CHAPTER XXVII.
REMARKABLE SUPREME COURT TRIALS.
SYNOPSIS:— Non-Abolition of Deathfor Forgery. —Alexr. Wilson, First Forger Transported for Life. —Thomas Leahy, the First White Murderer, Transported for Life. —D. C. Simson, Perjury, Acquitted. —D. C. Simson and Others, Fraud, Acquitted. —Sergeant O'Neill, First Breach of Promise, Damages £100. —S. G. Bolden, Murder of a Native, Not Guilty. —Murder by Aboriginals, Sentenced to Death. —Bushrangers Captured by Gentlemen Volunteers. — Williams, a Bushranger Killed, Gourlay and Fowler Disabled, Prisoners Condemned to be Executed. —Postscript: —Death of Notable Colonists. —The Murder of Mr. Codd, Figara Alkepurata, alias "Roger," Sentenced to Death. —First Criminal Libel, Marshall v. Arden. —The First Trial for Rape, John Taylor Transported por Life. —Murder of Mr. Francis at the Pyrenees, John Connolly Transportedfor Life. —First Civil Libel, Leadbetter v. Cavenagh. —False Imprisonment, Kerr v. St. John. —Murder of an Aboriginal Woman, Discharge of Prisoners. —False Imprisonment by a Judge, Ebden v. Willis. —Anthony H———n v. Cavenagh for Libel. —Conviction of a "Gentleman Rowdy," Mr. Henry Wheeler Imprisoned and Fined. —A Magisterial Horse-Whipping, M'Crae v. Foster. —"Jacky Jacky" Condemned for the Murder of an Aboriginal Boy. —"Jack the Sawyer" Condemned for Attempted Murder of fohn Buchannan. —Stephen v. McCombie, Libel. —Nigolobin Acquitted of Murder. —Patrick W———h, alias "Patricius Paddy" Acquitted of Fraud —William V. M'Vitie, Indicted for and Acquitted of Embezzlement.
Forgery.—26th April, 1841.
IN consequence of the non-adoption of the Imperial Act, 1st Vict., abolishing death as a punishment for forgery, this was the first capital felony tried in Port Phillip. The prisoner, Alexander Wilson, was indicted before Judge Willis and a jury of twelve, for having, on the 20th February, forged and uttered a cheque on the Union Bank at Melbourne. The prisoner went with a Mr. Lake to the Bank, and the latter filled a cheque, which the prisoner signed as a marksman for one Daniel Dudley, whom he personated. The cheque was paid, but it was afterwards ascertained to be a forgery. The prisoner was undefended, found "Guilty" of uttering, and sentence of death recorded, the Judge intimating that, in consequence of the state of the law, he should recommend a commutation of the sentence to transportation for life, and transported Wilson was eventually.
The First Wife Murderer.—15th May, 1841.
On the 16th November, 1840, Thomas Leahy killed his wife, Sarah, at Portland. They were lodgers at the house of A-horne, a Chinaman, and Leahy, returning home drunk, quarrelled with his partner, and, snatching up a bayonet, stabbed her with it in the right breast. She died in a quarter of an hour, after being attended by Dr. Byers. The Judge assigned Mr. Brewster as Counsel for the defence. The most material evidence for the Crown yvas the Chinaman, and this was the first time that a Celestial appeared in Court in the character of a witness. A difficulty arose as to how the oath was to be administered to A-horne, and after some confabulation on the subject, "John" solved the difficulty by declaring that the breaking of a saucer ordeal would be binding on his conscience, and "makee him speakee de tloot." The Judge ordered his tipstaff to hunt up one of the tea-drinking utensils, but the official, after much delay, returned yvith a soup-plate as a substitute. This led to a legal hitch, as there were grave doubts whether soup would be as binding on "John's" conscience as tea or coffee; and after a serious consultation between the Judge, the Crown Prosecutor, the prisoner's Counsel, and the Sheriff, "John" cut the Gordian knot by asserting solemnly that he would "speakee de tloot" on the plate. Judge Willis looked at him sternly, and requested to be informed in what manner the Chinaman believed the ceremony he was about to go through would bind him; and "John," without hesitation, let the Judge know that if he ("John") told a lie the devil would break up his body and soul as he smashed the soup-plate. The Judge
