Judge

One of the Maltese judges who was held in the highest regard by Maitland was Judge Giuseppe Nicolò Zammit. He started practising law on 28 May 1792 and was appointed Judge on 27 May 1814.

He was also a leading personality in the first two decades of the British rule.

Zammit began his career with the British Administration as pro-secretary to the Civil Commissioners Sir Alexander Ball and Sir Hildebrand Oakes and to Governor Sir Thomas Maitland. When in 1814 Maitland carried out a reform of the Law Courts, Zammit was appointed as one of the Judges of the Superior Courts.

Four years later the British Government instituted the Order of St Michael and St George. Zammit was the third Maltese citizen to be admitted to this Order, and he became also the first of 20 Maltese to be created Knight Commander (KCMG). Zammit was considerably younger than the two other Maltese Knights Grand Gross-elect, who were summoned to the Palace in Valletta on 16 December 1818, for an investiture which took place in the former Supreme Council Chamber, and which later was renamed the ‘Hall of St Michael and St George’.

Zammit was nominated one of the members of the Supreme Council of Justice and on 1 January 1821, vice-president of the Court of Appeal. In January 1822, Zammit was chosen as one of the two Commissioners in all matters relating to bankruptcy, and in the same year, Zammit joined the Governor for a visit to England to discuss reform in the administration of justice with the British Authorities. In 1823, Maitland nominated Judge Zammit as a member of the Commission, which was to enquire into the state of the University.

Giuseppe Nicolò Zammit died in Valletta and was buried in St John’s Co-Cathedral where his memorial tablet can be seen in the chapel of St Sebastian of the Langue of Auvergne. A monument was erected to him at public expense in the Upper Barakka, Valletta, and a portrait of Judge Zammit was painted by Charles Allingham. This painting was in the collection of Judge Alberto V. Camilleri.

This biography is part of the collection created by Michael Schiavone over a 30-year period. Read more about Schiavone and his initiative here.