The testimony in the
deposition had been given by McIntyre on 7 August, 1880 at Beechworth
during the preliminary hearings before Magistrate Foster.
So, we have established
when the testimony was taken, possibly who may have handwritten it out,
and for what, - but we still have not gotten to who may have done the hut
drawing.
At the Nedonline website
it says that "PROV holds two and a half copies of the four prosecution
briefs thought to have been prepared for the trial..
In John Phillips's
" The
Trial of Ned Kelly" he states that the drawings on the depositions taken
at Beechworth Court were done by Arthur Chomley during Kelly's trial in
Melbourne.
Also, in Alex Castles's
"Ned Kelly's Last Days" it says "An interesting feature of the Smyth Crown
brief and the brief housed in the Victorian archives that was probably
used by Smyth's junior counsel, Arthur Chomley, is that both men indulged
in a bit of 'doodling' on the pages. While Smyth sketched a couple of
rough pen portraits of people in the court, Chomley fashioned most notably
a flower, a cottage and an elaborate letter K..."
Then the next page of
Castles's book shows a ' Portion of Crown brief (probably) used by Arthur
Chomley' (which features the hut drawing).
So, from everything
gleaned so far it seems very possible that it might have been assistant
Crown Prosecutor Arthur Wolfe Chomley who did the drawing of the hut. (For
more on his life see
http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A030370b.htm
Interestingly,
Arthur's brother, H. M. Chomley was a policeman during the Kelly Outbreak
and eventually became Chief Commissioner of Police in Victoria after F.C.
Standish's resignation. Also of interest is the fact that one of the
Chomleys' nephews, C.H. Chomley, wrote the book "The True Story of the
Kelly Gang of Bushrangers" in 1900.
If anyone has anything
they wish to add to this article or if they wish to correct or confirm
anything, please feel free to contact this site, as we are all on a
journey to find the truth!
SOURCES:
INTERNET:
Images courtesy of PROV the Public Records Office Victoria .
The citation for this
deposition at the Public Records Office of Victoria is "VPRS 4966
Consignment P0 Unit 1 Item 6 Record 1 Document Brief for the Prosecution:
Queen v. Edward Kelly - Willful Murder of Thomas Lonigan."
Public Records Office of Victoria (PROV)
Nedonline,
Brighton Cemetery,
Australian Dictionary of Biography Online .
The Trial of Ned Kelly,
by John H. Phillips, 1987.
Thomas
McIntyre's Deposition and the
Shingle hut drawing
by Sharon Hollingsworth
On the margin is a hut drawing.
Was this little hut meant to represent the Shingle hut at Stringybark Creek?
The front page reads-
The ------ ,
Edward Kelly
Willful murder of Thomas Lonigan
Brief for the Prosecution
Thomas McIntyre,
On one of Constable
Thomas McIntyre's witness depositions (which was part of the Brief for the
Prosecution used at Ned Kelly's trial), it is interesting that there is a
drawing in the margins of a little cabin or hut right beside where the
shingle hut is mentioned in his testimony. Here is the exact wording of
that testimony:
"we camped that day at Stringy Bark Creek about 20 miles
from Mansfield. we were all four on horseback and armed, when we reached
Stringy bark we found the remains of a hut there and the country thickly
timbered.."
We are left to wonder,
who drew it ?
Were they inspired to do this bit of "doodling" because of
what they had read? Whilst the deposition is
dated October 15, 1880, that is not the actual date of the testimony
therein. October 15 was slated to be the start of the trial in Melbourne,
but a postponement was sought. On 18 Oct. Ned was arraigned and plead "not
guilty" and again a postponement was sought and finally granted. The trial
would finally begin 28 Oct 1880.
One of the
clerks of courts, E(dmund) Notley Moore took down and read back most of
McIntyre's testimony. In McIntyre's memoirs "A True Narrative of the Kelly
Gang, by T.N. McIntyre, Sole Survivor of the Police Party Murderously
Attacked by those Bushrangers in the Wombat Forest, on the 26th October,
1878"
he said - "this work was performed principally by the assistant
clerk of courts, a young man named Moore, and he did it so expeditiously
and accurately that it was worthy of the highest commendation."
I wonder
then, was it E. Notley Moore who had neatly handwritten out this Brief for
the Prosecution to be used at the trial? (For more on
Moore's life including his stint as clerk and later as a police
magistrate see
http://www.brightoncemetery.com/HistoricInterments/150Names/mooree.htm
Or could it have been yet another Beechworth Clerk of Court? Or could it
have been someone else later on in the Crown Prosecution office? What is
known is that nearly all of the Brief depositions are in the same
handwriting, the same colour ink, and cover many witnesses. All of that
goes to show that it was definitely not McIntyre himself who wrote any of
the depositions out for the Brief.
The pages
reproduced.. appear to be a second, working copy of the brief, and have
been annotated, possibly by the junior counsel Arthur Chomley, during the
trial.
BOOKS/MANUSCRIPTS:
A True Narrative of the Kelly Gang, by T.N. McIntyre, Sole Survivor of the
Police Party Murderously Attacked by those Bushrangers in the Wombat
Forest, on the 26th October, 1878.
Ned Kelly's Last Days, by Alex C. Castles, 2005.
Note; Sharon
Hollingsworth lives in the USA
The back ground image is of Kelly camp hut site remains as photographed by
a Tolmie work party circa 1883.
Copyright
reserved January 2006