Sir John Paxton Norman ( 21 October 1819 – 21 September 1871) was an English jurist who the acting chief Justice of the

Calcutta High Court The Calcutta High Court is the oldest High Court in India. It is located in B.B.D. Bagh, Kolkata, West Bengal. It has jurisdiction over the state of West Bengal and the Union Territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The High Court buildi ...

. He was assassinated in 1871.

Career

Paxton Norman was born in 1819; his father John Norman was a banker of

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

. He was educated at

Exeter Grammar School Exeter School is an independent co-educational day school for pupils between the ages of 7 and 18 in Exeter, Devon, England. In 2019, there were around 200 pupils in the Junior School and 700 in the Senior School. History The School traces its ...

and

Exeter College, Oxford Exeter College (in full: The Rector and Scholars of Exeter College in the University of Oxford) is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England and the fourth-oldest college of the un ...

, and then practiced as a

special pleader A special pleader was a historical legal occupation. The practitioner, or "special pleader" in English law specialised in drafting "pleadings", in modern terminology statements of case. History Up to the 19th century, there were many rules, tech ...

. In 1862 he was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

at the

Inner Temple The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple, commonly known as the Inner Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court and is a professional associations for barristers and judges. To be called to the Bar and practise as a barrister in England and Wal ...

. In

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

he worked as a Puisne Judge of The

Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William The Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William in Calcutta, was founded in 1774 by the Regulating Act of 1773. It replaced the Mayor's Court of Calcutta and was British India's highest court from 1774 until 1862, when the High Court of Calcu ...

till 1871. Sir Paxton Norman was appointed as acting Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court in 1870. Paxton Norman was unpopular among

Wahabis Wahhabism ( ar, ٱلْوَهَّابِيَةُ, translit=al-Wahhābiyyah) is a Sunni Islamic revivalist and fundamentalist movement associated with the reformist doctrines of the 18th-century Arabian Islamic scholar, theologian, preacher, and ...

for imposing heavy sentences. He was the author of many legal treatises and papers, and also took active part in

Calcutta University The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a public collegiate state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered one of best state research university all over India every year, C ...

as the president of the Law faculty.

Death

In 1871, while Norman was coming down the steps of the

Kolkata Town Hall Kolkata Town Hall in Roman Doric style, was built in 1813 by the architect and engineer Major General John Henry Garstin (1756–1820) with a fund of 700,000 Rupees raised from a lottery to provide the Europeans with a place for social gatherings ...

, an Indian Wahabi,

Abdullah Abdullah may refer to: * Abdullah (name), a list of people with the given name or surname * Abdullah, Kargı, Turkey, a village * ''Abdullah'' (film), a 1980 Bollywood film directed by Sanjay Khan * '' Abdullah: The Final Witness'', a 2015 Pakis ...

, attacked him and stabbed him to death. He died on 21 September 1871. Sir Paxton Norman was buried in

St. Paul's Cathedral, Kolkata St. Paul's Cathedral is a Church of North India (CNI) cathedral of Anglican background in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, noted for its Gothic architecture and dedicated to Paul the Apostle. It is the seat of the Diocese of Calcutta. The corne ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Norman, John Paxton 1819 births 1871 deaths Knights Bachelor Members of the Inner Temple Chief Justices of the Calcutta High Court British India judges 19th-century Indian judges English barristers Assassinated British people British people murdered abroad People murdered in India 19th-century English judges