Paris Nesbit,
QC (born Edward Pariss Nesbit; 8 August 1852 – 31 March 1927), was an Australian lawyer.
Early life and education
Nesbit was born at
Angaston in
South Australia
South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a States and territories of Australia, state in the southern central part of Australia. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories by area, which in ...
to schoolmaster Edward Planta Nesbit and Ann, ''née'' Pariss. He was a cousin of the English writer
Edith Nesbit
Edith Nesbit (married name Edith Bland; 15 August 1858 – 4 May 1924) was an English writer and poet, who published her books for children and others as E. Nesbit. She wrote or collaborated on more than 60 such books. She was also a political ...
. His mother died when he was two. Something of a
child prodigy
A child prodigy is, technically, a child under the age of 10 who produces meaningful work in some domain at the level of an adult expert. The term is also applied more broadly to describe young people who are extraordinarily talented in some f ...
, by the age of ten Nesbit could speak German, French and Latin, and had translated the works of
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...
and
Friedrich Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, philosopher and historian. Schiller is considered by most Germans to be Germany's most important classical playwright.
He was born i ...
into English.
Nesbit attended Rev.
Gustav Rechner's school at
Light's Pass and
M. P. F. Basedow's grammar school at
Tanunda, topping the scholarship examinations for South Australia; he also studied music with
Carl Linger
Carl Linger (15 March 1810 – 16 February 1862) was a German Australian composer in South Australia who in 1859 wrote the melody for the patriotic " Song of Australia".
German-born intellectual Carl Linger, who had studied at the Institute of ...
. In 1868, having worked briefly in a bank, he was articled as a clerk to Rupert Ingleby,
QC. He formed the Articled Clerks' Debating Society with
Charles Kingston
Charles Cameron Kingston (22 October 1850 – 11 May 1908) was an Australian politician. From 1893 to 1899 he was a radical liberal Premier of South Australia, occupying this office with the support of Labor, which in the House of Assembly ...
and edited the organisation's journals; his political views developed in a
progressive vein.
Legal career
Nesbit was called to the Bar in 1873 and embarked on a successful career in the courts.
In 1880 he joined in partnership with
Rupert Ingleby and
Eustace B. Gundy, which in 1883 admitted
Rupert Pelly to form Grundy, Nesbit & Pelly; in 1884 Nesbit left the partnership.
He drafted a number of parliamentary laws in the 1880s, and was appointed
Queen's Counsel
A King's Counsel (Post-nominal letters, post-nominal initials KC) is a senior lawyer appointed by the monarch (or their Viceroy, viceregal representative) of some Commonwealth realms as a "Counsel learned in the law". When the reigning monarc ...
in 1893. In 1896 he formally changed his name to "Paris Nesbit"; he was widely acknowledged joint leader of the Bar with
Josiah Symon.
[
]
Stints in lunatic asylums
Nesbit's career was dogged by scandal, the first of which broke in 1885 when he was arrested for wilful trespass in Melbourne
Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...
, apparently pursuing a lady who spurned him. He spent a week in Melbourne Gaol before being sent to Kew Lunatic Asylum, having been certified a lunatic. After several months he was released and sent back to South Australia, but on the steamer back to Adelaide he jumped overboard and swam back to Melbourne, where he was returned to the asylum. He began to acquire something of a reputation and was described in Adelaide gossip as an "absinthe
Absinthe (, ) is an anise-flavored Liquor, spirit derived from several plants, including the flowers and leaves of ''Artemisia absinthium'' ("grand wormwood"), together with green anise, sweet fennel, and other medicinal and culinary herbs. His ...
-drinking, woman-loving, tobacco-enslaved ... Prince of Bohemia". He was a talented painter, a member of the Adelaide Easel Club, a Shakespeare scholar, and an engaging speaker. He was confined again in 1896 in Adelaide Lunatic Asylum.[
In Parkside Asylum from January to July 1898, the Kingston government illegally imposed a detention order to avoid his release but was overruled by the ]Supreme Court
In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
. After his release he published ''The Beaten Side'', a tract against Darwinism
''Darwinism'' is a term used to describe a theory of biological evolution developed by the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and others. The theory states that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural sel ...
, and in 1900, with his sister Agnes Benham, he launched ''Morning'' (renamed ''Morning Star'' in 1902), a weekly publication that championed Nesbit's causes.
Politics
Nesbit ran unsuccessfully for the South Australian House of Assembly
The House of Assembly (also known as the lower house) is one of two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia, the other being the Legislative Council. It sits in Parliament House in the state capital, Adelaide.
Overview
The House of Assem ...
in 1884 and 1896, in the second as a firm opponent of Charles Kingston. He was a strong supporter of Federation
A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...
.[
He contested ]Labor
Labour or labor may refer to:
* Childbirth, the delivery of a baby
* Labour (human activity), or work
** Manual labour, physical work
** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer
** Organized labour and the labour ...
preselection for the 1906 federal election but was defeated, resigned from the Labor Party and defected to the Liberal Union, which he helped organise. The Liberals' views proved incompatible with his own, however, and at the 1910 election he contested Boothby as an independent
Independent or Independents may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups
* Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States
* Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...
.[
]
Personal life
Nesbit married Ellen Logue – aunt of speech therapist Lionel Logue
Lionel George Logue (26 February 1880 – 12 April 1953) was an Australian speech and language therapist and amateur stage actor who helped George VI, King George VI manage his Stuttering, stammer.
Early life and family
Logue was born on 26 F ...
– on 9 December 1874 at St Paul's Anglican Church in Adelaide
Adelaide ( , ; ) is the list of Australian capital cities, capital and most populous city of South Australia, as well as the list of cities in Australia by population, fifth-most populous city in Australia. The name "Adelaide" may refer to ei ...
.[
After his estranged wife's death on 16 February 1921, he married his long-time mistress, actress and divorcee Cecilia Elizabeth Hughes, on 22 February. Nesbit died in 1927 of a perforated ]duodenal ulcer
Peptic ulcer disease is when the inner part of the stomach's gastric mucosa (lining of the stomach), the first part of the small intestine, or sometimes the lower esophagus, gets damaged. An ulcer in the stomach is called a gastric ulcer, while ...
.[
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nesbit, Paris
1852 births
1927 deaths
Australian barristers
Australian King's Counsel
Lawyers from Adelaide
People from Angaston, South Australia
Colony of South Australia people