John Pedder

Who was John Pedder?

Sir John Lewes Pedder was a judge, politician and first Chief Justice of Van Diemen's Land.

Pedder was born in London, the eldest son of John Pedder, a barrister. Pedder junior was educated at Charterhouse and the Middle Temple from 1818 where he was called to the bar in 1820. Then he entered Trinity Hall, Cambridge, graduating LL.B. in 1822.

Pedder was appointed chief justice of Van Diemen's Land on 18 August 1823. Pedder sailed in the Hibernia, arriving in Hobart with his wife Maria, a daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Everett, on 15 March 1824. On 24 May, Joseph Gellibrand, the first Tasmanian Attorney-General, in an inaugural address to the Supreme Court, spoke of trial by jury as being "one of the greatest boons conferred by the legislature upon this colony". It was questioned, however, whether this right was not taken away by section 19 of the "act for the better administration of justice in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land", and Pedder in a long and weighty judgment took this view.