John Green

341

Maureen Withey on 4th May 2023

O𝐹𝐹𝐸𝑁𝐶𝐸𝑆, On Thursday last John Green, a black man, who calls himself a native of America, was sent down from Parramatta under a guard, and lodged in the county gaol. He had undergone a previous examination before Jᴏʜɴ Sᴀᴠᴀɢᴇ, Esq. by whom he was fully committed to take his trial, for divers felonies in and about that settlement; one of which was for violently assaulting a woman in the neighbourhood. He had been before in custody on a charge of misdemeanor, but fed, and afterwards committed the several heinous offences of which he stands accused. Betaking himself to concealment in the woods, wherein he was reported to be armed, every active exertion was necessarily used to secure an offender whose general conduct was marked with hardy desperation. He was in consequence vigilantly sought by a number of settlers and other inhabitants, who with a part of the Association turned out voluntarily to join the Police in their pursuit. He was by this means very soon apprehended, and proper steps taken to secure him. Sydney Gazette, 18 Nov 1804. COURT ᴏꜰ 𝐶𝑅𝐼𝑀𝐼𝑁𝐴𝐿 𝐽𝑈𝑅𝐼𝑆𝐷𝐼𝐶𝑇𝐼𝑂𝑁. On Monday at half past ten the Court assembled, and proceeded to the trial of John Green (the black man stated to have been last week apprehended) for Rape, committed on the morning of the 17th instant near Parramatta. The prosecutrix was called, and gave a clear and candid evidence, which left not a shadow of doubt of the prisoner’s guilt; the brutal and inhuman assault, aggravated, if it be possible, by an infamous attempt to deprive her of existence by drawing a knife across her throat, which in the act of resistance she received on her right hand, and cutting a hankerchief she held in it through many of the folds. Thomas 𝐴𝑙𝑙𝑒𝑛 deposed to having seen the prisoner at the bar near the residence of the prosecutrix within a short period of the time by her deposed to; and being strictly cross‐examined by the Jᴜᴅɢᴇ Aᴅᴠᴏᴄᴀᴛᴇ as to his positively identifying the prisoner’s person, the deponent declared he was no stranger to him, for every article of his dress not only corresponded with the cloathing he now wore, but conceiving that he was still a prisoner confned for misdemeanor to the Parramatta gaol gang, he concluded that he had been turned out to work earlier than usual, it being then but a little past five in the morning:—he further deposed, that when the prisoner perceived that he was noticed by him, he threw himself into a trench or ditch, and stooping, ran off as fast he possibly could. 𝑃𝑎𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑘 𝐵𝑢𝑟𝑛, a private belonging to the New South Wales Corps, deposed that on Monday the 12th instant he walked towards Mr. Cox’s farm with a design of shooting wild‐fowl, when meeting one of the farm servants he was told that the offender who had committed the recent atrocities about Parramatta was then near at hand, for he had just been seen. That he, the deponent, proceeded onward, and at length beheld the prisoner among some trees, and immediately summoned him to surrender; but he, stooping and taking up an axe, with composure and disdain replied, that he was ready for him; and to approach him would be instant death; that the deponent then shewed him his firelock, cocked and presented it, assuring him at the same time that if he did not instantly lay down the axe he should certainly shoot him, as he had come out purposely in quest of him; that the prisoner then appeared somewhat more attentive to the command, and urged his own pre‐determination to surrender himself to a Magistrate, for that he might as well die here as any where else; but that finding him, the deponent, resolute in his purpose, he at length submitted, and walked in towards the above settlement at a proper distance before him. Here the prosecution closed; and the prisoner being called on for his defence, denied the charge point blank. The Court cleared for a moment, and re‐opened, the evidence being too pointed and conclusive to admit of any doubt favourable to the culprit. The Jᴜᴅɢᴇ Aᴅᴠᴏᴄᴀᴛᴇ re‐calling him to the bar, by impressive eloquence endeavoured to arouse him from the want of sensibility which must have accompanied atrocities like his. “The crime, said he, horrible as it is, upon which you have been arraigned, is not, sorry I am to say, the only one that might have been exhibited against you of the same atrocious and diabolical stamp, in the perpetration of which you have betrayed a baseness of disposition, a cowardice of heart, and vitiated inclination that render you hopeless of mercy here. Happy for society it is, that the law, although incapable of totally preventing crime, is yet capable of overtaking the career of the criminal, and of apportioning its punishments to the weight of the offence. You have basely violated those whom it was your duty to have protected from violence. Superior strength you have perverted to the meanest of purposes, and tears and intreaties were a sufficient provocation even to to a threat of murder. On so abandoned a criminal, I apprehend, that whatever I may say can make but a trifling impression; yet let me conjure you to take into your most serious reflection the very awful predicament into which your transgressions have plunged you; if the fear of death you are incapable of acknowledging, yet let me intreat of you, whatever be your persuasion, if any religion you profess, to lay aside the implacable hardihood that has reduced you to so doleful a dilemma, and by a contrite and true repentance endeavour to assuage the wrath of an Omnipotent Judge, that in the world to come you may find that mercy from the hope of which your crimes have, alas! Precluded you on earth. 𝑆𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑜𝑓 Death was then solemnly pronounced: and the prisoner returned to gaol, and lodged in a cell. The unhappy criminal was attended by the Rev. Mr. Mᴀʀꜱᴅᴇɴ with the most constant attention; nor had this Gentleman the mortification to suppose that his devout labours were unavailing or mis‐spent: for, contrary to general expectation, his exhortations were successful in calling to a state of repentance a fellow creature, whose manifold depravities had been universally accepted as an earnest of impiety in the hour of death. On Tuesday the prisoner received his Death Warrant with becoming submission to the decree of offended Justice—and Wednesday morning was appointed for the sentence to be carried into EXECUTION. At ten o’clock the New South Wales Corps paraded, and marched off. The malefactor was delivered over to the Provost Marshal, and in a cart conveyed to the spot at which he was to atone for his offences by an ignominious end, and by his awful example to inspire a just abhorrence to crime. Attended in his latest moments by the Clergyman, he descended from the vehicle, kneeled, and received with some visible emotion the last offerings of piety. At about half past ten he re‐ascended the cart, upon which a temporary platform had been erected; and with decent composure surveying the spectators on either side, selected a youth from among the crowd, whom he named, and solicited permission to take leave of, which was humanely permitted.— The young man being called upon approached with reluctance, but much to his credit accepted the salutation, accompanied with the blessing of a dying criminal, lest a refusal might shake his fervor, or embitter the few remaining moments that were allowed him. Yielding to his fate, while the work of death was under preparation he took leave of the populace in a short harangue, which he concluded with a fervent hope that his untimely end would operate to others as a wholesome warning against a life of vice and dissipation—and then departed for an unknown region. The morning of his execution he had shed tears abundantly; expressed much concern at his condition, and lamented that he could no more indulge a hope of ever beholding his ancient parents more: he declared the province of Pennsylvania to be that of his nativity; but that vicissitude induced him to quit his home, and afterwards giving aloose to vice, he was apprehended and convicted in Great Britain, and from thence transported hither in the Coromandel. Sydney Gazette, 25 Nov 1804.