Robert Richard Torrens | |||||||||||||
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 Torrens in an 1880 illustration | |||||||||||||
| Premier of South Australia | |||||||||||||
| In office 1 September 1857 – 30 September 1857 | |||||||||||||
| Monarch | Victoria | ||||||||||||
| Governor | Richard Graves MacDonnell | ||||||||||||
| Preceded by | John Baker | ||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Richard Hanson | ||||||||||||
| Treasurer of South Australia | |||||||||||||
| In office 3 January 1852 – 21 August 1857 | |||||||||||||
| Preceded by | B. T. Finniss | ||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | John Hart | ||||||||||||
| Member of the House of Assembly for the City of Adelaide | |||||||||||||
| In office 3 March 1857 – 1 July 1858 | |||||||||||||
| Preceded by | seat established | ||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Judah Moss Solomon | ||||||||||||
| Member of the South Australian Legislative Council | |||||||||||||
| In office 21 February 1851 – 2 February 1857 | |||||||||||||
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| Personal details | |||||||||||||
| Born | 31 May 1812 Cork, Ireland, United Kingdom | ||||||||||||
| Died | 31 August 1884 (aged 72) Falmouth, Cornwall, England | ||||||||||||
| Nationality | British | ||||||||||||
| Political party | Liberal | ||||||||||||
| Parent(s) | Robert Torrens and Charity Herbert (née) Chute | ||||||||||||
| Alma mater | Trinity College, Dublin | ||||||||||||
Sir Robert Richard Torrens, GCMG (31 May 1812[1][2] – 31 August 1884), also known as Robert Richard Chute Torrens, was an Irish-born parliamentarian, writer, and land reformer. After a move to London in 1836, he became prominent in the early years of the Colony of South Australia, emigrating after being appointed to a civil service position there in 1840. He was Colonial Treasurer and Registrar-General from 1852 to 1857 and then the third Premier of South Australia for a single month in September 1857.
Torrens is chiefly remembered as the originator of the Torrens title, a new system of land registration that subsequently spread to the other Australian colonies and is used in Australia and in many other countries throughout the world today. He secured its implementation in South Australia in 1858, and subsequently advocated for its adoption in other jurisdictions. Returning to England in 1865, he served in the British House of Commons from 1868 to 1874.
He was son of the political economist Robert Torrens, who was chairman of the London-based South Australian Colonisation Commission involved in setting up and encouraging emigration to the new colony.
- ^ Peter Moore (2003). John Healey (ed.). S.A.'s Greats: The Men and Women of the North Terrace Plaques. Historical Society of South Australia. p. 137. ISBN 0957943008. One early reference gave 1814 as his year of birth, which has been repeated ad nauseam. Modern historians have settled on 1812.
- ^ Croucher, Rosalind F. (2008) 'Delenda Est Carthago!' Sir Robert Richard Torrens and his attack on the evils of conveyancing and dependent land titles: a reflection on the sesquicentenary of the introduction of his great law reforming initiative Alex Castles Memorial Legal History Lecture for Flinders University Law School, Adelaide, 26 August 2008. Retrieved 27 May 2020.