David Healey

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Dianne Jones on 26th September 2023

NOTE: Years of Birth and Death are from various records but not the days and months. The latter have been entered as 01/01 because the site won't allow those fields to be left empty.

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Dianne Jones on 26th September 2023

From his FREMANTLE jail record: HEALEY, David; #9762, arrived 10 Jan 1868 per Hougoumont Date of Birth: 1836 Date of Death: 1875 or 1885 [see below] Marital Status: Married 1 child Occupation: Labourer, borer Literacy: Literate Sentence Place: Liverpool Crime: Manslaughter Sentence Period: 15 years Ticket of Leave Date: 21 Aug 1874 Certificate of Freedom Date: 23 Apr 1883 [sent to RM, Fremantle] Comments: Labourer, limeburner, wood cutter, splitter (https://fremantleprison.com.au/history-heritage/research/convict-database/). Note: His date of death would, logically, be later than 1883 – the year he received his Certificate of Freedom -- and was certainly after 1881 when his WA convict records shows he was working as a shingle splitter in Perth. --000--

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Dianne Jones on 26th September 2023

--00-- IN WA: On arrival, David Healey was listed as 32 [when convicted], a labourer, 5’6¼” tall, light hazel eyes, swarthy complexion and no distinguishing marks (Western Australia, Australia, Convict Records, 1846-1930; Convict Department; Registers (128/40 - 43)). Family – wife Julia, 26, and daughter aged 2, at Limerick (Western Australia, Australia, Convict Records, 1846-1930; Convict Department, Registers; General Register for Nos 9599-10128 cont. (R16)). --00--

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Dianne Jones on 26th September 2023

EMBARKATION: “The hired convict ship Hougoumont, which has been taken up, by the Government for the conveyance of a numerous party of convicts to Freemantle, Western Australia, left the Nore on October 1, and proceeded down Channel, after receiving on board 150 convicts from the establishments at Chatham and Millbank. The convicts from the Chatham establishment, at St. Mary's, embarked from the dockyard on board the paddle-wheel steamer Adder, Mr. W. J. Blakely, and were in charge of a numerous party of convict guards and wardens, all heavily armed. Among the convicts shipped were a party of fifteen Fenians, who were engaged in the late conspiracy in Ireland, together with the officers and crew convicted of scuttling the ship Severn [only two were on the Hougoumont – Thomas Berwick and Lionel Holdsworth, each sentenced to 20 years for fraud], and some others who have achieved notoriety from their crimes. The Fenian convicts, like the remainder of the prisoners, were chained together in gangs, but it was observed that they were kept apart from the other convicts in a portion of the vessel by themselves. The steamer Petrel also took down a number of convicts from the establishment at Millbank, for shipment on board the Hougoumont, in charge of a strong escort and convict guard. On Tuesday, October 8th, the Hougoumont arrived in Portland roads. Shortly before midday ninety convicts were marched down to the Government pier at Portland under a strong escort of the 12th Light Infantry. The party included twenty-three Fenian convicts, among whom it was said, was Moriarty [not the senior Fenian, Captain Moriarty; rather, this was Bartholomew Moriarty, aged 17]. The Government steamer employed in the breakwater service was used for conveying the convicts on board the Hougoumont transport ship. The convicts were chained together on embarking, and on board the steamer a strong guard of marines from her Majesty's ship St. George was formed, and saw the convicts safely placed on board the Hougoumont. The Governor of the penal settlement at Freemantle, Captain Young, is on board the Hougoumont, and returns in that ship to his sphere of duty after paying a visit to his native land.” (Sydney Morning Herald, 19 Dec 1867, p4, at https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/28608271).

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Dianne Jones on 26th September 2023

1867, 30 September: He was sent from Millbank to board the Hougoumont for WA (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951 for David Healey; Millbank Prison, Register of Prisoners, 1866-1867). --00--

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Dianne Jones on 26th September 2023

1867, 8 May: David Healey was sent from Kirkdale and admitted to Millbank prison, Westminster, London. Inmate #9762; listed as 32 yo, married with one child, hawker, Roman Catholic/Protestant [both are listed], able to read; behaviour “good”. Family – wife Julia, 44 Harrison Street, Liverpool (UK, Prison Commission Records, 1770-1951 for David Healey; Millbank Prison, Register of Prisoners, 1866-1867). --0—

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Dianne Jones on 26th September 2023

JAILS: 1867, January: He was held at Kirkdale County Gaol and House of Correction, North Dingle Lane, Liverpool. Following his conviction on 23 March, David Healey served 1 month 14 days in Kirkdale in separate confinement. Opened in 1819, Kirkdale’s capacity from 1823 to 1842 was between 300 and just over 600 prisoners. It had one of the highest death rates in the country for a prison. Sixty-seven executions were carried out there, the highest number being four at one time in 1861. Prisoners had to work, and the treadmill used for grinding corn was the largest in the country, needing the efforts of 130 prisoners a day to keep it running. The prison closed in 1893 and was demolished shortly after (https://www.prisonhistory.org/2020/03/kirkdale-house-of-correction/) --0--

