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The First Woman to Be Hanged in Victoria

Born in England in 1840, Elizabeth Scott was an attractive, well-spoken, intelligent girl. She moved to New Zealand with her family when she was 12 years old. In 1853, the family migrated to Australia, settling in the rugged Victorian goldfields. By the age of 14, Elizabeth was married to 36-year-old alcoholic Robert Scott, who had made a large amount of money prospecting, but was steadily drinking it away. The couple had four children before Elizabeth turned 20, though only two survived beyond infancy.

Robert Scott made many drunken threats to take his own life, so few people were surprised when he was eventually found dead from a gunshot wound in the couple’s bark cottage in the Victorian goldfields. What they were surprised by was that Elizabeth was accused of the murder.

Before he died, Robert Scott had used what money he hadn’t spent on drinking to invest in a small grog shanty on the road between Mansfield and Devil’s River, in northeast Victoria. Set among stringybark forests, the shanty was similar to many that had sprung up at the time to service bullock drivers, prospectors, travelling merchants and cattlemen. The Scotts offered shelter, food and alcohol – the majority of their clientele were most interested in the latter. And even though young Elizabeth’s sensitive nature grew hard around the edges during her time in the bush, her physical beauty – apparently rare in the area in those days – was soon as big a drawcard as the booze.

Elizabeth grew resentful of her lifestyle, disdaining the primitive surroundings and the shanty’s unruly patrons. The fact that her husband was often a more loud-mouthed and obnoxious drunk than the customers didn’t help matters. But though he was drunk most of the time, Scott was generally aware of his surroundings and kept a jealous eye on his wife. Elizabeth was rarely allowed to make trips to town on her own.

A regular visitor to the shanty was young local farm labourer David Gedge. Like Elizabeth, Gedge was born in England and had immigrated as a child. Elizabeth soon realised the 19-year-old was everything her husband wasn’t – quietly spoken, shy, polite and attentive. She fell deeply in love with him, and saw him as a ticket out of her miserable existence.

Being four years his senior, Elizabeth took the lead in the relationship, and it wasn’t long before the couple were engaging in secret meetings, making love regularly. This situation was made easier by the fact that Scott now passed out most evenings in a drunken stupor from which little could wake him. Instead of trying to get her husband to stop drinking, Elizabeth now encouraged it at every opportunity.

But Gedge wasn’t the only person who admired Elizabeth. Young Malay-born labourer Julian Cross was also under her spell. Cross was employed by the Scotts as a general hand, and his infatuation with Elizabeth meant that he hated the way her drunken husband shot off his mouth at her. It is unknown whether or not Cross and Elizabeth also engaged in a physical affair.

On the night of 11 April 1863, merchant Elias Ellis and his wife Ellen stayed at the Scotts’ inn. The middle-aged couple had stopped there five days earlier, on their way up to the goldfields supply town of Jamieson. Now they took time out there on their way back. On their first stay, between about five and six in the evening, the married couple had looked through one of the bar’s windows and seen Elizabeth and Gedge slip hand-in-hand out the back and head into the stable, closing the door quietly behind them. The pair re-emerged an hour later. At the time, the Ellises thought nothing of it.

On their second stay, the couple pitched their tent about 20 metres from the Scotts’ house. Elizabeth, who didn’t see many women, had become quite friendly with Ellen Ellis and confided to her that she was becoming quite concerned about her husband’s heavy drinking. She said that she was worried he might actually kill himself, as he had so often threatened to do. Elizabeth also expressed her hope that Ellen would stay around for a night or two. Ellen agreed.

That night she accompanied Elizabeth into the bedroom where Elizabeth’s husband was lying on the bed in a delirious state – his face was white and drawn and his teeth were chattering. Complaining that he was freezing, he asked the women to cover his feet. Ellen rubbed some circulation back into his feet and then asked if the Scotts had a doctor. Elizabeth told her that there wasn’t one anywhere in the Jamieson Valley. Ellen suggested that it might be wise to contact one – no matter where he was – so that, at the very least, if Scott passed away, Elizabeth would not be blamed for contributing to his death.

