Birtwistle Local Studies Library
A dispute over the poor quality of meat and the potential of forfeited wages lead one man to kill another.
On the 13th February 1874 John Gill, the cook at the Narrogin Inn, complained to Foster, his employer, that the quality of the meat he had been given earlier in the day, was poor. Gill immediately said that he wanted to quit his job but an angry Foster said that Gill’s wages would be forfeited if he did. Gill went back to work but in the evening he went to his room in the outbuilding stables having not cleared the kitchen as was a usual part of his job. Foster went looking for him and as he approached the stables. A shot rang out and Foster fell to his knees wounded in the side of his body. He called for help.
Dora Foster, wife of William Foster Jnr, and her children plus Matilda, Foster’s 18 year old daughter, were at the Inn as most of the men in the area had gone to Perth for the Races and had yet to return.
Dora stayed with the children whilst Matilda, too frightened to go near the stables to saddle a horse in case Gill was still there, ran off into the dark night in the dense bush in the direction of the Cronin house which was a couple of miles away. Once she got there, Patrick Cronin, an older gentleman, went back to the Narrogin Inn to help Foster whilst Matilda continued on to the Martin’s farm.
Mary Martin and her children were the only ones at home so she sent her son off on horseback to Perth to fetch a doctor. Matilda continued on to the Fancote farm through the scrub some 6.5 kilometres from the Inn.
Henry Martin met his son on the road to Perth. Henry Martin sent the boy home, turned back to Perth and went to search of a doctor and police detective. The doctor, police detective and Henry Martin finally arrived at the Narrogin Inn at 4am. However, by that time, William Foster had died.
It is our painful duty to record the particulars of one of the most atrocious murders that has ever stained the history of this colony. The unfortunate victim of the shocking crime was Mr William Foster, the proprietor of the Narrogin Inn on the Albany Road, who was shot dead in a most cowardly manner on Friday evening last.
Perth Gazette 20 February 1874
The police immediately went in search of the accused, John Gill, being able to track his footsteps for some distance along the Albany Road before they veered off into the bush.
Luck was on the side of the police as Gill was apprehended by Anderton Hall, who was the manager of Wungong Farm, and his friends W. Knight and Edward Thomas the following day. They had come across Gill trying to cross Wungong Brook and having heard of Foster’s death and Thomas captured Gill. He went quietly and was bundled into a cart and taken back to the Narrogin Inn where the police were carrying out their investigations.
The trial of John Gill was held on the 18th March 1874. Gill did not have a lawyer to represent him in court. It took the jury just twenty minutes to convict Gill of Foster’s murder by a musket that he had stolen from one of William Foster’s sons, Edward. Gill was sentenced to hang.
William Foster was a much respected man in the community and his funeral attracted a large number of mourners. This was, in part, due to the sensationalism of the crime, one of the worse in the Colony at that time. Another factor wasthe fact that the colonists still feared having so many ex-convicts in their midst.
Mr Foster, who was one of the earliest colonists, had, by his amiability and courtesy, won the esteem of a large number of friends, and the shocking occurrence has caused the deepest pain, and excited the tenderest sympathy for his widow and children. The funeral took place on Sunday was one of the most numerously and respectfully attended we have witnessed in Perth.
Perth Gazette 20 February 1874