#1421 Samuel
“A man of color”
Age 28
Native place: Mozambique
Tried Cape of Good Hope, 1831 “Theft aggravated by having been twice before convicted of the same crime of theft”

Description
Indent
Conduct Record

LIST OF OFFENCES FROM CONDUCT RECORD
8 December 1832 Absconding on the 16th November from his Service & remaining at large until approached near Waterloo Point.
5 February 1833 Runaway
23 September 1833 Absconding
14 October 1833 Breaking his Irons
15 November 1833 Insubordination
11 January 1834 Being under the influence of Liquor on boat the Government Brig Tamar the Cargo of the Vessel having been broken into and a quantity of Wine stolen during his Passage to Port Arthur
Same date Striking at & wounding Mr Richd Newman Chief Constable with Intent to kill, maim or do him some grievous bodily harm. Committed to trial.
Executed at Hobart Town, 26 March 1834

SUPREME COURT – CRIMINAL SIDE.
Tuesday, March 4, 1834.
Before Mr. Justice Montagu and a Military Jury.
A man of colour, named Samuel, was placed at the bar, charged with stabbing and cutting Mr. Richard Newman, the Chief Constable, at Port Arthur, on the left cheek, with a knife. Richard Newman examined -Is Chief Con stable at Port Arthur ; the prisoner, on the 12th February last, was taken by witness be fore the Commandant, for absconding from that settlement. On attempting to convey the prisoner from the Commandant’s-office, he, the prisoner, struck witness on the left cheek with a knife ; the wound was about three inches long; the knife was immediately wrested from him ; witness was taking the prisoner at the time away for punishment, in pursuance of the Magistrate’s sentence.
Henry Lowe examined.-is a serjeant in the 21st regiment; saw both the prisoner and the prosecutor on the 12th February last, in the Commandant’s-office, at Port Arthur; saw the prisoner strike Mr. Newman, and took the knife from him ; the prisoner had been a very short time at Port Arthur ; it is contrary to the regulations at that settlement, for prisoners to have in their possession such knives as the one now produced ; there was no handle to it.
This closed the case for the prosecution.
The prisoner said nothing in his defence. His Honor then, in the most impartial manner, summed up the case to the Jury, pointing out to them its peculiarities, in- asmuch as the first count of the indict- ment charged the prisoner with striking the prosecutor with intent to kill him, and of which intention no positive evidence had been adduced. The other counts, His Honor said, must of necessity fail.
The Jury retired for about a quarter of an hour, and returned a verdict of Guilty on the first count.
His Honor, after the verdict had been re- turned, addressed the Jury in the most feeling manner, intimating that he was extremely anxious that they should understand him aright, as to what was necessary to convict the prisoner on the first count of the present indictment. They must, His Honor observed, he perfectly convinced that it was the prisoner’s intention, when he struck the prosecutor, not merely to do him some bodily harm, but actually to kill him. If they, the Jury, were not satisfied that the prisoner intended to go the extreme length of killing the prosecutor, then he was entitled to an acquittal on that count.
The Jury then retired for a few minutes to re-consider their verdict, and on returning into Court gave a verdict directly opposite to their first-namely, that the prisoner was Not Guilty.
The prisoner was then remanded, in order to be indicted again for the assault, if such should be the desire of the Attorney General.
. . . .
The man Samuel, who was in the early part of the day acquitted on a charge of stabbing, with intent to kill, Mr. Newman, was again placed at the bar, to take his trial upon a fresh indictment. The evidence in this case was precisely the same as that adduced upon the first trial, and the Jury without hesitation pronounced the prisoner Guilty.
Colonial Times, 11 March 1834

On Wednesday morning the three miser- able men who had been condemned to die suffered the last awful penalty on the gallows at Hobart town. Joseph Deane and Henry Rutland were the two bushrangers who were convicted of the late burglary under aggra vated circumstances, in the house of Dr. Gor ringe, at the Green Pond’s, and Samuel was the black, the desperate character who we lately stated had made the unprovoked at- tempt, at Port Arthur, on the life of Mr. Newman.
. . .
The black man Samuel was a native of Mozambique, where he was, when a child, captured with his mother and sisters and carried to the Cape of Good Hope. His constant repetition of offences from small to great at that place, subjected him to transportation about 3 years ago to this colony, where the rigours of penal discipline, always severe upon the unrepentent, pressed so heavy on him that he made the attempt at murder for which he has now suffered avowedly with the view of quitting life, thus rendered by and to himself so horribly wretched.
Hobart Town Courier, 28 March 1834