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John Walter Hulme

Chief Justice of Hong Kong

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 14, 2026
Entity authorityQ16066073 ↗
Source-derived summary

John Walter Hulme (1805-1861) was a British lawyer and Judge. He was the first Chief Justice of Hong Kong, taking office in 1844.

Early life

Hulme was born in 1805 in Fenton, Staffordshire, England. He was the son of a "highly respectable solicitor."

He was called to the Bar of the Middle Temple in 1829. He served his pupillage with the noted barrister and author Joseph Chitty. He was a co-author with Chitty of A Practical Treatise on Bills of Exchange and A Collection of Statutes of Practical Utility. He also married Chitty's daughter, Eliza.

Legal appointment

Hong Kong was ceded to the United Kingdom in 1842 under the Treaty of Nanking. Initially, a military government was formed. In 1844, civilian government was put in place under Governor John Francis Davis.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “John Walter Hulme” is chief Justice of Hong Kong. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through John, Walter and Hulme, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1805, 1861, 1844, 1829—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1805. For this dossier, John, Walter and Hulme is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “chief Justice of Hong Kong” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q16066073. VIAF identifies the subject as 47146440. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1805, 1861, 1844 and 1829.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  2. Expand the search: follow John Walter Hulme primary sources, John Walter Hulme archive and John research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “John Walter Hulme” 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.