Earle Edward Seaton 1924-1992

Earle Seaton was the son of immigrant parents to Bermuda from St. Kitts. He was the second of four siblings. His family lived on St. Augustine’s Hill known to most Bermudians as Smith’s Hill in Pembroke.

Earle along with his siblings were highly educated. He obtained his early education at Central School and than at Berkeley Institute, where he excelled in his studies. He furthered his education at Howard University in Washington on a Bermuda Technical Scholarship. His first desire was to become a doctor, he studied Biology at the University of Howard but his fathered persuaded him to study law. After graduating from Howard in 1945. Earle entered the University of London and in 1948 qualified as a Barrister.

Justice Earle Edward Seaton

Earle did not returned home immediately upon finishing University, he went instead to Africa with a friend he met at the University in London. He had learnt to speak Swahili and the friend encouraged him that he could use his talent in Tanganyika, he moved to the country in 1948 and there opened a law office and soon opened another in Kenya and Uganda. He soon married his Howard University sweetheart Albertha Jones from Houston Texas. They married in 1948 in London, she joined him in Africa in 1949 after completing her studies in Biology from University of Brussels in Belgium. They were the proud parents of a daughter born in Kenya in 1950. Earle excelled in African in his chosen career and was successful in winning many high profile cases.

By 1953 they welcomed into their family the birth of their son Dudley, at which time the family left Tanganyika and moved to the U.S. where Earle began studying for a PH.D at the University of Southern California. In 1961 he obtained a doctorate in International Relations at USC in 1962, he returned to Tanzania which had recently gained their independence and he directed legal research in the Tanzania Ministry of Foreign Affairs and later served as a Judge of legal council for the Tanzania Mission of the United Nations. He was eventually elected chairman of the United Nations Law of the Sea Committee in 1970.

In 1972 Earle found his way back home to Bermuda to accept a position as Puisne Judge. This turned out to be one of the biggest and earth shattering obstacles in his life. The political opposition party at that time felt that Judge Seaton should have been given the position of chief Justice because of his high credentials and his vast experience. These issues came about during a time when the Island of Bermuda was in the throws of racial turmoil. Bermuda had just experienced several high profile murders all members of the white community. Judge Seaton was the presiding Judge at the trial the accused men were eventually put to death by hanging. In 1977 there was a resignation of a Chief Justice and Justice Seaton was passed over and the position was given to another Black Bermudian. This caused another heated debate by the opposition for the blatant and deliberate overlook of Judge Seaton. He resigned in 1979 and moved back to Africa and was appointed Chief Justice of the Seychelles the first black to obtain that position in that Island Nation.

Earle continued to preside over several high profile cases winning quite a few. In 1989 he retired and moved back to Houston Texas and became a consultant with Bermuda Commercial Law firm Milligan Whyte and Smith, and in 1990 he returned to Africa to serve as an appellate Judge in the Supreme Court of Uganda.

Justice Seaton died of a heart attach while on his way home to Texas for a holiday in 1992. He was honoured by the legal community of Bermuda in 1994 with a memorial service which was held at the church where his family worshipped the St. Paul A.M.E. Methodist Episcopal Church on December 6th. 1992. A plaque which bears his name adorns the wall at St. Paul A.M.E. along with that of his sister Ruth Seaton James who served as Bermuda’s first Black Registrar who had died in 1970. Justice Earle Edward Seaton certainly lived a busy life and shared his talent’s world wide.

Though he was denied proper recognition in his own country he apparently used his time and his education to the very end of his life.

Researched Joy Wilson-Tucker Historian