Colin Hunter

71

Robin Sharkey on 28th February 2015

1800 Porpoise in 1800 - Was a soldier with 61st regiment. Tried at the Cape for Sodomy. (No details of sentence given) 1806 - Employed by John Bishop who had a 30 acre grant and 8 acres by purchase at Mulgrave Place, employed with one other FbyS man (perhaps not free as he claimed) 1808 Notice in Sydney Gazette 17 July 1808 - had absconded from the farm of Thomas Rickerby at the Hawkesbury, as a servant of the Crown. 1809, September - was sailing out on “Star” on a sealing voyage 1812 ( 21 December) To go to Newcastle on “Estramina, sentenced at the Governor’s pleasure. ESCAPED: 1813, 20 March - to 8 May 1813 advertisements Sydney Gazette - had absconded from Newcastle 1813, May - evidently recaptured 1813 2 June On “Estramina” to Newcastle again. Specifically for a term of 3 years, sentenced by the Governor on 1st June 1813. 1816, after sentence has expired, was ranging the bush. He has hooked up with George Fuller who had escaped from his master’s service at Windsor by August 1816, and was wanted for highway robbery. In other words Fuller was probably living in the bush and occasionally robbing to survive. 30 September 1816 - Robbery and Murder. Hunter and Fuller decided to rob the house of John Miller, 4 miles from Sydney. On the way there they collected two more current convicts from the farm of John Redmond - Michael Ryan and Thomas Dooley - to join in with them. At the farmhouse on that Saturday night, John Miller, his wife and four children were in the room, relaxing in front of the fireplace when the men burst in. Miller went to rise from his chair and Colin Hunter shot him immediately with his gun, killing him on the spot. The men continued on their purpose of robbing the house. George Fuller on turning himself in offered to go King’s evidence and on Friday 1st November 1816 he told the Criminal Court the full story. The other three men, Hunter included, were found guilty of murder and robbery and were all sentenced to death. 4 November 1816 - The three were hanged the next Monday, 4th November 1816. The Sydney Gazette of 9 November 1816, approved of their deportment on the way to their execution since they engaged themselves in prayer on the way. Colin Hunter’s body and that of his comrades remained suspended for an hour and then were sent for dissection.