Legal notebooks, 1894-1902

Component identifier:

Series 14

Content Summary:

At the close of the nineteenth century Hughes began to read for the New South Wales Bar. He passed his exams convincingly and was admitted to the Bar in November 1903. He had received coaching from J. B. Peden and T. R. Bavin, a law graduate and university medallist from the University of Sydney.

There are ten notebooks in the series. Seven contain Hughes' notes from his reading and preparation for the Bar exams, and four are dated (1901, 1902). The other three are in Bavin's hand and similarly contain research notes. They are dated 1894 and 1896.

Immediate source of acquisition:

The W. M. Hughes Papers were presented to the National Library of Australia by Dame Mary Hughes in 1953. The collection was received in two consignments. One consisted of papers taken from the Perpetual Trustee Company comprising material from Hughes' Lindfield home and from his office rooms at the Commonwealth Offices, Sydney; the other came directly from Lindfield. Lists of the contents of both consignments are held in the Library's Manuscript Branch. With the agreement of the executors and the Library, much of the collection, was for a time, held at the Australian National University by Fitzhardinge. He was permitted sole access to the collection while writing the biography Hughes commissioned in 1951. Fitzhardinge's own papers documenting the writing of the biography are also held by the Library (MS 5400). The papers transferred to the Library in 1953 are by no means the total collection of Hughes' personal papers, although it is impossible to say what proportion has survived. (see Fitzhardinge, p.936).

Names:

Hughes, W. M. (1862-1952)

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