The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Fleming, Sir Valentine
Fleming, Sir Valentine, formerly Chief Justice of Tasmania, was the son of Valentine Fleming (captain 9th Foot), of Tuam, Galway, by his wife, Catherine, daughter of John Hunter Green, of Mount Nebo, Wexford, and was born in 1809. He was educated at Bangor and at Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated B.A. in honours in 1834. He was called to the bar at Gray's Inn in 1838, and was Commissioner of the Insolvent Debtors Court at Hobart, Tasmania, from 1841 to 1844; Solicitor-General for Tasmania from 1844 to 1848; Attorney-General from 1848 to 1854; when he was appointed Chief Justice. This post he held till May 1870, when he retired, but was Acting Chief Justice from 1872 to 1874, in which year he administered the government of Tasmania, after the resignation of Sir Charles Du Cane, from March to June. Sir Valentine married, first, in 1852, Elizabeth Oke, daughter of Charles Buckland, of Hobart, who died in 1870; and secondly, in 1872, Fanny Maria, daughter of William Seccombe, sen., Medical Officer of Tasmania, who survives him. Sir Valentine, who was knighted in 1856, died on Oct. 25th, 1884.