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The Trial of Lieutenant Nathaniel Lowe

The Aboriginal men who were ‘deliberately shot’ and referred to by Threlkeld were prisoners under the guard of Lieutenant Nathaniel Lowe and in 1827 this military man stood trial for murder in the Supreme Court at Sydney. From the allegations made in the trial it was claimed that an Aboriginal man named ‘Jackey Jackey alias Commandant, alias Jeffrey’ was taken outside the gaol at Wallis Plains (Maitland) and shot by a firing squad. One witness swore under oath:

About seven o’clock two soldiers took him to government house, where Mr. Lowe was then living. I followed them to government house and heard Mr. Lowe order four soldiers to take him and shoot him. They took the man about a quarter of a mile off in the bush. The soldiers had their muskets with them; they placed him by the side of a tree, three of them fired at him. I was standing close by; he fell and the fourth soldier who had not yet discharged his piece, went within a few yards of where the black lay and put a ball through his body...We all came away and left him there.

Another witness called William Salisbury gave a similar version of the alleged murder of the Aboriginal man, which occurred following an order from Lowe. The defence counsel consisting of William Wentworth attacked the credibility of the witnesses emphasising they were both ex-convicts which cast sufficient doubt in the minds of the jury to deliver a verdict of not guilty for the alleged murder:

The jury retired for about five minutes, during which time the utmost impatience was manifested by the auditors in Court to hear the result. The Jury having returned, and silence restored, the Foreman delivered a verdict - NOT GUILTY. Loud and general applause accompanied this Announcement of the verdict. The numerous friends of Lieutenant Lowe crowded round to congratulate him on the happy termination of the trial. A second burst of applause was given as he triumphantly left the Court.

The hostile state of relations between the colonists and Aboriginal people led to bitterness and hatred and resulted in casualties to both sides over the next decade. On the same day as Threlkeld wrote of a “state of warfare” in the upper Hunter Valley, eleven Hunter River ‘landholders’ presented a petition to Governor Ralph Darling requesting military assistance to counter resistance from Aboriginal people. It is clear from the petition that relations between the two were not good. However, it was in the settlers’ interests to play up Aboriginal barbarity as a means of sanctioning their own terror campaigns. The following extract is a facsimile copy of this petition and is dated the 4th September 1826:

May, it Please Your Excellency,

We, the undersigned, Landholders at Hunter’s River, beg leave most respectfully to represent to Your Excellency the present very disturbed state of the country by the incursions of the numerous Tribes of Black Natives, armed and threatening death to our Servants, and destruction to our property.

We are fully impressed with the intentions of Your Excellency by ordering the protection of the Horse Patrole?; at this moment, we have received information that some of the soldiers are withdrawn to attend an Investigation at Newcastle on a subject connected with the marauding conduct of the Natives.

We most humbly trust Your Excellency will take this into Your consideration, either by ordering others to take their places, or by suspending the order to recall to Newcastle, until the threats and murderous designs of the Natives shall have subsided; for, in the event of our losing the protection of the Troops, our property will be exposed to revenge and depredation of these infuriated and savage people.

The relationship between Aboriginal people and colonists caused Darling to write to Earl Bathurst, Colonial Office in London informing him of the deteriorating state of relations. Bathurst wrote to Darling on the 14th July 1825 who received the letter of instruction on the 5th May 1826:

In reference to the discussions, which have recently taken place in the Colony respecting the manner, in which the Native Inhabitants are to be treated when making hostile incursions for the purpose of Plunder, you will understand it to be your duty, when such disturbances cannot be prevented or allayed by less vigorous measures, to oppose force by force, and to repel such Aggressions in the same manner, as if they proceeded from subjects of any accredited State.

As a result of these instructions Darling had a mandate to use his discretion and in the following extract he orders the colonists who were taking up land grants to employ force to counter Aboriginal peoples’ resistance. He wrote to the ‘Hunter River landholders’ in October 1826:

Every one knows that, from the Natives as a Body, at the utmost but few in Numbers, nothing is to be feared. The Settlements at Hunter’s River are very extensive, and the Settlers, who are proportionately numerous, should not allow the Natives to see they are under any apprehension. Vigorous measures amongst yourselves would more effectually establish Your ascendancy than the utmost power of the Military, as, when the latter are withdrawn ... no longer fearing the Settlers, the Natives will renew their depradations.

