Jeffery Hart Bent - Commentary On Bent

Commentary On Bent

Murray Gleeson, Chief Justice of Australia described Bent as follows:

"He is generally regarded, not only as the first judge in New South Wales, but also as the worst. The one thing he had to recommend him was a spirit of independence. He gave an early display of his mettle upon his arrival in Sydney, by refusing to disembark from his ship until the Governor arranged for a proper battery of guns to salute him. He refused to pay the road toll levied on users of Sydney's main road. He said he would be damned if he would pay any illegal tax. He called the gatekeeper a scoundrel, and threatened to put him in gaol. As a result, he was charged with toll evasion, convicted by a magistrate and fined two pounds. There being no Judicial Commission in those days, the matter was left to rest there. The Court presided over by Judge Bent only ever sat to hear one item of civil business. That was an application by three ex-convict attorneys for admission to practice. The judge, who was at risk of being outvoted by the two magistrates with whom he sat, peremptorily announced that the application was refused, and that he would never preside in a court where ex-convicts were admitted to practice. Soon afterwards he was recalled to England.".