Thomas S. Weston

Thomas S. Weston
Portrait of Weston from circa 1882
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Grey Valley
In office 16 June 1881 – 8 November 1881
Preceded by	Edward Masters
Succeeded by	Joseph Petrie
Member of the New Zealand Parliament for Inangahua
In office 9 December 1881 – 17 March 1883
Preceded by	New constituency
Succeeded by	Edward Shaw
Personal details
Born	Thomas Shailer Weston 7 June 1836 London, England
Died	15 October 1912(1912-10-15) (aged 76) New Plymouth, New Zealand
Relations	Warwick Weston (brother) Agnes Louisa Weston (daughter-in-law) Tom Weston (great-grandnephew)
Children	Thomas Shailer Weston, Jr. (son) Claude Weston (son)

Thomas Shailer Weston (7 June 1836 – 15 October 1912), often referred to as Thomas S. Weston, was a judge and 19th-century Member of Parliament from Westland, New Zealand. Weston was the patriarch of one of two dominant Canterbury families of the legal profession.

Weston was born in London in 1836, the son of the printer John James Weston and Mary Weston. He was educated at private schools in London. He arrived in New Zealand with his parents and four brothers in 1850, first settling in New Plymouth. He received further secondary education in New Zealand, and in June 1861, he was admitted to the bar by George Arney, the Chief Justice.

He practised law in New Plymouth until 1863, when he moved to Invercargill. His first advertisement appeared in The Southland Times in August of that year. His clients there included the Union Bank of Australia, the town council, and various businesses. He was chosen as Southland's representative to the 1865 New Zealand Exhibition in Dunedin, but could not travel there due to unfavourable weather conditions.

Weston then moved to Auckland; his name first appeared in the Daily Southern Cross in June 1865. Like his brother Warwick, Weston had interests in gold mining. He set up the Great Republic Gold Mining Company in Karaka in the Thames District, was its majority shareholder and its manager. The family's residence was in central Auckland, on the corner of Jermyn Street (which disappeared when Anzac Avenue was built) and Eden Street (now Eden Crescent); they later lived in Parnell. He practised in Auckland until he was appointed district judge in November 1873 for the Hawke's Bay. The district court judge had previously been filled by Singleton Rochfort, but the position was disestablished, as Rochfort had caused trouble to the government. When Weston was appointed, Rochfort pointed that this move was illegal, as he had first right of refusal under previous agreements. After some deliberations, the government renamed the court from Hawkes Bay to East Coast to circumvent the agreement, and Rochfort took the premier, Julius Vogel, to the Supreme Court over the affair. Weston remained judge in Napier until February 1875.