Page:Execution and awful confession of Edward Robertson, and Matthew M'Queen.pdf/3

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.

3

age of 18. He had more than once endeavoured to rob his own mother; and his horrible conduct was the means of breaking his father’s heart, and hurrying him to the grave. He was confined in Guilford gaol; and had, altogether, spent more years in gaols than at liberty. On his transportation to this colony, he had scarcely landed in Hobart Town when he commenced robberies. He was at last apprehended for an outrage which he committed at Sandy Bay, tried, and transported to Macquarrie Harbour.

We have already stated that the party of runaways from Macquarrie Harbour, contisted originally of five men, viz.—Richard Hutchinson, commonly called Up-and-down Dick, a tall man, who had, at one time, a large flock of sheep, and a herd of cattle, at Berk-hut plains, between the Clyde and Shannon, near the spot where Culny Park now is, the estate of Captain Clark; of an old man named Coventry, about 60 years of age; Patrick Fagan, a boy of a most depraved character, aged about 18 years; and the two malefactors, Robertson and M‘Queen, who suffered on the gallows on Friday. These men happened to be at one of the out stations of Macqnarrie Harbour, and were in charge of one man, a constable.