James Martin was educated at the Sydney Academy and Sydney College. He left school at the end of 1836 at sixteen and a half (Grainger, 17). At age eighteen he wrote The Australian Sketch Book - 'the first Australian volume containing writings which may be classed as essays'. He also 'wrote copiously for the press' (Miller and Macartney, 326-327). According to Martin's biographer Elena Grainger, the editor of the Australian newspaper, George Robert Nichols, 'at first accepted [Martin's] contributed articles, and then engaged him as "all round writer, paragraphist, reporter and sub-editor". Martin was one of the first reporters to sit in the press gallery... of the Legislative Council (18).' By 1839 Nichols continued 'the general management of the newspaper while handing over the editorial duties to Martin' (Grainger, 26). Grainger states that Martin continued as 'acting editor' until he 'commenced as an articled clerk with ... [the law firm] of Nichols and Williams, and presumably relinquished his editorial connection with The Australian'. The new editor was Mr. Wickham Hesketh' (27). Martin was also the editor and manager of the Atlas for a period of two years, and associated with the Empire during the 1840s (Miller and Macartney, 327).
Martin wrote under various pseudonyms including 'J. A. B'., 'Hirundo', (Grainger, 18), 'An Attorney', 'Judex damnatar', 'Lex', 'Cato', 'A Patriot', 'An Australian', 'A Citizen', 'Brutus', 'Query', 'O. P. Q'. , 'An Alumnus of Sydney College', and 'Junius' (Grainger, 31,157-158). Works written under these pseudonyms may also include correspondence, editorials and political articles.
Martin was possibly also the writer, under the pseudonym 'Boz Jun.' of a short lived serial based on Charles Dickens' The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club. (See the AustLit record for 'Boz Jun.'.)
A lawyer by profession, Martin also served three separate terms as Premier of New South Wales (1863-1865, 1866-1868, and 1870-1872) and following his retirement from politics was appointed Chief Justice. He remained in that position for 13 years.
Martin was made a Queen's Counsel in 1857 and a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1869.
Sources: Miller, E. Morris and Macartney, Frederick T. Australian Literature : A Bibliography to 1938 : Extended to 1950 (Sydney : Angus and Robertson, 1956); Grainger, Elena. Martin of Martin Place (Sydney, Alpha Books, 1970).
