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William Dunkin (judge)

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Sir William Dunkin (died 1807)[1] was an Irish barrister and judge in Bengal.

William Dunkin
Born1807
NationalityIrish
Occupations
  • Barrister
  • judge

Life edit

Dunkin was admitted to the Middle Temple in 1753, as the eldest son of John Dunkin of Bushfoot, County Antrim;[2] Later he was described as from Clogher, County Antrim.[3] He was High Sheriff of Antrim in 1777.[4] Although he had inherited an estate, he encumbered it with debt, and went to Calcutta to practise as a barrister.[5]

In October 1781 Dunkin was mentioned as on the way to India in a letter from Edmund Burke to Lord George Macartney, two of his friends.[6] There he was a friend of William Hickey.[7] He lived a bachelor life, sharing accommodation with Stephen Cassan, another Irish barrister.[5] In 1788 he set off to go to England in search of a judicial appointment in Calcutta,[8][9] sailing to Europe in December on the Phoenix under Captain Gray.[10]

Dunkin returned to Bengal on the Phoenix in August 1791;[11] he had been appointed a member of the Supreme Court of Judicature at Fort William.[12][13] being knighted in March of that year.[14] The appointment was later attributed to the influence of Henry Dundas.[15] Dunkin had in fact obtained a reluctant support for it from Lord Thurlow. His senior colleague on the court, Robert Chambers, did not welcome it, regarding Dunkin as suspect;[7] further Dunkin and Hickey were allies in opposition to Chambers.[16] 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 was brought from his sickbed in 1796 as a supporting vote by Chambers against Dunkin.[17]

Dunkin resigned from the post in 1797, being replaced by John Royds.[18][19] He had a house in Portman Square, London,[20] where Thomas Reynolds knew him as one of a set of wealthy returnees from India;[21] and died at The Polygon, Southampton in 1807.[1]

Works edit

When Sir William Jones died in 1794, Dunkin wrote a Latin epitaph, used on his tomb in Calcutta.[22][23][24] An English paraphrase was later made by Eyles Irwin.[25]

Family edit

 
Elizabeth Blacker (1739–1822), wife of William Dunkin, portrait by Thomas Gainsborough

Dunkin married Elizabeth or Eliza Blacker (1739–1822), daughter of William Blacker (1709–1783), in 1764.[26][27][28] Their eldest daughter Letitia married Sir Francis Workman Macnaghten, having a family of 16 children, among them William Hay Macnaghten.[29][30] When Dunkin clashed with William Burroughs, attorney-general in Bengal from 1792, Francis Macnaghten tried to challenge Burroughs to a duel, and then to have him disbarred.[31] Through the marriage, the Macnaghtens acquired the Dunkin family house at Bushmills.[32]

Of Dunkin's other children, his daughter Jane married Richard William Wake, son of Sir William Wake, 8th Baronet,[33] and his daughter Rachel married John Bladen Taylor, the Member of Parliament for Hythe, as her second husband, the first being George Elliott of Bengal.[34][35] The youngest daughter, Matilda, married Valentine Conolly, son of William Conolly.[36][37]

Hickey mentions two sons. One, Edward, came to Bengal with his father in 1791, in his late teens but suffered from fits.[11] According to Hickey, he returned to Europe and died young.[38] He also makes Captain John Dunkin (John Henry Dunkin) of the 8th Light Dragoons a brother of Letitia.[39]

