John Charles Templer
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John Charles Templer (1814–1874) was an English barrister.[1]
Born in Bridport, he was the son of James Templer (1787–1858), a lawyer, and his wife Catharine Lethbridge. He was educated at Westminster School, and entered Trinity College, Cambridge in 1832, graduating with a B.A. in 1836. He was admitted to the Inner Temple in 1837.[2][3]
In a voter qualification case related to 1845, Temple is described as a special pleader, living with his wife in Greenwich.[4] By 1847, he was serving in the Royal Navy, as evidenced by newspaper reports of his second son, John Harvey. [5][6]
Templer became a close friend of James Brooke through his elder brother, James Lethbridge Templer (1811–1845), of the East India Company Merchant Navy.[7][8] James Templer commanded the Minerva (Bombay, 1812) on a tea voyage to China in 1835–6, for his uncle Henry Templer who was its recent owner, and Brooke came on the journey.[9] John Templer and Brooke were corresponding by 1840.[10] Templer acted as Brooke's legal counsel.[11] He went on to support Brooke as an apologist,[12] and asked Harriet Martineau for her advocacy.[13]
In 1853, Templer was called to the bar, and from 1854, he was one of the Masters of the Court of Exchequer.[3] He was also one of the founding directors of the Borneo Company in 1856. The company's initial finance was largely from directors and staff of W. R. Paterson & Co., with Robert Henderson.[14] Templer took a 5% stake, and acted as the company's deputy chairman, also representing Brooke in London.[15]
