Francis Duke, a servant on George Hill’s farm near Deloraine in northern Tasmania, woke his employer in the middle of the night with an urgent story: the bullock being fattened was choking and needed help. When they reached the shed the animal was calm and Duke complained only of the cold, but as Hill turned back toward the house Duke knocked him down with a piece of firewood and began stabbing him as the two men grappled on the ground. It was Hill’s wife who turned the fight, beating Duke with a brick until neighbours arrived to help subdue him.
Searching the property afterwards, they found Duke’s fellow servant, a ticket-of-leave man named William Smith, already dead in his bed, a wound driven more than an inch into his skull while he slept. Duke was convicted of murder and sentenced to death without hope of mercy. He was hanged at Launceston on 31 October 1851.
Duke, a Spaniard who reportedly spoke unintelligibly in court, insisted to the end that the evidence given by Hill and his wife was false from beginning to end.
