Diemen’s Land would have its own superior court, with the power to try capital offences locally. With its close ties to government, the legal profession in London took a keen interest in the professional opportunities generated by the New South Wales Act of 1823.100 Indeed, in his Report on the Judicial
Establishments, published in February, Commissioner Bigge anticipated that the ‘prospect of professional emolument must of itself afford encouragement to practitioners to repair to Van Diemen’s Land from England, whenever the
establishment of a separate judicature shall be announced’.101
A fortnight after Bigge’s report was published, Pedder submitted his application to the Colonial Office. It comprised three components: the personal recommendation of patrons; a brief letter of application; and the testimonials of academic and professional referees. In a deferential expression of interest, dated 8 March 1823, he told Wilmot Horton:
Tho’ I believe Mr Holmes and Mr Bonham and Mr George Bankes have done me the honour to mention my name to you as an applicant for the vacant Office of Judge at Van Diemen’s Land, I apprehend it is proper, that a direct application should be made by myself.102
In the belief that Tory MP, George Bankes, had sent his professional ‘testimonials’ to the Colonial Office the previous day, Pedder concluded his succinct letter with the hope that, if Wilmot Horton should ‘find my testimonials a sufficient recommendation you will do me the honour to lay
100 4 Geo. IV, c. 96, An Act to provide, until the First Day of July One thousand eight hundred and
twenty-seven, and until the End of the next Session of Parliament, for the better Administration of Justice in New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land, and for the more effectual Government thereof and for other Purposes relating thereto (1823).
101 J.T. Bigge, The Bigge Reports Volume 2. Report of the Commission of Inquiry on the Judicial
Establishments of New South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land, 1823 (Adelaide, Libraries Board of South Australia, 1966), p. 59.
my application before the Earl of Bathurst for his approval’.103 In fact, Pedder
learned – when Bankes’ brother returned the testimonials to him two days
later – that George Bankes ‘did not think it necessary to transmit’ them.104
Combined with Bankes’ confidence, Pedder’s anticipation of Lord Bathurst’s ‘approval’ (rather than consideration) of his application raises the possibility that it was purely a formality. By comparison, Pedder’s friend and fellow Chancery barrister, Saxe Bannister, wrote more tentatively to Wilmot Horton of his ‘pretensions’, and ‘beg[ed] the favour of your laying this letter before
Earl Bathurst’.105
Bannister made a number of applications to the Colonial Office between
March and May 1823.106 A half-pay officer since 1814, he had exhausted all
hope of securing full-time military appointment before applying to the
Colonial Office.107 With no prospect of a commission in the army, he
informed Wilmot Horton that he had been ‘advised to tender [his] services …
in a judicial or other legal character in the southern colonies’.108 His
correspondence indicates that he kept abreast of government policy
discussions during the preparation of the New South Wales Act. He was
willing to accept appointment in several colonies and in various capacities, and had ‘been informed’ that the imperial government had not yet determined whether to send a ‘junior judge’ or attorney-general to New
103 Pedder to Wilmot Horton, 8 March 1823, CO 323/118, ff. 446-447, AJCP reel PRO 934. 104 Pedder to Wilmot Horton, 10 March 1823, CO 323/118, ff. 448-448a, AJCP reel PRO 934.
Pedder took the ‘liberty of submitting them’ to Wilmot Horton’s ‘attention’ himself, as they were ‘the best recommendations’ he could ‘produce’.