Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 56.djvu/133

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Thesiger
127
Thesiger

matters affecting the Roman catholic church (New South Wales Magazine, 1833, p. 300). In 1831 he was violently attacked in regard to his part in a deposition made by the wife of the attorney-general of the colony against her husband, and it was alleged that he had used undue influence to bring the children into the Roman catholic church. In 1833 by his action respecting the treatment of servants by one of the unpaid magistrates (Mudie) he brought upon himself a storm of opposition, and was violently attacked in print along with the governor, Sir Richard Bourke [q. v.], whose champion he was asserted to have made himself (Mudie, Felonry of New South Wales, pp. 104 sqq.) At the close of 1835 the post of chairman of quarter sessions was added to his other appointments. In May 1841 he was promoted to be attorney-general. In 1843 he was elected to the legislative council for Camden amid some indignation due to his close connection with the governor's projects (Lang). In January 1845 he became resident judge at Port Phillip; in February 1846 a puisne judge of the supreme court and primary judge in equity.

On 22 Feb. 1859 Therry retired on a pension and returned to England. In 1863 he published ‘Reminiscences of Thirty Years' Residence in New South Wales,’ the first edition of which was suppressed because of its personalities. Towards the close of his life he was much out of health, and resided chiefly at Bath, where he died on 17 May 1874.

Therry was married and left children, one of whom was in the army. Besides the ‘Speeches of George Canning, with a memoir,’ London, 1828, 6 vols., and a pamphlet entitled ‘Comparison of the Oratory of the House of Commons thirty years ago and at the present time’ (Sydney, 1856, 8vo), several of his public letters to ministers and others are extant.

[Mennell's Dict. of Austral. Biogr.; Sydney Morning Herald, 25 July 1874; his own pamphlets and book above cited; Lang's History of New South Wales, i. 257 sqq., Rusden's History of Australia, ii. 147–9; Allibone's Dict. of Lit.; Official Blue-book returns.]

C. A. H.

THESIGER, ALFRED HENRY (1838–1880), lord justice of appeal, third and youngest son of Frederick Thesiger, first baron Chelmsford [q. v.], by his wife Anna Maria, youngest daughter of William Tinling of Southampton, was born on 15 July 1838. He was educated at Eton, and matriculated from Christ Church, Oxford, on 15 May 1856, graduating B.A. in 1860 and M.A. in 1862. Both at school and at college he was distinguished as a cricketer and as an oarsman. He was a student of the Inner Temple, and was called to the bar in 1862. He joined the home circuit, and rapidly obtained a large London practice. For a time he was ‘postman’ of the court of exchequer, and on 3 July 1873 he became a queen's counsel.

He was slight and youthful in appearance, extremely industrious, and extremely honourable as an advocate. He was lucid in statement and sound in counsel. After he retired from parliamentary work his practice lay chiefly in commercial and compensation cases. In January 1874 he was elected a bencher of his inn of court, and on 10 Sept. 1877 attorney-general to the Prince of Wales. In 1876 he was a member of the commission upon the fugitive slave circular, and in 1877, on the recommendation of Lord Cairns and to the surprise of the public, he was appointed to succeed Sir Richard Paul Amphlett [q. v.] as a lord justice of the court of appeal, though only thirty-nine years old, and was sworn of the privy council. During his brief tenure of a seat on the bench he showed great judicial ability. He died in London of blood-poisoning on 20 Oct. 1880. On 31 Dec. 1862 he married Henrietta, second daughter of the Hon. George Hancock, fourth son of the second Earl of Castlemaine, but left no issue.

[Times, 21 Oct. 1880; Law Times, 23 Oct. 1880.]

J. A. H.

THESIGER, Sir FREDERICK (d. 1805), naval officer, was the eldest son of John Andrew Thesiger (d. 1783), by his wife, Miss Gibson (d. 1814) of Chester. He was the uncle of Frederick Thesiger, first baron Chelmsford [q. v.] He made several voyages in the marine service of the East India Company, but, growing tired of the monotony of trade, he entered the royal navy as a midshipman under Sir Samuel Marshall. At the beginning of 1782, when Rodney sailed for the West Indies, he was appointed acting-lieutenant on board the Formidable, and on the eve of the action with the French on 12 April, on the recommendation of Sir Charles Douglas, captain of the fleet, he was appointed aide-de-camp to Rodney. Thesiger continued in the West Indies under Admiral Hugh Pigot (1721?–1792) [q. v.], Rodney's successor, and afterwards accompanied Sir Charles Douglas to America. On the conclusion of peace in 1783 he returned to England.

In 1788, on the outbreak of war between Russia and Sweden, Thesiger obtained permission to enter the Russian service. He was warmly recommended to the Russian ambassador by Rodney, and in 1789 was appointed to the command of a 74-gun ship. He distinguished himself in the naval en-