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[arson - Aboriginal evidence - Maitland]
R. v. Hagan
Supreme Court of New South Wales Dowling C.J., 12 February 1839 Source: Sydney Herald, 13 February 1839 Tuesday. -- Before the Chief Justice and a Military Jury. Tobias Hagan was indicted for feloniously and maliciously setting fire to a barn, the property of George Berwick, at Maitland, on the 4th January. At daylight on the morning of the 4th January, the prosecutor was awoke by an alarm that the barn was on fire. The prisoner who as an assigned servant to the prosecutor,[1] came from his hut shortly afterwards, and very unwillingly assisted in removing some property that was laying near the barn. A little boy, the son of an aboriginal woman who was living with the prosecutor swore, that a few minutes before the fire broke out he saw the prisoner go into the barn and return. It was proved that the prisoner had used many threats towards his master in consequence of his putting him on Government rations, and threatening to take him to Court for neglect of work. Guilty. To be transported to a penal settlement for fifteen years.
Notes [1] A convict, assigned by the colonial government to work for a private master. |
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