Frederick Garling (17 February 1775 – 2 May 1848) was an English attorney and

solicitor A solicitor is a legal practitioner who traditionally deals with most of the legal matters in some jurisdictions. A person must have legally-defined qualifications, which vary from one jurisdiction to another, to be described as a solicitor and ...

, and was one of the first solicitors admitted in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and was regarded as the first senior solicitor of the second

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

established in the

colony of New South Wales The Colony of New South Wales was a colony of the British Empire from 1788 to 1901, when it became a State of the Commonwealth of Australia. At its greatest extent, the colony of New South Wales included the present-day Australian states of New ...

. Garling is recognised as being one of the first Crown Solicitors in Australia.

Early years

He was born in London, the son of Nicholas Garling, a London

mantua Mantua ( ; it, Mantova ; Lombard language, Lombard and la, Mantua) is a city and ''comune'' in Lombardy, Italy, and capital of the Province of Mantua, province of the same name. In 2016, Mantua was designated as the Italian Capital of Culture ...

maker. He was admitted at

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...

, England as an attorney in 1795 in the

Court of King's Bench The King's Bench (), or, during the reign of a female monarch, the Queen's Bench ('), refers to several contemporary and historical courts in some Commonwealth jurisdictions. * Court of King's Bench (England), a historic court court of common ...

and also as a solicitor in the

Court of Chancery The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid a slow pace of change and possible harshness (or "inequity") of the Common law#History, common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over ...

. Garling is recorded as being a "certificated" attorney. He married Elizabeth (née Spratt) in London on 14 April 1801. Elizabeth and Garling had five children prior to her death. After Elizabeth's death, he married Sarah Oliver White on 15 September 1835. Sarah died in September 1840 without having children.

Immigration to Australia

In February 1814 Garling and another English attorney William Moore were induced to travel to New South Wales by the Colonial Office in the United Kingdom to begin life as a solicitor in that colony. He was offered the sum of £300 to undertake the journey. Both Moore and Garling were first called 'stipendiary Solicitors', and then were later called ' Crown or Government Solicitors'. Although they were referred to as crown solicitors, they were not considered to be professionally retained by the Crown and were independent of it. At the time in New South Wales, the only legally trained persons were those with criminal backgrounds who had been transported to Sydney as convicts. Attorneys such as George Crossley and others while permitted to appear in court as agents (and not lawyers), were not allowed to be admitted due to the English laws which precluded the admission of legal professionals with criminal backgrounds. Garling left the United Kingdom on 20 October 1814 with his wife Elizabeth and five children. They sailed on the ''Francis and Eliza''. The ship was captured by an American privateer off the island of Madeira. Garling did not arrive in Sydney until 8 August 1815 ostensibly because of this. Historian John Bennett notes that this was unlikely as the cause of the delay, and that in fact, the delay was due to Garling not wishing to leave earlier. The other lawyer Moore arrived seven months earlier. The biographers for both Garling and Moore note that on 11 May 1815, Moore was the first attorney admitted to the first Supreme Court (being the

Supreme Court of Civil Judicature The Supreme Court of Civil Judicature of New South Wales was a court established in the early 19th century in the colony of New South Wales. The colony was subsequently to become a state of Australia in 1901. The court had jurisdiction to deal wit ...

and Garling was the second. It is probable that Garling was the first solicitor admitted to the second Supreme Court which was opened by the first

Chief Justice of New South Wales The Chief Justice of New South Wales is the senior judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales and the highest-ranking judicial officer in the Australian state of New South Wales. The Chief Justice is both the judicial head of the Supreme Court ...

Francis Forbes Sir Francis William Forbes (1784 – 8 November 1841) was a Chief Justice of Newfoundland, and the first Chief Justice of New South Wales. Early life Forbes was born and educated in Bermuda, the son of Dr. Francis Forbes M.D. and his wife Mar ...

in May 1824. Forbes formally re-admitted all existing practitioners in the colony. While Garling appears first on the roll, it is claimed that the roll dates from no earlier than 1828. Whatever the merits of the argument, both Moore and Garling can be jointly considered as the first solicitors of New South Wales being appointed at the same time by the Colonial Office prior to their embarkation to Sydney.

