Sir William Dunkin (died 1807) was an Irish barrister and judge in

Bengal Bengal ( ) is a Historical geography, historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the Eastern South Asia, eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Benga ...

Life

Dunkin was admitted to the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court entitled to Call to the bar, call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple (with whi ...

in 1753, as the eldest son of John Dunkin of Bushfoot,

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, County Antrim, Antrim, ) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland, located within the historic Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the c ...

. He was later described as being from Clogher, County Antrim. He served as

High Sheriff of Antrim The High Sheriff of Antrim is the Sovereign's judicial representative in County Antrim. Initially an office for lifetime, assigned by the Sovereign, the high sheriff became annually appointed from the Provisions of Oxford in 1258. Besides his judi ...

in 1777. Although he had inherited an estate, he encumbered it with debt, and went to Calcutta to practise as a barrister. In October 1781, Dunkin was mentioned as on the way to India in a letter from

Edmund Burke Edmund Burke (; 12 January ew Style, NS1729 – 9 July 1797) was an Anglo-Irish Politician, statesman, journalist, writer, literary critic, philosopher, and parliamentary orator who is regarded as the founder of the Social philosophy, soc ...

to Lord George Macartney, two of his friends. There he was a friend of William Hickey. He lived a bachelor life, sharing accommodation with Stephen Cassan, another Irish barrister. In 1788, he set off to go to England in search of a judicial appointment in Calcutta, sailing to Europe in December on the '' Phoenix'' under Captain Gray. Dunkin returned to Bengal aboard the ''Phoenix'' in August 1791. He had been appointed to the

Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William Supreme may refer to: Entertainment * Supreme (character), a comic book superhero created by Rob Liefeld * ''Supreme'' (film), a 2016 Telugu film * Supreme (producer), hip-hop record producer * "Supreme" (song), a 2000 song by Robbie Williams * ...

and was knighted in March of that year. The appointment was later attributed to the influence of

Henry Dundas Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, Privy Council (United Kingdom), PC, FRSE (28 April 1742 – 28 May 1811), styled as Lord Melville from 1802, was a British politician who served as Home Secretary from 1791 to 1794 and First Lord of the Ad ...

. Dunkin had in fact obtained a reluctant support for it from

Lord Thurlow Baron Thurlow, of Thurlow in the County of Suffolk, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created on 11 June 1792 for the lawyer and politician Edward Thurlow, 1st Baron Thurlow, with remainder to his younger brothers and the heirs ...

. His senior colleague on the court, Robert Chambers, did not welcome it, regarding Dunkin as suspect; further Dunkin and Hickey were allies in opposition to Chambers. Hickey's accounts of Chambers in his memoirs, in relation to Dunkin on the court, have been called partisan and misleading, in particular in relation to a bazaar case where John Hyde was brought from his sickbed in 1796 as a supporting vote by Chambers against Dunkin. Dunkin resigned from the post in 1797, being replaced by John Royds. He had a house in

Portman Square Portman Square is a garden square in Marylebone, central London, surrounded by townhouses. It was specifically for private housing let on long leases having a ground rent by the Portman Estate, which owns the private communal gardens. It mar ...

, London, where Thomas Reynolds knew him as one of a set of wealthy returnees from India; and died at The Polygon, Southampton in 1807.

Works

When

Sir William Jones Sir William Jones (28 September 1746 – 27 April 1794) was a British philologist, orientalist, Indologist and judge. Born in Westminster, London to Welsh mathematician William Jones, he moved to the Bengal Presidency where Jones served as ...

died in 1794, Dunkin wrote a Latin epitaph, used on his tomb in Calcutta. An English paraphrase was later made by

Eyles Irwin Eyles Irwin (1751–1817) was an Irish poet and writer. He rose in the East India Company's service from a civil servant to superintendent of the company's affairs in China, but failed to gain a place on the board of directors. He is notable ...

Family

Dunkin married Elizabeth or Eliza Blacker (1739–1822), daughter of William Blacker (1709–1783), in 1764. Their eldest daughter Letitia married Sir Francis Workman Macnaghten, having a large family , among them

William Hay Macnaghten Sir William Hay Macnaghten, 1st Baronet (24 August 179323 December 1841), was a British civil servant in India, who played a major part in the First Anglo-Afghan War. Life William was the second son of Sir Francis Macnaghten, 1st Baronet, judg ...

. When Dunkin clashed with

William Burroughs William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist. He is widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular culture and ...

, attorney-general in Bengal from 1792, Francis Macnaghten tried to challenge Burroughs to a duel, and then to have him disbarred. Through the marriage, the Macnaghtens acquired the Dunkin family house at

Bushmills Bushmills may refer to: * Bushmills, County Antrim Bushmills (From Irish language, Irish ''Muileann na Buaise'') is a village on the north coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Bushmills had a population of 1,247 in the United Kingdom Censu ...

. Of Dunkin's other children, his daughter Jane married Richard William Wake, son of Sir William Wake, 8th Baronet, and his daughter Rachel married John Bladen Taylor, the Member of Parliament for Hythe, as her second husband, the first being George Elliott of Bengal. The youngest daughter, Matilda, married Valentine Conolly, son of William Conolly. Hickey mentions two sons. One, Edward, came to Bengal with his father in 1791, in his late teens but suffered from fits. According to Hickey, he returned to Europe and died young. He also makes Captain John Dunkin (John Henry Dunkin) of the

8th Light Dragoons The 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars was a Cavalry regiments of the British Army, cavalry regiment in the British Army, first raised in 1693. It saw service for three centuries including the World War I, First and World War II, Second World Wars. ...

a brother of Letitia.Hickey, ''Memoirs'' IV p. 192.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunkin, William 1807 deaths British barristers 18th-century Irish judges British India judges Lawyers from County Antrim High sheriffs of Antrim Year of birth unknown