Dictionary of National Biography, 1901 supplement/Gorrie, John
GORRIE, Sir JOHN (1829–1892), colonial judge, the son of the Rev. Daniel Gorrie of Kettle, Fife, and his wife, Jane Moffat, was born at King's Kettle on 30 March 1829. He was educated at King's Kettle and at Edinburgh University. He was admitted an advocate in 1856; in 1860 he became one of the honorary advocates-deputy for Scotland. In 1862 he came to London and commenced practice at the English bar. He also did some journalistic work, and was for a time a leader-writer on the 'Morning Star.'
In 1865, on the occasion of the inquiry into the riots in Jamaica, he was selected by the body which styled itself the Jamaica Committee, the chief members of which were John Bright, Charles Buxton, and Samuel Morley, to proceed to Jamaica with a view to getting up evidence against Governor Edward John Eyre, to whose arraignment the committee were pledged. In the execution of this task he showed ability and activity.
After an ineffectual attempt to enter parliament in 1868 Gorrie was, in 1869, appointed substitute procureur-gen6ral of Mauritius, to which colony he proceeded on 18 Oct. 1869. Here he very quickly won the confidence of the government, and in September 1870 was appointed second puisne judge. He also showed that tendency to take the part of native races, which was born of his experience in Jamaica, and marked the remainder of his career, He took a great interest in the question of the condition of the coolies, and was active in supporting Sir Arthur Gordon (afterwards Lord Stanmore) in the inquiry which led to the appointment of a royal commission.
In March 1876 Gorrie was promoted to be chief justice of the recently acquired Fiji Islands; here he had also a seat in the legislative council, and took a prominent part in framing the measures required to regulate the new colony. He was also the first judicial commissioner of the Western Pacific; and from September 1878 to 18 Aug. 1879 acted as high commissioner in the absence of Sir Arthur Gordon.
In May 1882, being at the time on leave in England, Gorrie became chief justice of the Leeward Islands, and in the same year was knighted. The principal work with which he was associated in this colony was the act for reforming the transfer of land and substituting a system of title by registration, which became law in 1886.
In 1886 Gorrie became chief justice of Trinidad, arriving in that island on 8 Feb. He was not long in identifying himself with the interest of the negroes. He set himself, in his judgments in the court, against the system of forming cocoa plantations on what was known as the 'contract system,' thereby, in the view of the capitalists, gravelyimperilling much of the capital embarked in the industry. In August 1886 he was appointed by the governor, Sir William Robinson, to be chairman of a commission on the trade and taxes of the colony, in which he showed very clearly his leaning towards easing the burden for the negro; nevertheless, even his opponents admitted the great ability of his management of the commission, which placed on record a large body of valuable evidence. In 1890 and 1891 he threw his energy into a project for starting a people's bank in Trinidad, holding meetings and pressing the government to support his bill in the council; this project, after careful consideration by the secretary of state, failed to obtain approval. The island of Tobago meanwhile came under the government of Trinidad, and Gorrie's novel and summary methods of administering justice there began to cause consternation among the planters. It became evident that he was carrying his predilection for the working classes too far, and when his judgments became the subject of appeal in the supreme court, and of criticism in the newspapers, he resorted to an improper use of the power of commitment for contempt of court. Affairs at last reached such a pitch that the secretary of state, on the urgent representations of the legislative council, appointed a special commission to investigate the scandal. The commissioners, Sir William Markby and Sir Frederick Pollock, arrived in Trinidad in April 1892, and, after an inquiry which lasted two months, made a report so adverse to the chief justice that the governor suspended him from the exercise of his duties. Gorrie returned to England with the expressed intention of appealing to the judicial committee of the privy council, but died at Exeter not long after his arrival on 4 Aug. 1892. Gorrie was vigorous and masterful; his manner, particularly in court, was rough and uncouth, and his speech caustic and unceremonious. At the height of his career in Trinidad he was the idol of the negroes, while the rest of Trinidad society could hardly speak sufficiently evil of him. His aims were good, but his methods were ill adapted to attain them.
He married, on 6 Dec. 1855, Marion, daughter of Michael Graham of Edinburgh, who died in 1884, leaving issue.
[Mennell's Dict. Austral. Biogr.; Colonies and India, 13 Aug. 1892; Trinidad Council Papers; Parliamentary Papers, &c.; personal knowledge.]