Gallery of log for Trail of Death
Placed by Penguiny roughly 10m from the gravesite of Ellen Thomson, the only woman to be executed in the state of Queensland.
Ellen Thomson became the only woman legally hanged in Queensland. She was sentenced over the murder of her husband, William Thomson, 24 years her senior, after increasingly violent confrontations. She proclaimed her innocence but her young handsome English ex-marine lover, John Harrison, was also convicted for the same crime. They were hanged in Boggo Road jail, Brisbane, and buried in the South Brisbane cemetery at Dutton Park.
Ellen, 11 years of age and her sister Mary, 9, arrived in Australia on the 6th of April 1858 on board the ship "Joshua". The ship's manifest lists their widowed mother Mary Lynch as a native of County Cork, Ireland. They would join her sister residing in Goulburn, N.S.W. During the Palmer River gold rush in the early 1870's, Ellen was known to be in Cooktown, widow of William Wood, and struggling to support her children.
Arriving in Port Douglas about 1878, Ellen commenced work as housekeeper to William Thomson who had selected a farm on the Mossman River. Ellen and Billy Thomson married in November of 1880 after the birth of a daughter, Helen. By 1886 life was difficult. The marriage was strained, the children sent away.
The friendship of Ellen with a young marine deserter on the adjoining "Bonnie Doon" selection caused conflict. That conflict would explode into murder.
After being tried in Port Douglas, Ellen Thomson and John Harrison were transferred to Boggo Road Gaol, Brisbane; and on the 13th of June 1887 were executed by hanging.
On the eve of execution, Harrison confessed he alone shot and killed William Thomson in self-defence. The admission came too late - the double execution proceeded.
On 14 June 1887, the Brisbane Courier newspaper described her as a "pitifully wicked woman" and gave an account of the hanging. The journalist wrote that "in every man's mind was the notion that whether the death penalty be right or not, hanging is a barbarous and a brutal thing".
After the executions, so-called phrenological examinations were performed which were claimed to reveal "in the woman combativeness and destructiveness ... both large, the domestic affections ... fairly full, the moral propensities small, and the sexual love amativeness, exceedingly largeâ€. A similar examination was performed on Harrison. The same newspaper reported that "Judging from this, it would seem that the woman was the moving spirit in the plot, and that her passion for Harrison inspired her. She was active cunning and masterful ... Harrison, on the contrary, cared for nothing but himself, and wanted Old Thomson's (the victim's) money far more than he did old Thompson's wife."
The name of Ellen Thomson was written into history as the only woman ever hanged in Queensland.
TNLNSL. Thanks for the cache, Knightsy. It turned out to be interesting learning experience - got to learn a bit of Queensland's history, including the fact that it was the first government in the British Empire to abolish capital punishment.
This is what I love about caching - you get to see interesting things and learn stuff that you otherwise wouldn't have seen or learnt if you hadn't gotten up off the couch.
Ellen Thomson became the only woman legally hanged in Queensland. She was sentenced over the murder of her husband, William Thomson, 24 years her senior, after increasingly violent confrontations. She proclaimed her innocence but her young handsome English ex-marine lover, John Harrison, was also convicted for the same crime. They were hanged in Boggo Road jail, Brisbane, and buried in the South Brisbane cemetery at Dutton Park.
Ellen, 11 years of age and her sister Mary, 9, arrived in Australia on the 6th of April 1858 on board the ship "Joshua". The ship's manifest lists their widowed mother Mary Lynch as a native of County Cork, Ireland. They would join her sister residing in Goulburn, N.S.W. During the Palmer River gold rush in the early 1870's, Ellen was known to be in Cooktown, widow of William Wood, and struggling to support her children.
Arriving in Port Douglas about 1878, Ellen commenced work as housekeeper to William Thomson who had selected a farm on the Mossman River. Ellen and Billy Thomson married in November of 1880 after the birth of a daughter, Helen. By 1886 life was difficult. The marriage was strained, the children sent away.
The friendship of Ellen with a young marine deserter on the adjoining "Bonnie Doon" selection caused conflict. That conflict would explode into murder.
After being tried in Port Douglas, Ellen Thomson and John Harrison were transferred to Boggo Road Gaol, Brisbane; and on the 13th of June 1887 were executed by hanging.
On the eve of execution, Harrison confessed he alone shot and killed William Thomson in self-defence. The admission came too late - the double execution proceeded.
On 14 June 1887, the Brisbane Courier newspaper described her as a "pitifully wicked woman" and gave an account of the hanging. The journalist wrote that "in every man's mind was the notion that whether the death penalty be right or not, hanging is a barbarous and a brutal thing".
After the executions, so-called phrenological examinations were performed which were claimed to reveal "in the woman combativeness and destructiveness ... both large, the domestic affections ... fairly full, the moral propensities small, and the sexual love amativeness, exceedingly largeâ€. A similar examination was performed on Harrison. The same newspaper reported that "Judging from this, it would seem that the woman was the moving spirit in the plot, and that her passion for Harrison inspired her. She was active cunning and masterful ... Harrison, on the contrary, cared for nothing but himself, and wanted Old Thomson's (the victim's) money far more than he did old Thompson's wife."
The name of Ellen Thomson was written into history as the only woman ever hanged in Queensland.
TNLNSL. Thanks for the cache, Knightsy. It turned out to be interesting learning experience - got to learn a bit of Queensland's history, including the fact that it was the first government in the British Empire to abolish capital punishment.
This is what I love about caching - you get to see interesting things and learn stuff that you otherwise wouldn't have seen or learnt if you hadn't gotten up off the couch.
