Edmund Sheppard
British-born Australian judge (1826-1882)

Edmund Sheppard (1 November 1826 – 22 December 1882) was a Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland.
Early life
Sheppard was the fourth son of Samuel Sheppard, of Taunton, Somerset, England, and his wife, Harriett Deane (née Allen). Edmund was born in Taunton and educated there and in London where he was called to the bar at the Inner Temple in June 1857.
Career in Australia
Sheppard went to Sydney, New South Wales, shortly after being called to the bar. Sheppard married, firstly, in July 1860, Mary Grace, daughter of the late C. E. Murray, of Sydney, who died in June 1869. He practised at the bar in Sydney, and in 1866 was appointed District Court Judge of Queensland. Judge Sheppard married, secondly, in December 1871, Adela, daughter of the late E. J. Murray, solicitor, of London. He became Puisne Judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland on 17 July 1874; and died in London on 22 December 1882 having taken leave of absence earlier in the year due to ill-health.
Legacy
Sheppard's second son William Fleetwood Sheppard, became a mathematician.
The court complex in Townsville, opened in 1975, was named the Edmund Sheppard Building in recognition of his service as the first Northern Judge of the court.
The public source identifies “Edmund Sheppard” as british-born Australian judge (1826-1882). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Edmund, Sheppard and British-born.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 30, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q16063172. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1826, 1882, 1857 and 1860.
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This entry incorporates text from “Edmund Sheppard” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.