Remembered... Constable William COSGROVE Shot at Parramatta 1 April, 1819 On 1 April, 1819 Constable Cosgrove came upon three men, Timothy Buckley, David Brown and Timothy Ford, and believing them to be bushrangers approached them and enquired where they were heading. The three men suddenly took to their heels, so Constable Cosgrove announced his office and called on them to stop. Buckley then turned around and fired a shot at the constable from the musket he was carrying. Constable Cosgrove returned fire almost simultaneously with his pistol. Unfortunately the musket shot had struck the constable, causing a fatal wound. The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser dated 10 April, 1819 reported on the trial of three offenders charged with the constable’s murder. COURT OF CRIMINAL JURISDICTION, Wednesday.-This was a day of serious trial for the murder of William Cosgrove, a settler and district constable upon the Banks of the South Creek, on the 1st of the present month; by the discharge of the contents of a musket loaded with slugs into his body, of which wounds he died the following day. The prisoners were Timothy Buckley, by whom the gun was fired; David Brown, and Timothy Ford, all of whom had been in the Colony but six or seven months, and prisoners in the immediate employ of Government, and who unhappily had not renounced those propensities which sooner or later were to lead them to an unhappy end. [One] witness declared himself the brother of the deceased; and in the sympathetic feeling of humanity, received from the Judge Advocate the following much to be remembered sentence of condolence. ‘Witness, you have done your duty to Society; you have acted well in the performance of that duty, and the world has much to regret that you have paid so dearly for it, in the loss of a brother, and of a good member of Society.’ The unhappy men were yesterday executed. The constable arrived in Australia as a transported convict on the vessel Rolla in 1803. He was granted his Certificate of Freedom in 1810. The Colonial Secretary’s Letters of 30 April, 1820 names his replacement at South Creek as Constable William Hill. At the time of his death the constable was the District Constable of South Creek (now Parramatta) and was previously the “Constable and Pound Keeper at Bringelly and Cooke”.
Posted on: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 21:09:14 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015