IN 1799 five white men were put on trial for killing two Aboriginal youths in a small farming settlement near modern-day Windsor on the Hawkesbury River.
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It was the first historical instance of white men being tried for the killing of an Aboriginal person.
Barrington-based historian and author Lyn Stewart began researching the trial more than a decade ago.
Lyn’s interest in the incident was personal.
She had long known that her great-great-great grandfather Edward Powell had been one of the five men put on trial for the killings.
Her book ‘Blood Revenge: Murder on the Hawkesbury 1799’ examines the killings and subsequent trial in detail and also looks at the political implications of the incident.
Edward Powell came to Australia as a free settler in 1793.
Powell based himself in the tiny settlement of Argyle Reach on the Hawkesbury River near where modern-day Windsor is now located.
He served as a civilian constable and was responsible for maintaining law and order in the small settlement.
In mid-1799, two white settlers disappeared while on a hunting expedition.
The men had employed some of the local indigenous people to accompany them on their expedition as trackers.
Several weeks after their disappearance the two men were found dead, their bodies battered and badly mutilated.
A group of settlers and soldiers from the Argyle Reach settlement were tasked to recover the bodies.
Shortly after their return a group of three Aboriginal youths came to Argyle Reach to return the musket of one of the slain men.
The youths were detained in the home of one of the settlers for questioning and two of the young men were later killed.
The trial of the five accused men commenced on October 14, 1799, before Judge Advocate Richard Dore.
The jury was made up of three navy officers and three NSW Corps officers.
At the time there was a delicate power balance in the new colony with the NSW Corps at loggerheads with the navy.
While the officers all agreed the accused were guilty of killing the two natives, the officers were evenly divided between the two services when it came to punishment.
The matter was referred to the courts back in London and the five men were freed on bonds.
The ruling did not sit well with the Governor of NSW John Hunter, a naval officer.
Governor Hunter wanted to see the five men interred for their crime but the intervention of the three NSW Corps officers with the support of Judge Advocate Dore meant the matter had been taken out of his hands.
The men were later pardoned for their crime.
Lyn, a retired dietician and nutritionist, said her research into the book had taken the better part of 10 years.
“There was lots of trawling through microfilm of the trial proceedings and depositions from those involved,” she said.
It took Lyn another four years to put the story together and one of the toughest parts of the process was ensuring the narrative was not impacted by her own connection to the events.
“I didn’t want it to be an apologia. I thought because of that personal link I had to take the reader along with me as I interrogated the evidence,” she said.
The 240-page book was printed by Rosenburg Publishing and will be launched at the Gloucester Book Shop on March 12.
Members of the public are invited to come along from 5.30pm for the launch and book signing.
The book will be officially launched at the Hawkesbury Museum in Windsor on March 28.