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1630: A Mayflower Pilgrim Becomes the First Man Hanged in the New World Colonies

John Billington had been a troublemaker since the Mayflower crossing, defying Myles Standish and drawing accusations in a colony revolt, always insisting he was innocent. In 1630 a long feud over land boundaries turned fatal when he ambushed and shot fellow colonist John Newcomen, reportedly after catching him robbing his traps.

A grand and petty jury found Billington guilty of willful murder. Governor William Bradford, wary of setting a precedent, consulted the leaders of the neighbouring Massachusetts Bay Colony, who agreed the killing had to be answered to purge the land from blood. Billington was hanged on 30 September 1630, becoming the first person executed in Plymouth Colony. His burial place was never recorded.

Mayflower Compact 1620 handwritten agreement document

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Colonial History Execution Massachusetts Murder Trial USA

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1805: “I Have Killed Biddy, and Am Going to Deliver Myself Up”: A Hawkesbury Murderer Hanged at Sydney

William Miller, a labourer at Hawkesbury near Sydney, attacked Bridget Horan (also recorded as Kean) with a hoe on the afternoon of 18 September 1805. Minutes later he ran to a neighbour and blurted out the truth: “Yes: I have killed Biddy, and am going to deliver myself up.” He then led the chief constable straight to her body himself, the hoe still lying beside it.

At his trial before the Court of Criminal Jurisdiction in Sydney, Miller pleaded not guilty to acting with malice, insisting the killing had come from unbridled momentary rage rather than intent. The court was unconvinced. He was convicted and hanged on 30 September 1805, his body afterwards handed over for dissection.

Witnesses said Miller never wavered from his confession, going to the gallows with what observers called sincere repentance, seemingly resigned that only his own death could answer for hers.

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Australia Confession Execution Hawkesbury Murder NSW Sydney Trial

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1901: He Sharpened His Knife for Days: A Jealous Rockhampton Murder Ends on the Gallows at Brisbane

John Rheuben had lived with Fanny Hardwick for two years, supporting her mother and child, until he turned her out and she took up with another man. Furious at her refusal to return, he beat his rival twice, threatened to “do for him”, and quietly sharpened a sheath knife at the local gasworks. On a Sunday evening in Rockhampton he forced his way into the house where she was staying, dragged her into a back bedroom, and stabbed her five or six times, one wound reaching her heart.

Tried before Mr Justice Power, Rheuben was convicted despite a defence of temporary insanity, and a petition for mercy signed across Rockhampton failed to move the Executive. He was hanged in Brisbane on 30 September 1901, praying loudly on the drop and thanking the warders for their kindness before the trap fell.

He never admitted the killing outright. To his priest he said only that he had been “mad drunk” and remembered striking at someone, but nothing more.

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Australia Brisbane Execution Jealousy Murder QLD Rockhampton Trial

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1852: He Only Aimed for the Knees: John Newing Hanged for Murder Anyway

In October 1851, at a shearers’ hut on a station on the Castlereagh, a Chinese labourer named John Newing burst in armed with a shear blade lashed to a pole and stabbed a fellow countryman, Hing, in the groin. Bystanders wrenched the weapon from him, but he returned with two knives before he could be disarmed again, and Hing bled out within minutes.

At his trial at Bathurst in August 1852, defence counsel argued there had been no intent to kill, telling the court that Newing himself had said he aimed only for the knees. The jury was unmoved and returned a verdict of guilty, and Newing was sentenced to death without hope of mercy. He went to the gallows the following month alongside an unrelated condemned man, Timothy Sullivan, in an execution remembered chiefly for how badly it was botched.

Unable to speak or understand English, and with no interpreter willing to attend him at the end, Newing left no final statement and died in silence.

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Australia Bathurst Execution Murder NSW Trial

1630: A Mayflower Pilgrim Becomes the First Man Hanged in the New World Colonies

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1805: “I Have Killed Biddy, and Am Going to Deliver Myself Up”: A Hawkesbury Murderer Hanged at Sydney

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1901: He Sharpened His Knife for Days: A Jealous Rockhampton Murder Ends on the Gallows at Brisbane

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1852: He Only Aimed for the Knees: John Newing Hanged for Murder Anyway

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