Arthur Purssell Akehurst (1836 - 1902)

Born 1836 in Westminster, London, England, United Kingdom

Husband of Charlotte Mary (Armstrong) Akehurst — married 1856 in Geelong, Victoria, Australia

Died 1902 at about age 66 in Saint Kilda, Victoria, Australia

Eureka Rebellion

Biography

Arthur Akehurst was born in England.

Arthur Akehurst came free to the Colony of New South Wales (1788-1900)

Arthur Akehurst was involved in events associated with the Eureka Rebellion at Ballarat.

Arthur Purssell Akehurst

"Arthur Purssell Akehurst (1836-1902), public servant and later magistrate, was born on 13 September 1836 at Pimlico, London, eldest son of William Vialls Akehurst, surveyor, and his wife Anne Purssell, née Stone^[1]. Arthur was educated at Taunton Grammar School, Somersetshire, and migrated to Geelong, Victoria, about 1850. He started work as a law clerk, intent on obtaining articles, but in November 1852 Lieutenant-Governor La Trobe appointed him clerk of the bench and registrar of the small debt court at Buninyong, where his father was now postmaster. In 1853 he was transferred to Ballarat.

This young man enlisted as a special constable, and with the militia, took part in the bloody suppression of the Eureka stockade. On 3 December 1854 a digger named Henry Powell (mining at Creswick, Victoria (about 19 kilometres from Ballarat) who was in the habit of visiting friends, the Cox's, arriving Saturday & spending Sundays with them), Powell had not been in the stockade, yet received sabre and bullet wounds. Troopers then galloped over the injured man and he died several days afterwards, but not before he had implicated Akehurst.

An inquest's verdict was that Akehurst had killed him. This, Akehurst denied; he was charged with murder, but the case was dismissed when Powell's dying deposition was ruled inadmissible. Raffaello Carboni (Participant & Author of first book detailing the events of Eureka Stockade) was among those who believed Akehurst got off on a technicality. Akehurst remained a popular villain, his career in positions of authority and matching personal style in no way diminishing his reputation. He was provoked to defend himself in writing when, in 1874, the firebrand radical Francis Longmore accused him in parliament of being 'a magistrate who had got his position by murdering people on the gold-fields'. ...

He married, on 5 April 1856 at Christ Church, Geelong, Irish-born Charlotte Mary Armstrong^[2].

He was appointed to Kilmore as a police magistrate 1966. A position he held for 10 years ^[3]

He died of bronchitis on 27 June 1902 in his residence at St Kilda and was buried in the local cemetery with Anglican rites. His wife and their son and daughter survived him. His estate was sworn for probate at £8273.

"Akehurst had outlived most of his gold mining generation contemporaries, with whose radical and aspirant democratic values he had little natural sympathy..."^[4].

MARRIED -

"On the 5th inst., at Christ Church, Geelong, by the Rev. George Goodman, M.A., Arthur Purssell Ake-hurst, Esq., Geelong, to Charlotte Mary, daughter of the Rev. Julius Armstrong, late of Mallow, Cork, Ireland"^[5].

PARLIAMENTARY NOTES

"...In the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday, a num-ber of questions were asked and answered, and other preliminary business transacted. With reference to a statement made the other night to the effect that the Police Magistrate at Killmore " had got his position by murdering people on the goldfields," the Attorney-General read a letter from Mr. Akehurst, in which the facts were set forth which formed the ground of the accusation made. It appeared that Mr Akehurst had been one of those engaged-with the Government forces in attacking the Eureka Stockade. At the inquist held upon the body of a man who had been killed in the occa-sion, the jury returned a verdict against Mr Ake-hurst, with a view to embarrasing the Government. Mr Akehurst submitted thar he was prepared to resign his position, and allow his case to be tried by any tribunal, in order to establish his innocence, and concluded in the following terms: —" I now declare most solemnly', on my honour as a gentleman, and I call Almighty God to witness that I am telling the truth, that I never struck or injured any one with a sword, as was alleged in the case of the man who or was killed, or with any other weapon whatever."^[6]

^[7]

Obituary

"On Friday afternoon Mr. Arthur Purssell Akehurst died suddenly at his residence, 'Kianga,' Byron-street, St. Kilda. The deceased gentleman was born in 1836, and took office under the (Victorian state) Government in November, 1852. Shortly after wards he became clerk of petty sessions at Ballarat, where his father practised as a solicitor, and in December, 1854, he served under arms with the other officials of the 'camp' against the 'rioters' of the famous Eureka Stockade. Later on, after passing through different grades of the service, he became a police magistrate, in which capacity he was frequently called upon to undertake special work of importance, particularly in reference to the remodelling of different Government departments for economical purposes. In 1890 he was appointed secretary of the Law Department, at a salary of £1000 a year, from which office he retired some four or five years ago. Since then he had led a very retired life".^[8]

Arthur is interred at St Kilda cemetery, Victoria with his wife Charlotte^[9].

