1. John Plunkett is best known for the prosecution of the colonists who brutally murdered 28 Aboriginals in the Myall Creek Massacre of 1838, seven of whom were convicted and hanged.
23 Facts About John Plunkett
1. 2.
John Hubert Plunkett was born at Mount Plunkett, County Roscommon, Ireland, the younger of twins and son of George Plunkett and his wife Eileen, nee O'Kelly.
3.
The attorney-general at the time, John Kinchela, was deaf and Plunkett had to undertake most of his duties.
4.
In February 1836 Kinchela retired from his position and John Plunkett took his place.
5.
Later in 1836, John Plunkett was associated with Governor Richard Bourke in bringing about a new church and schools act.
6.
John Plunkett was determined to establish equality before the law, first by extending jury rights to emancipists; he then extended legal protections to convicts and assigned servants.
7.
Finally John Plunkett attempted to legally protect aboriginals, and twice charged the perpetrators of the Myall Creek massacre with murder.
8.
John Plunkett's Church Building Act 1836 disestablished the Church of England and established legal equality between Anglicans, Catholics, Presbyterians and later Methodists.
9.
John Plunkett obtained leave of absence to attend to family matters in Ireland from late 1841, and did not return to Sydney until August 1843.
10.
John Plunkett was offered appointment as a judge, filling the position vacated by Stephen, but declined it.
11.
John Plunkett was made a member of the Executive Council in March 1847, and in 1848, when the national school system was founded, was appointed chairman of the Board of Education.
12.
John Plunkett was appointed a Queen's Counsel on 6 June 1856, the first NSW Barrister to be so appointed.
13.
John Plunkett was sworn in as member for Argyle and Bathurst on 22 May 1856, before submitting his resignation from Bathurst on 29 May, stating that the rules of the House would not allow him to send in his resignation earlier.
14.
John Plunkett resigned from the Assembly in January 1857, was nominated to the Legislative Council, and elected its President.
15.
In February 1858, on account of the Board of Education having issued regulations which Charles Cowper, then Premier, disapproved of, John Plunkett was dismissed from his position as chairman and he thereupon resigned from the council.
16.
John Plunkett was again a member of the Legislative Assembly for Cumberland from September 1858 to April 1859 and for West Sydney from June 1859 to November 1860.
17.
John Plunkett was then reconciled with Cowper, and from August 1865 to January 1866 was Attorney-General in the fourth Cowper ministry.
18.
John Plunkett died on 9 May 1869 at East Melbourne leaving a widow but no children.
19.
John Plunkett was the author of The Australian Magistrate; a Guide to the Duties of a Justice of the Peace, first published in 1835 and reissued in at least three subsequent editions; The Magistrate's Pocket Book, and On the Evidence of Accomplices.
20.
John Plunkett was dignified and somewhat austere in manner, though he could relax on occasions such as the annual St Patrick's Day dinner which he chaired.
21.
John Plunkett had much ability and exercised great influence in the early days of education in New South Wales and in the anti-transportation movement.
22.
John Plunkett Fairfax said he was "the greatest friend of civil and religious liberty in the colony", and he was in advance of his time in his attitude to the land question, and in his advocacy of manhood suffrage.
23.
John Plunkett's niece, Georgina Isabella O'Sullivan, was a daughter of Ferdinand Keon and Plunkett's sister Margaret.