John William Jeffcott (abt. 1796 - 1837)

Born about 1796 in County Kerry, Ireland [uncertain]

Died 12 Dec 1837 at about age 41 in At Sea

Biography

John Jeffcott is Notable.

John was born in 1796. supposedly in Dublin, Ireland.

Sir John William Jeffcott was the first judge of the Supreme Court of South Australia. He had also served as Chief Justice of Sierra Leone from the 26th of April 1830 to 1833 before he returned to England and accepted his knighthood. After overcoming legal trouble in England after a duel left his opponent mortally wounded, he accepted the appointment as the first judge of the new colony of South Australia on the 27th of May 1836.

So in September 1836 Sir John William Jeffcott travelled to the Australian colonies, on the Isabella in the company of J. B. Hack and family. Arriving in Hobart, Van Diemen's Land on the 1st of January 1837. Here he became engaged to marry his cousin Anne Kermode. He then proceeded to Adelaide, South Australia, arriving there on 21 April 1837.

Nearing the end of 1837, Jeffcott joined an expedition to explore the Murray Mouth. He unfortunately drowned on the 12th of December 1837 when the overloaded whaleboat in which he was a passenger overturned in rough seas of Encounter Bay. His body was never found.

From the South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register newspaper of Saturday 6 January 1838 we see a report on the accident:

MELANCHOLY DISASTER—DEATH OF SIR JOHN W. JEFFCOTT AND CAPTAIN BLENKINSOPP— It is our painful duty to announce the death of Sir John William Jeffcott, Knight, Judge of this province, which took place on the 12th December by the upsetting of a whale boat, near the mouth of the Murray River in Encounter Bay.

Sir John was on his way to Van Diemen's Land on public business of great importance. A few days before the termination of his career he had a very narrow escape, having been ship-wrecked in the South Australian which was driven from her moorings at the South Australian Company's anchorage and lost. Desirous to fill up his time in usefulness to the province, while waiting the arrival of the John Pirie, he joined the exploring expedition of Messrs. Strangways and Hutchinson, and proceeded in a whale boat with Captain Blenkinsop and a party of four men to explore the entrance of STURT'S outlet from the lake. They succeeded in clearing the outlet; and after proceeding a considerable distance the boat got out of the channel, was caught by a heavy "roller," and swamped, two of the boatmen succeeded in getting to land in a very exhausted state. Sir John Jeffcott, Captain Blenkinsop, and two men were lost.

Sources

• Wikipedia contributors, "John Jeffcott," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Jeffcott&oldid=1002476160 (accessed October 9, 2021).

• R. M. Hague, Jeffcott, Sir John William (1796–1837), Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/jeffcott-sir-john-william-2271/text2913, published first in hardcopy 1967, accessed online 12 April 2022.

• SOUTH AUSTRALIA'S FIRST CHIEF JUSTICE. from The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1889 - 1931) of Saturday 17 August 1907, Page 8. first accessed on TROVE on the 12th of April, 2022 at: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/5084003?

• Sir John William Jeffcott 1796 - 1837 downloadable document from the South Australia Centre of Democracy. first accessed on the 12th of April, 2022 at: https://centreofdemocracy.sa.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Sir-John-William-Jeffcott.docx

• SIR JOHN JEFFCOTT. from The Tasmanian (Hobart Town, Tas. : 1827 - 1839) of Friday 26 December 1834, Page 6. first accessed on TROVE on the 12th of April, 2022 at: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/233615310?

• JEFFCOTT AND KERMODE FAMILIES Papers, 1831-1912 (Reel M723.) courtesy of Mrs L.M.M. Wintour, c/- National Westminster Bank, 27 North View, Dudham Downs, Bristol. first accessed online via TROVE on the 12th of April, 2022 at: https://www.nla.gov.au/sites/default/files/blogs/m_723_jeffcott_and_kermode_families.pdf

• ENCOUNTER BAY, LAKE ALEXANDRINA, AND THE MURRAY. from the South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register (Adelaide, SA : 1836 - 1839) of Saturday 6 January 1838, Page 3. first accessed on TROVE on the 13th of April, 2022 at: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/31749755?

• Advertising from the South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register (Adelaide, SA : 1836 - 1839) of Saturday 6 January 1838, Page 2. first accessed on TROVE on the 13th of April, 2022 at: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/31749764?searchTerm=%22John%20William%20Jeffcott%22

• Advertising from the South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register (Adelaide, SA : 1836 - 1839) of Saturday 6 January 1838, Page 1. first accessed on TROVE on the 13th of April, 2022 at: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/31749765?searchTerm=%22John%20William%20Jeffcott%22

• Sir John William Jeffcott [B 464] • Photograph from the State Library of South Australia website. This image has no known copyright restrictions but please refer to the State Library's Conditions of use. first accessed online on the 12th of April, 2022 at: https://collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/resource/B+464