In 1859 a degrading attack was played out on a young mining agent in Daylesford. He was tarred and feathered by a number of his acquaintances in the main Street of Daylesford – Vincent Street. “The case, from the respectable position in life occupied by most of the defendants, as well as from the peculiar character of their offence, excited a great interest.”
The report of the incident and the subsequent trial played out over several weeks in the Mt Alexander Mail and The Daylesford Advocate and in the same way, we will allow the case to unfold over several weeks for readers of The Wombat Post
Disgraceful Outrage at Daylesford
Mt Alexander Mail 16 February 1859
Daylesford, Monday, Feb. 14.
This town has been thrown into the greatest state of excitement by the perpetration of a dastardly and cowardly act. Mr. Montgomery, an intelligent and respectable man, who follows the profession of a mining agent, and who by his connexion with the press, has assisted in exposing some of the errors committed up here, was on Wednesday last, in midday, enticed into the most stirring and public part of the township, and seized by seven persons—one of whom is the poundkeeper, and another, Mr. Harvey, one of the clerks in Mr. Doveton’s, the Stipendiary Magistrate’s, office—his coat and pantaloons were stripped from him, his arms tied with a rope, and then deliberately tarred and feathered, and his person in a naked state exposed to public view.
Mr. Montgomery on the following day applied to Mr. Doveton, the Stipendiary Magistrate, for warrants to apprehend the parties who had committed this outrageous and indecent assault upon him, which he refused granting him, alleging that he should previously require the certificate of a medical man, that his life was endangered by it.
In consequence of this extraordinary refusal, Mr. Montgomery sought the professional aid of Mr. Pearson Thompson, of Castlemaine, and that gentleman, on Wednesday last took steps to have all the parties (seven in number) brought before Mr Doveton to answer the charge of “aggravated assault, and false imprisonment.”
They all consented to plead guilty to the minor offence of “Common assault,” which was indignantly refused by Mr. Thompson, who distinctly informed Mr. Doveton that as his own clerk, Mr. Harvey, had taken part in the outrage, the justice of the country required that some other Magistrate should assist him in adjudicating upon this monstrous case, and that he insisted upon it being sent for trial to the next Criminal Court at Castlemaine.
Mr. Thompson at the same time expressed his astonishment that Mr. Doveton had not suspended his clerk, Mr. Harvey, whilst so grave a charge hung over him; upon which Mr. Ximenes, the Inspector of Police, snatched a newspaper from Harvey ‘s hand, and reminded him he was then a prisoner in Court, and should be treated and be made to behave himself like every other prisoner. On the application of the prisoners’ solicitor, Mr. Moultrie, the case was remanded till Monday next, when it will be fully gone into, and all the prisoners were relieved till that time on bail.
The general sympathy and commisseration (sic) of the community of the district of Daylesford are enlisted on behalf of Mr. Montgomery, and I trust a jury of Castlemaine, if the above facts be proved, will not allow the laws to be trampled upon any longer in this remote locality.
To be continued! Next week: The Court Case!
