Joseph Gellibrand

Joseph Tice Gellibrand (1792 – 1837) was the first Attorney-General of the British colony of Van Diemen's Land where he gained notoriety with his attempts to establish full rights of trial by jury. He became an integral part of the Port Phillip Association, producing the Batman Treaty in an attempt to obtain extensive land-holdings from the local Aboriginal people around Port Phillip. He was also later part of an ill-fated expedition into the region west of Geelong where he disappeared and was assumed to have been killed by Aboriginal people in the Otway Range. Early life Joseph Tice Gellibrand was born in England, the second son of William Gellibrand and Sophia Louisa, née Hynde. He studied law, was called to the bar, and on 1 August 1823 was appointed Attorney-General of Van Diemen's Land with a salary of £700 a year, with the right "to practise as a barrister under the same restrictions as are observed in this country". Attorney-General of Van Diemen's Land Gellibrand arrived at Hobart accompanied by his father on 15 March 1824, and at the opening of the Supreme Court gave an address as leader of the bar, in which he spoke of trial by jury "as one of the greatest boons conferred by the legislature upon this colony". The full benefit of trial by jury had, however, been withheld from the colony, and Gellibrand's speech is held by some to have been the opening of a campaign for an unconditional system. Gellibrand was a believer in the liberty of the subject, and he was consequently bound to fall foul of a man with the autocratic tendencies of Governor George Arthur. At the beginning of 1825 Robert William Lathrop Murray, editor of the Hobart Town Gazette, began criticising the colonial government in his paper. Arthur believed that Gellibrand was acting in "close union" with Murray. Eventually Gellibrand was charged with unprofessional conduct in having, as a barrister, drawn the pleas for the plaintiff in a case, and afterwards as Attorney-General, acted against him. As a consequence of the charge Alfred Stephen the Solicitor-General applied to have Gellibrand struck off the rolls.