Colonial Despatches

John Taylor Coleridge was born 9 July 1790 in Devon, England. He studied law at Corpus Christi College, Oxford and was called to the bar in 1819.1 During the year of 1824, he was the editor of the Quarterly Review and by 1835, he was appointed a judge on the King's Bench; but he resigned in 1858 to become a member of the Privy Council.2

In 1859, Coleridge was loosely involved in a dispute between the Hudson's Bay Company and the British Government. In the previous year, the HBC had led a fruitless coal-mining operation at Fort Rupert on Vancouver Island.3 The HBC then made a claim for reimbursement of the operational costs against the British Government. The HBC claimed that the operation was undertaken to expand the interests of the colony, and therefore it should be reimbursed.4 The dispute can be seen as a microcosm of the larger question of the purchase of Vancouver Island by the British Government from the HBC that same year.5 The HBC added the cost of the operation in the total sum requested for the Island, and British officials rejected its inclusion stating that it went against the original terms of the Island's lease to the company.6 The HBC was ready to submit the question to Sir John Coleridge as suggested by Secretary Merivale.7 Coleridge agreed to arbitrate the dispute if needed. However, the matter never came under his observation as it was refused on part of the government.8

• 1. David Pugsley, Coleridge, Sir John Taylor, Oxford Dictionary Of National Biography.
• 2. Ibid.
• 3. Murdoch and Rogers to Merivale, 7 May 1859, 4720, CO 305/12, 123.
• 4. Ibid.
• 5. Berens to Newcastle, 16 July 1859, 7160, CO 305/13, 112.
• 6. Ibid.
• 7. Ibid.
• 8. Ellice to Newcastle, 11 May 1860, 4873, CO 305/15, 469.