Murder claims a first settler

Hobart Town Gazette

A HOME invasion at Back River claimed the life of one of New Norfolk's first settlers early in the year 1819. Two hundred years ago tonight, two murderers were at large after robbing the home of Matthew and Catherine Wood, leaving Mr Wood bound and dead.

The Woods were neighbours of Samuel and Betty King, fellow Norfolk Island evacuees who went on to be two of the longest-lived First Fleeters, with Betty famously claiming to be the first woman to set foot in Australia.

At about 9pm on February 3, 1819, two men burst into the home Mr and Mrs Wood, who were both in bed. When the elderly Mr Wood resisted their demand for money, he was tied and beaten. An inquest the next week found there was no doubt he had been strangled by the cord tied between his wrists and neck.

Mrs Wood was also severely beaten and left for dead as the pair of housebreakers made off with a sum of money and other booty. It was two days before Mrs Wood was able to crawl to the house of her nearest neighbours to raise the alarm.

News of Matthew Wood's death was published in the Hobart Town Gazette on February 6, followed by a report of the inquest in the next issue a week later. Subsequent issues of the Gazette included notices from police superintendent A.W.H. Humphrey warned that the assailants were still on the run and all constables were required to do everything possible to find and detain the offenders.

Published several times, with an incorrect date, the police notice also detailed the items stolen from the Wood house: four white calico shirts, four check cotton shirts, a pair of grey woollen cloth trousers (the cloth made at Sydney), a white double-breasted waistcoat, five calico women's caps, one women's cotton bed-gown with red spots and a matching petticoat, two brown linen sheets (issued from the King's Stores), a pair of cotton sheets, one tin baking dish, a Dutch-made gun, a small quantity of gunpowder in a bottle, about 9kg of moist sugar and about 1kg of tea, a Promissory Note by Thomas Murphy for £5 ($10), a store receipt for £25 ($50), signed by Commissary Broughton, two new calico shift dresses, one hank of fine white thread and a quantity of red and brown thread.

Details of the incident reached Sydney a month later and was published in the Sydney Gazette on March 6, noting that Matthew Wood was "a person generally respected; and we hear was reported to have had some money in his house, to get possession of which probably the murderers had in their view when they perpetrated this horrid deed."

The record of Matthew Wood's burial in the St David's Cemetery, Hobart.

The inquest into the death of Matthew Wood produced a verdict of wilful murder against two men unknown, noting that despite the efforts of the police the perpetrators remained undiscovered. Catherine Wood testified that her husband had previously held the sum of £25 ($50), which must have been taken with the rest of the property stolen from their house.

Wood was buried in the St David's Cemetery in Hobart (now St David's Park) on February 15, 1819. The Reverend Robert Knopwood recorded in the burial register that Matthew, 84, had been murdered at New Norfolk.


Sources: 
(1819, February 6). The Hobart Town Gazette and Southern Reporter (Tas: 1816-1821), p.2, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page40716
HOBART TOWN. (1819, February 13). The Hobart Town Gazette and Southern Reporter (Tas: 1816-1821), p.1, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article655701
GOVT. PUBLIC NOTICES. (1819, February 27). The Hobart Town Gazette and Southern Reporter (Tas: 1816-1821), p.1, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article655817
HOBART TOWN, FEB. 6. (1819, March 6). The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser (NSW: 1803-1842), p.3. from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2178576
Burials in the Parish of St David's, Hobart,  https://stors.tas.gov.au/RGD34-1-1$init=RGD34-1-1p013