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Sir James Dowling (25 November 1787 – 27 September 1844) was an English-born
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in
New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
, Chief Justice of New South Wales 1837 – 1844.


Early life

James Dowling was born in
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, England, the son of Vincent Dowling (1756–1825) of Queen's County,
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, and brother of Alfred Septimus Dowling (1805–1868), a British law reporter, Vincent George Dowling, & 2 other brothers. Educated at St Paul's School, he later became a parliamentary reporter, studied law and was
called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...
at the
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in May 1815. He edited the second edition of W. Paley's ''Law and Practice of Summary Convictions'', and was also responsible for several volumes of ''Reports of Cases''.


Career

Dowling applied to the Colonial Office for an appointment in June 1827 and on 6 August 1827 he was appointed third judge at
Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...
, where he arrived in February 1828. He acted with consideration and tact over a question of precedence which immediately arose. Governor Ralph Darling held that the terms of his commission placed Dowling next in precedence to the chief justice, Francis Forbes, while John Stephen, the other judge, said that in England such questions were decided by seniority. Dowling said that the matter should be referred to the home authorities, and that in the meantime Stephen should take precedence. The question was settled in favour of Stephen's view, and Dowling accepted the position of junior judge. The state of Stephen's health, however, threw a good deal of work on the shoulders of Dowling. In June 1832, he found it necessary to defend his judgment in a particular case which had been criticised in letters printed in the ''Sydney Monitor'', and was assured by Viscount Goderich that he would not permit himself "to entertain even a momentary impression to his prejudice". In December Stephen retired and Dowling became second judge. In January 1834, some remarks of Dowling's on the conduct of a criminal trial led to the three judges drawing up an important memorandum suggesting many possible improvements in dealing with criminal cases. In September 1835, Dowling was appointed acting Chief Justice during the absence of Forbes, who was on leave. William Westbrooke Burton, the third judge, objected to this on the ground that his previous appointment as a judge at the
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made him senior to Dowling. Dowling was an appointed member of the
New South Wales Legislative Council The New South Wales Legislative Council, often referred to as the upper house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of New South Wales, parliament of the Australian state of New South Wales. Along with the New South Wales Legislative As ...
from 19 April 1836 until 5 January 1843. In April 1837, Forbes retired from his office, and Dowling was appointed chief justice on 29 August 1837. John Walpole Willis arrived at Sydney in November 1837 to take the position of third judge; conflict between Willis and the Chief Justice reached such a level that for the sake of peace Governor Gipps transferred Willis to
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in January 1841. Following the brutal killing of 28 unarmed
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in the Myall Creek massacre on 10 June 1838, Dowling presided over the first trial in which a jury acquitted eleven colonists of the murder of one person, referred to as Daddy. Dowling also sat in the Full Bench which determined questions of law following the conviction of seven colonists of the murder of two children and an adult referred to as Charley. In June 1843, Dowling expressed his willingness to act as speaker of the new Legislative Council, but Gipps ruled against this as he considered it would not be in the public interest. In August 1844 Dowling was granted 18 months leave of absence due to a breakdown in his health, but he died soon after on 27 September 1844.


Personal life

He was knighted in 1837. He was married twice and was survived by his second wife, Lady Harriott Dowling, and two sons and two daughters from his first marriage. A pension of £200 a year was granted to Lady Dowling. Lady Dowling was the eldest daughter of John Blaxland. At the time of his death, Dowling was preparing a volume of law reports of the decisions of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. The volume was eventually published in 2005. Many of these cases are also online. Dowling was regarded as a hard working judge, and rarely took holidays. One of his sons, James Sheen Dowling (1819–1902), was born in England and came to Australia with his father in 1828, practised as a barrister and was a
District Court District courts are a category of courts which exists in several nations, some call them "small case court" usually as the lowest level of the hierarchy. These courts generally work under a higher court which exercises control over the lower co ...
judge from 1858 to 1889 and an acting judge of the Supreme Court from 1878 to 1881. South Dowling Street in
Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...
is named after him.


See also

* List of judges of the Supreme Court of New South Wales


References


Sources

*T.D. Castle and Bruce Kercher (eds), Dowling's Select Cases, 1828 to 1844: Decisions of the Supreme Court of New South Wales (Francis Forbes Society for Australian Legal History, Sydney, 2005).


External links


Colonial Secretary's papers 1822-1877
State Library of Queensland State Library of Queensland (State Library) is the state public reference and research library of Queensland, Australia, operated by the Government of Queensland, state government. The Library is governed by the Library Board of Queensland, whi ...
- includes digitised letters written by Dowling to the Colonial Secretary of New South Wales *Many of Dowling's cases and decisions are online a
AustLii

Decisions of the Superior Courts of New South Wales, 1788-1899

Superior Courts of New South Wales (pre-1900) Case Notes
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dowling, James Chief justices of New South Wales Judges of the Supreme Court of New South Wales 1787 births 1844 deaths Burials at Waverley Cemetery People educated at St Paul's School, London Colony of New South Wales judges 19th-century Australian judges Members of the New South Wales Legislative Council 19th-century Australian politicians