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Dianne Jones on 26th September 2023

3. From the Liverpool Daily post, 29 March 1867, p7: A SECOND CHARGE OF MURDER. David Healey (32), hawker, sullen looking man with a somewhat repulsive expression of countenance, was indicted for the wilful murder Christopher Fairhurst, at Liverpool, on the 24th of December last. Mr. Tidswell appeared for the prosecution. Mr. Torr defended… [The rest of the article echoes the coverage in the Liverpool Mercury.] --00--

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Dianne Jones on 26th September 2023

From the Liverpool Mercury, 29 March 1867, p8: 2. ANOTHER CHARGE OF MURDER. David Healey, aged 32, hawker, was indicted for the wilful murder of Christopher Fairhurst, at Liverpool, on the 24th of December last. Mr. Tidswell prosecuted, and Mr. Torr defended the prisoner. The facts of the case as stated by Mr. Tidswell and the witnesses for the prosecution were that the deceased, Christopher Fairhurst, who was a cotton porter about 32 years of age, residing at the time of his death at 10, Gay-street, went with his wife, about eight o'clock in the evening of the 24th. of December, to a public house at the corner of Gay-street, kept by a person named Mills. For 14 weeks previous the deceased had been tee total, but he got drunk that day. The prisoner was in Mills’s public house, and Mrs. Fairhurst left them there in order to go to the market. During her absence the prisoner and the deceased quarrelled, and were turned out into the street, when Healey knocked the deceased down. When Mrs. Fairhurst returned, hearing that her husband had been beaten by the prisoner; she went to the house of the latter and advised him not to have any fighting with her husband. Prisoner replied with an oath that he “would have it out of him (deceased) that night or on Christmas Day.” Mrs. Fairhurst afterwards saw prisoner in the street, and again advised him to have no more fighting with her husband, upon which he produced a piece of iron and struck her with it on the hand and arm. About this time Mrs Fairhurst saw her husband coming up the street very drunk, supported by William McLoughlin. She shouted to her husband not to come there, as the prisoner had a poker. They took no heed, however, of her advice, and her husband had reached the steps of his own door, when the prisoner, who was immediately behind, rushed at him and struck him on the forehead with something which he took from under his dress, and which resembled a poker. He struck a second time and caught the deceased a severe blow on the left ribs, and a third blow the deceased caught on his arm, and fell with his left side on the steps of the door. The deceased was then carried inside the house and was put to bed. He got up next morning and went about until next day, when he complained that he was very sore and that the prisoner had killed him. He went out to his work, but returned in the afternoon, complaining of a violent pain in his left side and heart. Dr. Graham was called to attend him, but he died three days after. Several witnesses were called, who stated that the prisoner had frequently said on the night of the 24th of December that he would be “struck deaf, dumb, and blind” but he would have deceased's life. They also agreed that the prisoner was not drunk, but that he had the appearance of a man labouring under great excitement and great anger. The prisoner had been observed the same evening in Gay-street by a police-constable, who conducted him to the bottom of the street, took the handle of a frying pan from him and put it down a sewer. He had allowed Healey to go because he was sober and because he thought there had been nothing but a row, as rows were frequent in that locality. After Fairhurst's death the prisoner was taken into custody, and in answer to the charge of having murdered him said that all he had done to him was in Mills’s public house. The witnesses did not agree that it was the frying pan handle with which the prisoner struck the deceased, but said that the instrument appeared to be much longer. Dr. Graham, who attended the deceased, and afterwards made a post mortem examination, stated that when first called to the deceased he found him lying quite breathless on the sofa, spitting bright florid coloured blood, which gave evidence of great injury to the chest. After death he found a bruise on the left side of the body, and the left lung was collapsed with an extensive rupture on its surface. The rupture, in his opinion, was the cause of death, and was occasioned by great external violence. Mr. Torr, in a lengthy address in defence of the prisoner, contended that the charge of murder had not been established, and that it did not even amount to manslaughter, as the injury had probably been inflicted by the deceased falling with his side on the doorstep. His lordship having summed up, the jury retired, and after an absence of an hour and a half returned a verdict of manslaughter of a most aggravated kind. His lordship said he was suite satisfied that was the least the jury could have done. He did not quarre1 with their verdict. As far as his judgment went, the jury had exercised the soundest discretion, but at the same time they had expressed the opinion the case was a most aggravated one. He was of that opinion too. He then sentenced the prisoner to fifteen years’ penal servitude. (https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000081/18670329/032/0008) --

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Dianne Jones on 26th September 2023

NEWSPAPER COVERAGE OF HIS TRIAL: 1. From the Lancaster Courier, 29 March 1867, p3: MANSLAUGHTER AT LIVERPOOL. David Healey, 32, hawker, was indicted for having, at Liverpool on the 24th December, 1866, caused the death of Christopher Fairhurst. The prisoner was found guilty and sentenced to 15 years' penal servitude. (https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000206/18670329/017/0003) --