References edit

  1. ^ a b The Gentleman's Magazine: 1807. E. Cave. 1807. p. 383.
  2. ^ Register of Admissions to the Middle Temple, p. 341
  3. ^ Edmund Lodge; Anne Innes; Eliza Innes; Maria Innes (1860). The peerage and baronetage of the British empire as at present existing. Hurst and Blackett. p. 734.
  4. ^ High Sheriffs of the County of Antrim, Ulster Journal of Archaeology Second Series, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Apr., 1905), pp. 78-83, at p. 82. Published by: Ulster Archaeological Society. Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20566218
  5. ^ a b "Memoirs of William Hickey". Internet Archive. pp. 261–2. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
  6. ^ Edmund Burke (1978). The Correspondence of Edmund Burke. Vol. 10. Cambridge University Press. p. 13 note 4. ISBN 978-0-521-21024-9.
  7. ^ a b Thomas M. Curley; Samuel Johnson (1998). Sir Robert Chambers: Law, Literature, and Empire in the Age of Johnson. Univ of Wisconsin Press. p. 485. ISBN 978-0-299-15150-8.
  8. ^ Jeremiah P. Losty; British Library (1990). Calcutta: city of palaces: a survey of the city in the days of the East India Company, 1690-1858. British Library. p. 61.
  9. ^ "Memoirs of William Hickey". Internet Archive. pp. 329–30. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
  10. ^ Memoirs of William Hickey. Vol. 3. London Hurst & Blackett. p. 341. Retrieved 21 March 2015 – via Internet Archive.
  11. ^ a b William Hickey (1925). Memoirs of William Hickey. Vol. 4 1790-1809). A. A. Knopf. p. 32.
  12. ^ The Annual Register. J. Dodsley. 1824. p. 53.
  13. ^ The Bengal almanac, for 1827, compiled by S. Smith and co. 1827. p. xxi.
  14. ^ Andrew Kippis (1792). The New Annual Register, Or General Repository of History, Politics, and Literature: To which is Prefixed, a Short Review of the Principal Transactions of the Present Reign. s.n. p. 61.
  15. ^ The Universal Magazine of Knowledge and Pleasure. J. Hinton. 1811. p. 34.
  16. ^ Thomas M. Curley; Samuel Johnson (1998). Sir Robert Chambers: Law, Literature, and Empire in the Age of Johnson. Univ of Wisconsin Press. p. 501. ISBN 978-0-299-15150-8.
  17. ^ Thomas M. Curley; Samuel Johnson (1998). Sir Robert Chambers: Law, Literature, and Empire in the Age of Johnson. Univ of Wisconsin Press. p. 508. ISBN 978-0-299-15150-8.
  18. ^ William Cooke Taylor; P. J. Mackenna (1857). Ancient and modern India. James Madden. p. 524.
  19. ^ Robert Beatson (1806). A Political Index to the Histories of Great Britain & Ireland. Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme. p. 283.
  20. ^ "Central Criminal Court Records, WILLIAM HALSGROVE, ESTHER SIMONS, Theft, 3rd December 1806". Retrieved 21 March 2015.
  21. ^ Thomas Reynolds (1839). The Life of Thomas Reynolds, Esq: Formerly of Kilkea Castle, in the County of Kildare : in Two Volumes. Hooper. pp. 237–.
  22. ^ The Monthly Mirror, vol. VII. 1799. p. 284.
  23. ^ Hugh James Rose (1857). A new general biographical dictionary. T. Fellowes. p. 38.
  24. ^ La Décade philosophique, littéraire et politique. J.B. Say. 1803. p. 353.
  25. ^ William Ouseley (21 March 2013). The Oriental Collections: Consisting of Original Essays and Dissertations, Translations and Miscellaneous Papers. Cambridge University Press. p. 159. ISBN 978-1-108-05641-0.
  26. ^ John Burke (1835). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, Enjoying Territorial Possessions Or High Official Rank: But Univested with Heritable Honours. H. Colburn. p. 51.
  27. ^ Edmund Burke (1978). The Correspondence of Edmund Burke. Cambridge University Press. p. 298. ISBN 978-0-521-21024-9.
  28. ^ The Gentleman's and London Magazine: Or Monthly Chronologer, 1741-1794. J. Exshaw. 1741. p. 524.
  29. ^ Katherine, Prior. "Macnaghten, Sir William Hay". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/17705. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  30. ^ Debrett, John (1840). The baronetage of England. revised, corrected and continued by G.W. Collen. pp. 366.
  31. ^ "Burroughs, William (?1753-1829), of Castle Bagshaw, co. Cavan, History of Parliament Online". Retrieved 20 March 2015.
  32. ^ Bushmills Conservation Area (PDF)
  33. ^ Debrett's Baronetage of England. C. and J. Rivington. 1828. p. 59.
  34. ^ Bernard Burke (1906). A genealogical and heraldic history of the landed gentry of Great Britain & Ireland. Рипол Классик. p. 322. ISBN 978-5-88372-227-0.
  35. ^ "Taylor, John Bladen (1764-1820), History of Parliament Online". Retrieved 20 March 2015.
  36. ^ The European Magazine, and London Review. Philological Society of London. 1802. p. 422.
  37. ^ The European Magazine. Vol. 56, July to December, 1809. 1809. p. 355.
  38. ^ Hickey, Memoirs IV p. 45.
  39. ^ Hickey, Memoirs IV p. 192.
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