Death warrants for Samuel Gibbs, an African-American from Philadelphia, and George Thompson, of African heritage from the West Indies, both found guilty of murder in Ballarat on the Victorian goldfields. Melbourne, November 1858.

I. Death warrant for Samuel Gibbs. Pro-forma document printed on laid paper, 420 x 320 mm, with manuscript entry in a secretarial hand, dated 2 November 1858; authorised by His Excellency Sir Henry Barkly, Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief of the Colony of Victoria, addressed to the Sheriff of the Colony of Victoria: ‘Whereas at the Circuit Court holden at Ballarat in the said Colony on the twenty fifth day of October One thousand eight hundred and fifty eight Samuel Gibbs was duly convicted of Murder and was by the said Court then and there sentenced to Death, Now therefore I the Governor aforesaid having duly considered the premises do by this writing under my hand direct that the said sentence shall be carried into execution by you the said Sheriff on Saturday the sixth day of November instant within the walls or enclosed yard of Her Majesty’s Gaol in the City of Melbourne, and not otherwise or elsewhere.’; signed by Governor Henry Barkly, with his paper seal affixed, countersigned by John Moore; docketed verso; small perforations at the junctions of the original folds, otherwise a very well preserved document.

II. Death warrant for George Thompson. Pro-forma document printed on laid paper, 420 x 320 mm, with manuscript entry in a secretarial hand, dated 3 November 1858; authorised by His Excellency Sir Henry Barkly, Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief of the Colony of Victoria, addressed to the Sheriff of the Colony of Victoria: ‘Whereas at the Circuit Court holden at Ballarat in the said Colony on the twenty seventh day of October … Samuel Gibbs was duly convicted of Murder … Now therefore I the Governor aforesaid … direct that the said sentence shall be carried into execution … on Saturday the sixth day of November instant within the walls or enclosed yard of Her Majesty’s Gaol in the City of Melbourne, and not otherwise or elsewhere.’; signed by Governor Henry Barkly, with his paper seal affixed, countersigned by John Moore; docketed verso (with incorrect year of 1859!); original folds, very well preserved.

An extraordinary pair of documents pertaining to the double execution of two men of African heritage which took place in Melbourne on 6 November 1858. Both men had been found guilty of murder in separate incidents in Ballarat on the Victorian goldfields.

The men’s trials, sentencing and execution carry the stench of racial prejudice. Indeed, in some respects the event has parallels with the infamous double execution of Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner, the Tasmanian Aborigines who became the first people to be executed by the Government in the District of Port Phillip when they were publicly hanged together on 20 January 1842.

Samuel Gibbs, described in the contemporary press as a “mulatto” from Philadelphia, was found guilty of the murder of his wife, Anne Gibbs. His defence barrister was Mr. J. W. Dunne. In a lengthy petition dated 2 November 1858 – the day his death warrant was issued – Gibbs declared his innocence, claiming that the police had chosen to ignore crucial evidence from key witnesses, and prayed “for further enquiry into the circumstances connected with his conviction”. His petition was read before the Governor in Council on 3 November, but fell on deaf ears. Gibbs’s execution was botched, and he was hanged only at the second attempt; yet he protested his innocence to the very last, even as he stood on the scaffold a second time, having regained consciousness.

George Thompson, described as a “negro” from Santo Domingo (on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola), was found guilty of the murder of a man named Hugh Anderson. During his trial he received no legal representation. Despite reports that he ultimately confessed to his guilt, Thompson had strenuously protested his innocence to a Wesleyan chaplain, James Bickford, during several visits to Thompson’s cell in the days prior to his execution.

Were Gibbs and Thompson the innocent victims of two gross miscarriages of justice? Their death warrants are accompanied by photocopies of the transcripts of both Coronial Inquests and trial summaries, as well as Gibbs’s petition.

The following letter to the Editor was published in The Argus, 13 November 1858:

