Sir William Dunkin (died 1807) was an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

barrister and judge in

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

Life

Dunkin was admitted to the

Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn ...

in 1753, as the eldest son of John Dunkin of Bushfoot,

County Antrim County Antrim (named after the town of Antrim, ) is one of six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the north-east shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and has a population o ...

; Later he was described as from Clogher, County Antrim. He was

High Sheriff of Antrim The High Sheriff of Antrim is the Sovereign's judicial representative in County Antrim. Initially an office for lifetime, assigned by the Sovereign, the high sheriff became annually appointed from the Provisions of Oxford in 1258. Besides his judi ...

in 1777. Although he had inherited an estate, he encumbered it with debt, and went to Calcutta to practise as a barrister. In October 1781 Dunkin was mentioned as on the way to India in a letter from

Edmund Burke Edmund Burke (; 12 January NS.html"_;"title="New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">NS">New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">NS/nowiki>_1729_–_9_July_1797)_was_an_NS.html"_;"title="New_Style.html"_;"title="/nowiki>New_Style">N ...

to Lord George Macartney, two of his friends. There he was a friend of William Hickey. He lived a bachelor life, sharing accommodation with Stephen Cassan, another Irish barrister. In 1788 he set off to go to England in search of a judicial appointment in Calcutta, sailing to Europe in December on the ''

Phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...

'' under Captain Gray. Dunkin returned to Bengal on the ''Phoenix'' in August 1791; he had been appointed a member of the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William. being knighted in March of that year. The appointment was later attributed to the influence of

Henry Dundas Henry Dundas, 1st Viscount Melville, PC, FRSE (28 April 1742 – 28 May 1811), styled as Lord Melville from 1802, was the trusted lieutenant of British Prime Minister William Pitt and the most powerful politician in Scotland in the late 18t ...

. Dunkin had in fact obtained a reluctant support for it from

Lord Thurlow Baron Thurlow, of Thurlow in the County of Suffolk, is a title in the Peerage of Great Britain. It was created on 11 June 1792 for the lawyer and politician Edward Thurlow, 1st Baron Thurlow, with remainder to his younger brothers and the heir ...

. His senior colleague on the court, Robert Chambers, did not welcome it, regarding Dunkin as suspect; further Dunkin and Hickey were allies in opposition to Chambers. Hickey's accounts of Chambers in his memoirs, in relation to Dunkin on the court, have been called partisan and misleading, in particular in relation to a bazaar case where

John Hyde John Hyde may refer to: Politicians *John Hyde (Australian federal politician) (born 1936), federal politician from Western Australia for the Division of Moore *John Hyde (Australian state politician) (born 1957), state politician from Western Aust ...

was brought from his sickbed in 1796 as a supporting vote by Chambers against Dunkin. Dunkin resigned from the post in 1797, being replaced by John Royds. He had a house in

Portman Square Portman Square is a garden square in Marylebone, central London, surrounded by elegant townhouses. It was specifically for private housing let on long leases having a ground rent by the Portman Estate, which owns the private communal garden ...

, London, where Thomas Reynolds knew him as one of a set of wealthy returnees from India; and died at The Polygon, Southampton in 1807.

Works

When

Sir William Jones Sir William Jones (28 September 1746 – 27 April 1794) was a British philologist, a puisne judge on the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William in Bengal, and a scholar of ancient India. He is particularly known for his proposition of th ...

died in 1794, Dunkin wrote a Latin epitaph, used on his tomb in Calcutta. An English paraphrase was later made by Eyles Irwin.

Family

Dunkin married Elizabeth or Eliza Blacker (1739–1822), daughter of William Blacker (1709–1783), in 1764. Their eldest daughter Letitia married Sir Francis Workman Macnaghten, having a family of 16 children, among them

William Hay Macnaghten Sir William Hay Macnaghten, 1st Baronet (24 August 179323 December 1841), was a British civil servant in India, who played a major part in the First Anglo-Afghan War. Life William was the second son of Sir Francis Macnaghten, Bart., judge of the ...

. When Dunkin clashed with

William Burroughs William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist, widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular cultur ...

, attorney-general in Bengal from 1792, Francis Macnaghten tried to challenge Burroughs to a duel, and then to have him disbarred. Through the marriage, the Macnaghtens acquired the Dunkin family house at

Bushmills Bushmills (From Irish ''Muileann na Buaise'') is a village on the north coast of County Antrim, Northern Ireland. Bushmills had a population of 1,295 in the 2011 Census. This article contains quotations from this source, which is available und ...

. Of Dunkin's other children, his daughter Jane married Richard William Wake, son of

Sir William Wake, 8th Baronet Sir William Wake, 8th Baronet (1742–1785), was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1774 to 1784. Wake was the son of Sir William Wake, 7th Baronet of Courteenhall and his wife Sarah Walker of Weston, Yorkshire. He was educ ...

, and his daughter Rachel married John Bladen Taylor, the Member of Parliament for , as her second husband, the first being George Elliott of Bengal. The youngest daughter, Matilda, married Valentine Conolly, son of William Conolly. Hickey mentions two sons. One, Edward, came to Bengal with his father in 1791, in his late teens but suffered from fits. According to Hickey, he returned to Europe and died young. He also makes Captain John Dunkin (John Henry Dunkin) of the 8th Light Dragoons a brother of Letitia.Hickey, ''Memoirs'' IV p. 192.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dunkin, William 1807 deaths British barristers 18th-century Irish judges British India judges People from County Antrim High Sheriffs of Antrim Year of birth unknown