The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Webb, Thomas Prout
Webb, Thomas Prout, B.A., Master in Equity, Master in Lunacy, Commissioner of Patents, and Commissioner of Trademarks, fourth son of Robert Saunders Webb, the first collector of customs at Port Phillip, by his wife Ann, daughter of Lieutenant Fisher, R.N., was born on Jan. 22nd, 1845, at Newtown (now called Fitzroy), Melbourne. Mr. Webb was educated at the Church of England Grammar School, Melbourne, and King's College, London, and graduated B.A. at Melbourne University in 1867. He entered at Lincoln's Inn in November of that year, and was called to the Bar in June 1870, having won the Inns of Court Exhibition in Constitutional Law and Legal History in the previous year. Mr. Webb was admitted to the Victorian Bar in 1872, and practised on the equity side of the Supreme Court until 1884, when he was appointed assistant chief clerk under the Judicature Act, the rules of which he assisted in drafting. In Oct. 1884 he succeeded Mr. Wilkinson as Master in Equity and Master in Lunacy, which offices he still holds. He acted as Deputy Commissioner of Titles during Mr. Bunny's illness, and in 1885, on Mr. Bunny's death, he was Commissioner of Titles for some months concurrently with his other offices. In March 1890 he inaugurated the new procedure in and reorganised the Patents Office, and in March 1891 he also undertook the cognate subject of trademarks under the new legislation then introduced. Mr. Webb published in 1872 a successful work on the Imperial law in force in the colony. Two years later he assisted Mr. J. B. Box in preparing and editing the "Collection of Victorian Statutes," and in 1884 he himself prepared and edited a supplementary volume. Mr. Webb was Dr. Ream's principal assistant in the preparation of the former's monumental code. He married, on July 29th, 1876, Kate, third daughter of the late Hon. J. T. Smith.