The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Wilkinson, William Hattam

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1461525The Dictionary of Australasian Biography — Wilkinson, William HattamPhilip Mennell

Wilkinson, William Hattam, District Court Judge, New South Wales, is the son of Captain Henry Richard Wilkinson, H.E.I.C.S., and Deborah Jane (Busby) his wife; and nephew of the late Rev. Frederick Wilkinson, M.A., one of the early colonial chaplains, and emigrated to the colony in 1852. He was called to the Bar in Sydney in Dec. 1858, and in 1860 was appointed Associate to the late Mr. Justice Wise. He is the author of "Wilkinson's Australian Magistrate," which has gone through several editions, the first of which was published in 1860. He was for eight years the authorised reporter for the Common Law division of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, and the first eight volumes of the Supreme Court reports bear his name. In 1864, on the death of Mr. C. K. Murray, he became one of the parliamentary draftsmen, in 1870 a Crown prosecutor, and in 1874 District Court Judge and Chairman of Quarter Sessions in the Metropolitan and Hunter district, a position he still holds. Judge Wilkinson, who was educated at the Bluecoat School and King's College, London, married in Feb. 1852 Elizabeth Sibyl, daughter of W. Milligan, M.D., of the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons.