Summary

Law Reader Melbourne law School, appointed mid 1857

Chronology

1857 - 1858

Periods of employment at Melbourne Law School

1860 - 1862

1863 - 1864

Additional Notes

During his nine-and-a-half years in Victoria, Chapman lived an extremely active life. He was a barrister (for eight-anda-half years), a legislator (for a total of three-and-a-half years), the
Attorney-General (for twenty-one months), a law lecturer (for a total of three years), and an acting judge (for a year)*.

In November 1856 Victoria's first responsible parliament had been elected by secret ballot. It was the first government in the world to use this system. Henry Samuel Chapman in 1856 had devised a system that could cope with widespread illiteracy. It involved crossing out the names of candidates one did not want to vote for, leaving the name of the candidate of choice, and putting the slip in a box. But it was only men who had the vote.**

Sources:
*Spiller, P R. 'The career of Henry Chapman in Dunedin' (1990) 7 Otago Law Review 305
**Gardiner, Dianne. Women's Suffrage in Victoria. Agora, Vol. 45, No. 4, 2010: 54-59.