Lot 179
Covering the first two years of the new Colony of Victoria
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Literature:
- 520 Medium:
- Collectibles Circa:
- Ephemera, Cards & Documents Notes:
- Victoria separated from New South Wales on the 1st July 1851 assuming all the roles of a new British colony including importantly the administration of justice. Over the next two years 1518 defendants came before the Victorian courts and on the 6th September 1853 the Attorney General tabled a report listing the sentences for crimes ranging from horse stealing to murder to the unusual crime of "intending to commit a breach of the peace." Perhaps the accused Thomas Ellis was caught with his fingers primed for a wolf whistle, but Judge Beckett could obviously smell a stitch-up and dismissed him without charge. The first convicted felon was Charles Holland who was tried on the 21st July 1851 for "uttering" offences and sentenced to "3 years on the roads" and, on the 19th August, Patrick Kennedy was the first to receive the death penalty for murder. It appears that ballot box stuffing was even then a stain on democracy with Michael Pender and John Bourke lucky to escape conviction for "(im)personating a voter." Criminal gangs were obviously a problem also as it is notable the number of convictions that were metered out for "robbery in company." A conga line of bigamists, rapists, mutineers, con-men, escapees, horse thieves and sheep and cattle duffers amongst others all came before the courts and, those convicted provided a steady stream of free labour for the road gangs that were opening up country Victoria. For sentences over "2 years imprisonment" stretches of 3, 5, 7, 10 and 12 years "on the roads" was the usual punishment. Of course, Melbourne was the hot bed of crime accounting for over half of the cases before the courts, although there were pockets of crime in other larger centres such as Williamstown, Geelong, Castlemaine, Bendigo and Kyneton. This month Smalls Auctions offers a very clean copy of the 1853 Report, "Prisoners. Committals - Trials. 1st July, 1851 to 30th June, 1853"
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