Search Result
101031
Surname: Muirhead
First Name: William
Ship: -
Date: 1837 28 January
Place: -
Source: SG
Details: Alexander Burnett, William Muirhead, John Waugh Drysdale, Jemmy Piper, John Matthew Richardson John Palmer and Charles King to be examined before the Legislative Council regarding the attack on natives on 27th May while on Major Mitchell s expedition
169248
Surname: Muirhead
First Name: William
Ship: Cawdry 1826
Date: -
Place: -
Source: Ancestry.com. New South Wales, Australia, Convict Indents, 1788-1842
Details: Age 25. Soldier and errand boy from Stirling. Sentenced to transportation for life in Bombay for murder. Assigned to Thomas Aspinall in Sydney on arrival
195469
Surname: Muirhead
First Name: William
Ship: Cawdry 1826
Date: 27 January 1837
Place: -
Source: The Sydney Monitor
Details: Examination of William Muirhead before the Executive Council, 16th December, 1836. I was with Major Mitchell during the late expedition; I was employed as bullock-driver, and occasionally acted as a serjeant to drill the men; I have been a soldier; I remember the 27th May when there was a fight between the party and the blacks; I was with the party under Major Mitchell on that occasion; after starting that morning the natives came upon our rear; the Major ordered Burnett to take one half of the party to meet the natives and the Major remained with the rest of the party; after Burnett went to meet the natives I lost sight of them when they entered the scrub; the next thing I saw was the natives taking to the river; I had heard shots before this; I saw the natives swimming across the river and several of Burnett s party firing upon them; on my arriving at the edge of the river I fired several shots, as did most of the party with us; I think that some of the blacks must have been killed; they were swimming in the water; and no man could say whether they were wounded or not; the river was better than a hundred yards broad where the blacks took to it; by the appearance there must have been nearly a hundred blacks crossing the river; there might have been one or two shots fired after they arrived on the opposite bank; I can form no opinion as to the number of shots fired at the blacks altogether; when we arrived at the brink of the river we found Burnett s party there. I had received no orders to fire; upon arriving at the brink of the river we commenced firing; the other party under Burnett had been firing before; the firing lasted about fifteen minutes after we came up; it might not be so long as that; I had observed the natives for two days before the fight; they seemed to be very troublesome, hanging and harassing upon the rear of the party; I did not see any spears thrown at the party, but they put themselves into threatening attitudes, particularly the evening before the conflict took place; the Major left the banks of the river the second night before, and passed a night in the scrub for the purpose of avoiding them; the men were under an apprehension that the natives would attack them; they were led to expect this from what Piper the native had informed some them. Cross-examined by Major Mitchell - I have had experience of the mode of attack adopted by the natives, having accompanied Major Mitchell on two former expeditions; I was present when the bones of Mr. Finch s men were found, I believe in the year 1831; the body of one was completely naked; they had received wounds on the back parts of their heads; my opinion is that the men were in bed asleep when they were attacked; during the expedition last year, there were two spears thrown at me; I saw some natives crossing the river a little higher up than where I was; I was extricating a bullock from the river; I did not see the men who threw the spears at me; the spears struck a tree near where I was standing; they accidentally escaped me from my having stooped down under the bank, when employed in disentangling the bullock; I saw some of the same men, whom I had seen then, on the present occasion; there was one confessed to have see us before, and to have slaughtered a bullock we left behind; I saw one of the gins with the bullock s teeth in her bag; we passed one night in the presence of these native previous to the re encounter; I saw the natives early on the following morning; they appeared troublesome, and had been the night previous; they were burning bushes; I always understood that to mean, with the natives, a signal for war; I saw an old man near the camp setting fire to bushes; I saw him run off suddenly; I do not know what made him run away; I was one of the party the same morning sent out to order them off; the orders that Major Mitchell delivered to me were to go about two hundred yards distant from the camp to where a party of the natives were assembled, and order them off; they were upon one side of the camp; we were told not to fire; they fell back when they saw us approaching, and we returned to the camp according to the orders the Major gave me; I was not on watch that night but had not taken my clothes off; the men could not have continued for any number of nights, to have watched and taken care of the bullocks, as they were obliged that night from the troublesome conduct of the natives; we could not have had our breakfast and packed up uninterrupted, unless we had gone out and made them retire, as ordered by the Major; I saw them attempt to take some tomahawks away from the tent the night before; I have been on service as a soldier; from what I know of service, I think we could not have gone on many days longer with the natives, in the way they had been conducting themselves toward us, without danger; I can explain how the danger would have arisen; men obliged to go and look after the cattle, would have been sure to have been fallen upon by them; after what took place on the 27th, they did not harass us; we felt after this transaction, much greater security than ever we had done before, in travelling in the interior; I do not consider that an offence was given by our party to cause the natives to follow us; on the former occasion I saw presents given to the same tribe
195470
Surname: Muirhead
First Name: William
Ship: Cawdry 1826
Date: 16 May 1838
Place: -
Source: Register of Conditional and Absolute Pardons
Details: William Muirhead, soldier and labourer from Stirling. Tried at Calcutta 1824. Sentenced to transportation for life for murder. granted an Absolute Pardon
195471
Surname: Muirhead
First Name: William
Ship: Cawdry 1826
Date: 21 November 1835
Place: -
Source: Convict Pardons. NSW. Class: HO 10; Piece: 31
Details: William Muirhead granted a Pardon for Services performed in the Interior in an Exploring Expedition under Major Mitchell, Surveyor General of the Colony