Page:The Dictionary of Australasian Biography.djvu/513

This page has been validated.
Wea]
DICTIONARY OF AUSTRALASIAN BIOGRAPHY.
[Web

J. P. of Western Australia, and was a member of the Perth Commission for the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, visited England in 1890. He married in 1887 Louisa, daughter of the Rev. Thomas Henry Walpole, vicar of Winslow, Bucks, and widow of Sir Luke S. Leake (q.v.). Dr. Waylen is one of the pioneers of the wine industry in Western Australia.

Wearing, Hon. William, formerly Judge of the Supreme Court of South Australia, was born in London on Nov. 12th, 1816, and educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A., and was called to the bar of Lincoln's Inn in May 1847. A year later he emigrated to South Australia, and practised at the local Bar, being made Q.C., and subsequently Crown Solicitor. In 1867 he was appointed Third Judge of the Supreme Court of South Australia. He was drowned in the wreck of the Gothenburg on the Barrier Reef, Torres Straits, on the night of Feb. 24th, 1875, whilst on his return from holding the first Circuit Court at Palmerston, Northern Territory.

Webb, His Honour George Henry Frederick, late Puisne Judge, Victoria, was the son of a naval officer who took part in the battle of Trafalgar, and was born about 1827. As a youth he entered the office of Mr. Gurney, the famous parliamentary shorthand writer, and soon became proficient in stenography. Mr. Webb emigrated to Melbourne, Victoria, in 1852, and was for some time a reporter on the Argus. In 1855 he was appointed shorthand writer to the Government of Victoria. Having decided to embrace the legal profession, he attended the lectures on law given at the University of Melbourne by Mr. H. S. Chapman and Mr. Wilberforce Stephen and subsequently read in the latter's chambers. In 1860 Mr. Webb was called to the Victorian Bar and appointed a lecturer on law at the University of Melbourne. The latter appointment he quickly resigned, as also the position of Government shorthand writer in 1866. Having for a long period been recognised as the leader of the Equity Bar in Victoria, he was in 1874 offered the puisne judgeship rendered vacant by the death of Mr. Justice Williams, father of the present judge of that name. He was, however, indisposed to make the pecuniary sacrifice which acceptance would have necessitated. Having become Q.C. and continued to practise with unrivalled success, he was elevated to the Bench in May 1886 in place of the late Sir Robert Molesworth, and fulfilled his judicial functions down to the time of his death. Though on several occasions a candidate, he never succeeded in securing his return to the Legislative Assembly, and was also defeated when he contested a seat in the Legislative Council. The late judge, who was a member of the Congregational body, died at his residence, Caulfield, near Melbourne, on Sept. 26th, 1891, at the age of sixty-four.

Webb, Thomas Prout, B.A., Master in Equity, Master in Lunacy, Commissioner of Patents, and Commissioner of Trademarks, fourth son of Robert Saunders Webb, the first collector of customs at Port Phillip, by his wife Ann, daughter of Lieutenant Fisher, R.N., was born on Jan. 22nd, 1845, at Newtown (now called Fitzroy), Melbourne. Mr. Webb was educated at the Church of England Grammar School, Melbourne, and King's College, London, and graduated B.A. at Melbourne University in 1867. He entered at Lincoln's Inn in November of that year, and was called to the Bar in June 1870, having won the Inns of Court Exhibition in Constitutional Law and Legal History in the previous year. Mr. Webb was admitted to the Victorian Bar in 1872, and practised on the equity side of the Supreme Court until 1884, when he was appointed assistant chief clerk under the Judicature Act, the rules of which he assisted in drafting. In Oct. 1884 he succeeded Mr. Wilkinson as Master in Equity and Master in Lunacy, which offices he still holds. He acted as Deputy Commissioner of Titles during Mr. Bunny's illness, and in 1885, on Mr. Bunny's death, he was Commissioner of Titles for some months concurrently with his other offices. In March 1890 he inaugurated the new procedure in and reorganised the Patents Office, and in March 1891 he also undertook the cognate subject of trademarks under the new legislation then introduced. Mr. Webb published in 1872 a successful work on the Imperial law in force in the colony. Two years later he assisted Mr. J. B. Box in preparing and editing the "Collection of Victorian Statutes," and in 1884 he himself prepared and

497