Acting deputy judge advocate

The post of Deputy Judge Advocate became vacant after the death of

Ellis Bent Ellis Bent (1783 – 10 November 1815) was the Deputy Judge Advocate between 1810 and 1815 of the Australian colony of New South Wales, which was eventually to become an Australian state. The Deputy Judge Advocate of New South Wales was the sen ...

on 10 November 1815. Governor Macquarie offered Garling the office of Deputy Judge Advocate on an acting basis from 12 December 1815. Garling held this office until the arrival of

John Wylde Sir John Wylde (or Wilde; 11 May 1781 – 13 December 1859) was Chief Justice of the Cape Colony, Cape of Good Hope and a judge of the Supreme Court of the colony of New South Wales born at Warwick Square, Newgate Street, London. Member o ...

on 5 October 1816. Garling was progressive in that he apparently allowed emancipist solicitors to practise in the courts over which he presided. Macquaire also appointed Garling a justice of the peace. This was an important appointment in the colony, as at the time, a justice of the peace was in effect a local authority governing planning, liquor trading and employment regulation. Additionally, one of the functions of the Deputy Judge Advocate as a justice of the peace was to sit as a court of petty sessions hearing less serious criminal charges.

Post Supreme Court era

Garling and Moore's appointments as "Crown Solicitors" were abolished in 1828. The office was revived in 1829 but neither Garling nor Moore were reappointed. Until 1832 Garling received an allowance for being the Crown Solicitor notwithstanding that his appointment was no longer valid. Garling was appointed as the

Clerk of the Peace A clerk of the peace held an office in England and Wales whose responsibility was the records of the quarter sessions and the framing of presentments and indictments. They had legal training, so that they could advise justices of the peace. Histo ...

for the County of Cumberland. Today, this comprises the whole of the land area into which modern Sydney now has transformed. However, at the time, the county only comprised various townships including Sydney,

Parramatta Parramatta () is a suburb and major Central business district, commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney, located in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district on the ban ...

and

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...

. The role of the clerk of the peace is as the registrar of the Court of Quarter Sessions. Apparently Garling was also empowered to file informations in the name of the attorney-general, although it is not clear whether this involved actually prosecuting criminals. In 1830 he was appointed as a crown prosecutor and held this role until 1837. He continued as clerk of the peace until 1839 when he could no longer perform both role as crown prosecutor and clerk of the peace. Garling was recommended for the post of attorney-general in

Van Diemen's Land Van Diemen's Land was the colonial name of the island of Tasmania used by the British during the European exploration of Australia in the 19th century. A British settlement was established in Van Diemen's Land in 1803 before it became a sepa ...

, now the State of

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

in Australia. Garling died on 2 May 1848 aged 73 years. He was buried in

Devonshire Street cemetery The Devonshire Street Cemetery (also known as the Brickfield Cemetery or Sandhills Cemetery) was located between Eddy Avenue and Elizabeth Street, and between Chalmers and Devonshire Streets, at Brickfield Hill, in Sydney, Australia. It was con ...

in Sydney.

Practice

Garling's biographer describes him as "generous and public-spirited" and a member of many benevolent institutions in New South Wales. Garling appears to have done well as a lawyer in Sydney. Commissioner

John Thomas Bigge John Thomas Bigge (8 March 1780 – 22 December 1843) was an English judge and royal commissioner. He is mostly known for his inquiry into the British colony of New South Wales published in the early 1820s. His reports favoured a return to the ...

was commissioned to report on the state of the New South Wales colony to the Colonial Office. In his report on the legal affairs of the colony, Bigge reported that Garling and Moore had been 'very fully remunerated' for the expense of moving to the colony. Author Forbes observes that Garling and Moore were both unremarkable "men of their day". This has to borne in mind with the background of New South Wales at the time. The colony was still considered a backward outpost of the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...

consisting largely of convicts and ex-convicts. The legal work of the colony largely comprised defamation and debt recovery claims. Forbes notes that some commentators have suggested that Garling and More were "not particularly good ". Forbes also notes that the first chief justice,

, observed that if Moore and Garling had remained in England as attorneys, they "would have been fortunate to be allowed to sit at the same dining table in an hotel as the circuit barristers". This is a reference to the fact that at that time, most junior barristers earned their living in unfashionable circuits in country areas of England.

Support for fusion of the legal profession

The colony of New South Wales did not have a split legal profession like that in England. Legal practitioners were admitted as both advocates and attorneys. After the second Supreme Court started business, barristers moved for the court to formally split the profession into barristers and into solicitors. Garling, along with other practitioners, opposed the splitting of the bar in this manner when it was first mooted in 1824 by newly arrived barristers in the colony. Chief Justice Francis Forbes upheld the fusion of the bar and the legal profession. While Garling opposed the notion, author Forbes notes that Garling knew his place. Garling was quoted in the ''

Sydney Gazette ''The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser'' was the first newspaper printed in Australia, running from 5 March 1803 until 20 October 1842. It was a semi-official publication of the government of New South Wales, authorised by Governo ...

'' on 16 September 1824 as observing that his instinct was to defer to gentlemen with the "higher duties of barrister".

References

Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Garling, Frederick 1775 births 1848 deaths British emigrants to Australia English solicitors Colony of New South Wales judges Judge Advocates of New South Wales 19th-century Australian public servants 19th-century Australian judges