‘THE MURDERER THOMPSON. TO THE EDITOR OF THE ARGUS. Sir,—A letter appeared in your paper of this morning, signed “One of the Jury,” and dated “Ballaarat, November 8,” in which the writer refers to a passage in your report of the execution of Thompson and Gibbs, on the morning of the 6th instant. It is as follows: —”My feelings were relieved this day, on perusing the account of his (Thompson’s) execution, to find he had confessed his guilt and the justness of his sentence.” Having been several times in attendance on the unfortunate man alluded to, from the day of his conviction in Ballaarat up to the period of his death, I feel it my duty to state that he maintained his innocence of the crime imputed to him, without the slightest variation, to the last. I was in the cell with him on the morning of his execution. A few minutes before the fatal hour arrived I said to him, “Thompson, you have only now a very short time to live. I therefore beg that you will tell me if you really are innocent of the murder of Hugh Anderson?” To which he replied, “I am, Sir. He was killed by the men I named at the Coroner’s inquest, but I was not believed”. I appealed to him not to leave the world with the additional guilt of unconfessed crime on his soul; if there were anything on his mind to disclose it to me. He said, “He had nothing more to say. The murderers would yet be found out: God would bring it to light.” We then knelt down and prayed. Thompson fervently responded; and, subsequently, he audibly united with me in frequent repetitions of the publican’s prayer, “God be merciful to me, a sinner”. I deeply regret the unhappy man was not defended on his trial. His Honor the Judge asked Mr. Barrister Dunne to perform that humane duty for him, but he declined, for reasons which were deemed insurmountable by the Judge. I am sorry to perceive that no sum has been put on the Estimates for the defence of prisoners accused of capital crimes. We are an exception, I believe, to the practice which obtains in almost every other colony of Britain in this department of jurisprudence. Thompson piteously lamented his inability to establish his innocence in the absence of counsel appearing on his behalf. I hope the members of the Legislative Assembly will at once turn their kind attention to this important omission in the judicial arrangements of the country. I am, Sir, yours faithfully, JAMES BICKFORD, Wesleyan Minister. Melbourne, November 12.’

A lengthy eyewitness account of the double execution had appeared in The Argus (Melbourne), November 8, 1858 (but note that the reporter incorrectly identified Gibbs, rather than Thompson, as the condemned man who continued to protest his innocence as he stood on the scaffold):

‘EXECUTIONS AT THE CENTRAL GAOL. On Saturday the extreme penalty of the law was exacted from the two convicts, Samuel Gibbs and George Thompson. They were both convicted of murder at the last Criminal Sessions of Ballaarat. Thompson murdered a man named Hugh Anderson, and Gibbs murdered his wife, Anne Gibbs, by throwing her down a hole about 60 feet deep. From the time of their arrival in Melbourne both criminals were assiduously attended by the clergymen of their respective denominations. Thompson, who was a negro, a native of St. Domingo, professing to be a member of the Church of England, was attended by the Rev. Mr. Stoddart, the Chaplain of the gaol for that church. Gibbs was a mulatto, a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and a Wesleyan. He was constantly attended by three or four clergymen of his church. At first, Thompson was perfectly stolid, but two or three days before his death he became more amenable to the teachings of his spiritual adviser, and was induced to confess his guilt and acknowledge the justice of his sentence. Gibbs, on the contrary, asserted his innocence to the last. On the morning of their death both the murderers, when called out, appeared to be dreadfully afraid of the fate which they themselves had inflicted upon others. Thompson, who could with demoniacal ferocity slaughter a drunken digger for the sake of the few pounds he might have about him, could not without trembling face the hangman, as he stood, rope in hand, ready to prepare him for the scaffold. Gibbs, who in his ungovernable rage could seize his wife, drag her screaming for mercy over a distance of some hundreds of feet, and then, with a ferocity almost unequalled, hurl her into an abyss, at the bottom of which she was found mangled, crushed, and dying, now tottered and quailed as he witnessed the array that was prepared for his own death. The preliminaries having been completed, the convicts, trembling in every muscle, were led to the scaffold; they were both assisted up the ladder. On the drop Thompson was perfectly passive, but Gibbs struggled hard. He first tried to get off the trap-door and take refuge upon the permanent boarding. In doing this he felt the rail behind him, and grasped it firmly with his pinioned hands, at the same time crying out, “Mercy! mercy! I’m an innocent man; good people protect me. Oh God! oh God!” In the midst of these cries, and as the voice of the clergyman was heard reading the funeral service, the wife-slayer’s hands were disengaged from the rail. He was pushed forward on the drop—it swung from beneath the feet of both criminals. Thompson was at once a dead man; not so with Gibbs. The impetus of his forward motion on the drop became combined with his downward motion, and instead of descending perpendicularly, the rope was brought with violence against the lower edge of the beam, which is angular, and then it broke short off, and the wretch was precipitated to the floor below. He was immediately taken up, nearly insensible, and carried again to the scaffold. As he got there he began to revive, so far as to be able to scream, as well as the tightened rope round his neck would permit. The rope was quickly knotted, the officers saying to each other, “Quick, quick, stand out of the way.” The assassin once more swung from the gibbet. He was then two or three minutes in dying. At the inquest that followed, the fact of the rope having broken was given in evidence, and also that it was the kind of rope that is always used for such purposes, and was in this, as in every other instance, subjected to careful examination before being used.’