Commitment; sexual assault of a child; Victoria, V.I.; 1862/01/01

This series is composed of legal documents concerning court cases involving Chinese and Aboriginal people as both witnesses and defendants. The collection documents early relationships between colonial society and Chinese and Aboriginal individuals within a legal context in British Columbia and provides documentary evidence of those relationships including first-hand narratives from all participants. The documents reveal the way in which the 19th century justice system in British Columbia related to those people of Aboriginal and Chinese descent.

Consists of eighty-two files pertaining to charges against Aboriginal and Chinese individuals and all the supporting court documents. There are 340 documents from 1862 to 1891. Most of this material either passed through or was created in the court systems of the day resulting in sworn testimony giving first hand accounts of events. Some of the documents may have been interpreted into English by court interpreters. Judge Augustus Pemberton (1808-1891) was appointed the magistrate and commissioner of police for Vancouver Island by Governor Douglas in 1858 and served as a county court judge in Victoria from September 23rd, 1867 to January 14th, 1881. Pemberton oversaw all but fourteen of these charges.