Joseph Leary

Who was Joseph Leary?

Joseph Leary, Australian politician, elected as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly.

Leary was born in 1831 in Sydney, and was educated at St. Mary's Seminary, at Sydney College under Mr. Cape, and for two years at the Sydney University. He was returned to the Assembly for Narellan in 1861, and in 1863 was admitted an attorney and solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales. Whilst representing Murrumbidgee, in the Assembly—having been elected for that district in 1874—he took office as Minister of Justice and Public Instruction in the Farrell Government in Dec. 1877, and retired with his colleagues on their defeat in Dec. 1878. He died in 1881