The result of these instructions saw the ‘Settlers’ willingly oblige the Governor, forming vigilante groups who attacked Aboriginal people at every opportunity, and in keeping with the instructions applied ‘vigorous methods’ to do so. The Australian in September 1826 mentioned incidents at Hunter’s River where the military and civilians joined forces in a punitive expedition in to counter Aboriginal resistance which led to the death of 18 Aboriginal people.

Clashes were breaking out throughout the upper Hunter Valley and from the account left by Peter Cunningham it is apparent that casualties were occurring on both sides. Cunningham records one incident where “two whites were found in the hut, one quite dead” and the response of the colonists is clearly a forceful one:

A party of constables and soldiers was forthwith dispatched to punish the murderers, and near the scene of these atrocities fell in with a recent native track ...Wishing to secure one of the group to obtain information, a female with a child on her shoulders was pursued, as the most likely to be caught ... at length exhausted by her efforts, she sank with her load.

The Aboriginal woman was captured and subsequently interrogated by the military who discovered they had harassed the wrong community. Cunningham writes, “It turned out afterwards that this was unfortunately a friendly tribe, who had nothing to do with the murders”.

Not all colonists followed the offensive and vigilante mentality, some preferred a more conciliatory approach for resolving differences with Aboriginal people. This was clearly the case at Merton on the outskirts of Muswellbrook where a confrontation occurred on the land grant of Captain William Ogilvie. Peter Cunningham who was a neighbour of Ogilvie recorded the incident, which showed that resolution was possible and the nature of relations between the two peoples had a distinct variance from friendship to open violence:

The natives around Merton, the residence of Lieutenant Ogilvie, R.N., had remained all along on the most friendly terms with his establishment, but during his absence were provoked into hostility by a party of soldiers and constables, who had wantonly maltreated them.

Mrs. Ogilvie was at home, surrounded by her young family and a few domestics, when the loud threatening yells of the savages suddenly aroused her attention, and made her summon all her energies to face the impending disaster. They seized the two constables within a few yards of the door, whom they were shaking by the collars,... when Mrs. Ogilvie, rushing fearlessly in among the brandished clubs and poised spears, by firmness and persuasivessness(sic) of her manner, awed them and soothed them into sentiments of mercy.

Aboriginal resistance to colonization continued in the following years and further evidence of conflict is found in The Monitor, which reported on the 4th August 1828:

Dr. Little, of Upper Hunter’s River, resides about twenty miles on this side of the mountain range which separates his District from Liverpool Plains. He lately crossed that range, and on coming to a hut, found to his horror and astonishment, the bodies of some half dozen black natives ... He pursued his journey until he fell in with white people, stock-keepers and others. He learnt from them that a large body of blacks had suddenly made their appearance, but whether they paid their visit hostilely, or merely came in great numbers for self-protection, the stock-keepers admitted they could not tell. However acting in concert, our people commenced a destructive fire of musquetry upon them, and the blacks presently fled. Such were the circumstances of the fight, that some of the black fugitives on being pursued, ascended the trees in hopes of escaping, whence they were brought down by the balls of the assailants.

According to this report the colonists were following the orders of Governor Darling, taking the initiative and using ‘vigorous measures’ to take the offensive against Aboriginal people. However, resistance against the colonists continued in 1830 at Wollombi where Lieutenant Breton recorded an incident in his journal after travelling through the district. Breton wrote:

A neighbouring tribe killed, in 1830, more than 100 sheep belonging to a settler who has a farm near Wollombi; they than (check spelling) bound the shepherd hand and foot, left him upon an ant’s nest (a bed that Guatimozin himself would not have envied him), and then departed. The man was rescued before he sustained any injury, and most fortunately for him, for these ants sting and bite in a way that would astonish any one, as I know from experience, having twice suffered from their attacks, to, my great annoyance, for many days afterwards. The large black ant can cause a pain almost as acute as that of a wasp! A party of soldiers, or dismounted police, were sent after the offenders, of whom they killed several.

According to Breton several Aboriginal people were shot for killing the 100 sheep and tying the shepherd to a bed of ants, a rather harsh penalty which highlights the sorry state of relations at this time. Conflict eased in the upper Hunter Valley in the 1830s as the colonists gained ascendancy through force over the Aboriginal people. However in the upper reaches of the valley toward New England evidence suggests conflict had not entirely ceased.

Pp 18 - 24

Source:
Wannin Thanbarran
A History of Aboriginal and European Contact in Muswellbrook and the Upper Hunter Valley
Greg Blyton, Deirdre Heitmeyer and John Maynard
Umulliko Centre for Indigenous Higher Education
The University of Newcaste
A project of the Muswellbrook Shire Council Aboriginal Reconciliation Committee