"THE AKEHURST JOB. The character of the body politic ought to be, like Caesar's wife, above suspicion. It is of more importance that it should bo so, than that of any private or even royal individual. A Government may be looked upon, with suspicion as to its despotic leanings ; it may be denounced for its extravagance, but while it preserves its character for purity, and rejects from its bosom, every violator of the laws, it will be looked upon with respect. But if any of its servants have been strongly suspected of committing a heinous and atrocious crime, and have escaped the consequences, not by an open acquittal of a jury of their countrymen, but by a technical objection to a portion of the evidence, by which its truth was in no way lessened or disproved ; if moreover, tho accused had been solemnly charged with the crime by a coroner's jury, and only owed his discharge to what has been stigmatised as a wilful failure of duty on the part of a justice of the peace, also a Government officer ; if the accused also, notwithstanding his acquittal in the eye of the law, still continued to be regarded by his countrymen with loathing and contempt, even in private circles and by ladies publicly, for in their eyes the unholy mark was on his forehead, what shall be said of the Government, that not only continued him in their service, but removed him to a higher and more lucrative post. Our readers in this neighborhood will remember the feelings of indignation that were excited by such a proceeding ; when the almost unanimous expression of the public was that the most hienious outrage of the law on the behalf of the Government or what they in their shortsightedness, considered in their behalf, commanded high rewards. What then will be said of the Government, when we state that not content with promotion, they have actually placed on the Estimates the expenses incurred in defending the quondam prisoner, Arthur Purcell Akehurst? The following extract from the Melbourne correspondent of the Geelong Advertiser will explain our allusions : — In the supplementary estimate of expenditure for 1856, laid upon the Council table by the Colonial Treasurer, appears an item— Expenses of defending Mr Akehurst, Clerk of Petty Sessions at Ballarat £118 1s, 8d. Akehurst, it will be remembered, was indicted for the wilful murder of W . Powell, after the Ballarat riots. Are the Government aware of the consequences of this proceeding ? Are they aware that in this matter all along they have been associating to themselves, and if we may so speak, taking to their bosom the crimes of which this man was accused. True, he was acquitted legally : he was acquitted because Captain Gordon Evans, in taking Powell's dying depositions, neglected to insert the clause, ' that he made them in the fear of approaching death.' (Has Mr Evans been also rewarded for his services?) But in what light stands the man who was committed by a jury of his countrymen for a capital crime, and who, as we before stated, escaped on technical grounds, in what light is he viewed by his fellow men? We hesitate to give the reply. The Government in this matter have outraged all the feelings of humanity, and have inflicted a most serious injury upon their stability and reputation. We call upon our representatives to bring this affair before the Legislative Council, and to do all in their power to prevent the consummation of such an insult to their constituents. For our own part we are unwilling to allude to the incidents of those unhappy days but we shall he compelled to do so so long as the Government so far forgets itself as not only to retain in its services those who ' out-heroded herod ' in deeds of cruelty, but actually to pay the expenses of a legal defence, the result of which, however fortunate it might have been for the party concerned, is only viewed by the public in the light of an unmerited escape and merely equivalent to the verdict in Scottish law of 'not proven'. ^[10]

Research notes

• Death William Vialls Akehurst 1890 at Ballarat E, Victoria. BDM Vic ref# 10459/1890. Parents; William & Elizabeth Akehurst. Aged 85 years (est. DOB 1805)

This William was a magistrate at Ballarat for many years.

Sources

1. ↑ Birth Arthur Purssell Akehurst 1836 at Westminster, London, UK. Parents; William Vialls Akehurst & Ann Purssell Stone. Maternal Grandfather's Name: Arthur Charles Stone. "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:CNK3-Z9N2 : 18 September 2020), Arthur Purssell Akehurst, .
2. ↑ Marriage Arthur Purssell Akehurst & Charlotte Mary Armstrong 1856 at Victoria. BDM Vic ref# 1193/1856. https://my.rio.bdm.vic.gov.au/
3. ↑ Newspaper Article A P Akehurst. Complimentary Dinner. Kilmore Free Press (Kilmore, Vic. : 1870 - 1954), Thu 7 Sep 1876, p.2. Retrieved 2 July 2021, from https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/65375670?searchTerm=Akehurst
4. ↑ Arthur Purssell Akehurst Biography https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/akehurst-arthur-purssell-12769
5. ↑ Marriage notice The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1957), Wed 9 Apr 1856, page 4. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/4835061
6. ↑ PARLIAMENTARY NOTES - Kyneton Guardian newspaper (Vic. : 1870 - 1880; 1914 - 1918), Sat 27 Jun 1874, page 3. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/232495612
7. ↑ Death Arthur Purssell Akehurst 1902 at St Kilda, Victoria. BDM Vic ref 7484/1902. Parents; William Viles Akehurst & Anne stone. Birthplace; not recorded. Aged 67 years (Est. DOB 1835) https://my.rio.bdm.vic.gov.au/
8. ↑ Obituary Arthur Purssell Akehurst Albury Banner, 04 July 1902
9. ↑ cemetery https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/138345639/arthur-purssell-akehurst
10. ↑ Newspaper Article Arthur Purssell Akehurst . The Akehurst Job. The Age (Melbourne, Vic. : 1854 - 1954), Fri 22 Feb 1856, p.3. Retrieved 2 July 2021, from https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/154860415?searchTerm=Akehurst