Scott pleaded with Ellen for a shot of whisky. She refused, saying that he’d had enough. But when Elizabeth suggested it might make the patient a bit quieter, he got his way. Ellen poured a glass. Scott quickly knocked it back and fell asleep. Once he had passed out Ellen returned to the kitchen, where she found Elizabeth and Gedge engaged in a whispered conversation. The women then had dinner and talked. Elizabeth told Ellen of her deep unhappiness. She explained how jealous her husband was, but added that she was afraid to leave him.

The Ellises retired to their tent at around 10 pm, but both slept fitfully, partly due to the noises of Scott vomiting in the backyard. Then, at around midnight, they were woken by the sound of a gunshot echoing through the forest. The noise was soon followed by footsteps running towards their tent. Gedge put his head through the flap. Scott had shot himself, he explained. Still in his night attire, Elias Ellis ran into the house, passing Elizabeth, who was standing at the kitchen door with her head bowed. In the bedroom, Elias saw Scott on his bed. He lay motionless on his right side, his face to the bark wall. His left hand was on his side. A pistol sat on top of the bedclothes near his knees. He had his right arm tucked underneath him. Just below his left ear, the bullet hole leaked blood. Someone had attempted to stem the flow with wadding.

Elias went back out into the kitchen where Elizabeth, Gedge, Cross and Ellen were all waiting. He believed the death was a murder, and didn’t hold back in expressing his views, telling those gathered that he thought the whole situation to be a ‘bad job’. He said to expect a coroner’s inquest – and the gallows if any of them had played a part in the killing. Elizabeth asked Elias if he had ever seen a coroner’s inquest. He answered that he had seen several, then asked the trio what Scott had allegedly shot himself with.

‘A pistol,’ Elizabeth and Gedge replied together.

‘Which pistol?’ Ellis asked.

Again they replied together, saying it was the one on the bedclothes. They said Scott kept it on a shelf above his bed. Elizabeth explained that she didn’t know it was loaded. She said it had been there for several days.

Elias admonished Elizabeth, asking her how could she leave him alone with a loaded gun knowing that he had suicidal tendencies when he was drunk. He asked where Elizabeth was when the pistol went off. Again Elizabeth and Gedge answered in unison. She was in the kitchen, they said. Elias pointed out that, given the circumstances, it was impossible for Scott to have shot himself. Gedge went pale and whispered into Elizabeth’s ear. He then went into Scott’s bedroom and reappeared moments later.

Elias told Cross to get the local magistrate. Cross seemed reluctant, and took his time saddling up his horse. Elias decided there was no more anyone could do and went back to his tent with his wife. He spent the night going over the strange incidents. Near dawn he heard footsteps approaching his tent. It was Gedge. He whispered that he had a secret. Elias walked into the bush with him. Gedge explained that it was actually ‘that blackfellow, Cross’ who shot Scott. He said he was too afraid to admit the truth earlier. Gedge then said he would find the police, and suggested Elias not tell the women. He added that Ellis should keep an eye on Cross until he (Gedge) returned with the authorities. It was then that Ellis realised Cross had not actually gone to get the magistrate. Elias wondered what exactly was going on. Gedge left.

At 10.30 the next morning Gedge returned to the shanty with two mounted troopers. He had told the police that at the time in question, he was sitting next to the kitchen fire and Cross walked past holding a pistol. He then heard a shot from Scott’s room. After that, Cross came back into the kitchen and pointed the gun at Gedge, saying that if Gedge did not swear to keep quiet about the shooting, he (Cross) would shoot him as well.

Constable John Bruce and Constable John Duigan arrested Cross. ‘I am innocent, but I know I will hang for it,’ he said as he was taken into custody. As he was escorted to the Mansfield jail, Cross told the constables he wanted to make a statement. Bruce cautioned him against it, but Cross said he had nothing to lose.

He then explained that he had been in bed when Gedge woke him on the night that Robert Scott died. Cross claimed Gedge was holding a pistol and said that he had tried to fire at Scott, but couldn’t get the gun to go off. Cross said Gedge pleaded with him to shoot Scott, but he refused, saying that Elizabeth might not want her husband dead. Gedge said Cross should ask Elizabeth himself. When he did, she confirmed that she wanted her husband shot. She then poured Cross a large glass of brandy.

‘I took up the gun and went into the bedroom and shot Scott,’ Cross told the constables.

A couple of days later Bruce and Duigan returned to the shanty to arrest Gedge and Elizabeth. Gedge stuck to his story that he knew nothing, and had been sworn to silence at the end of a gun.

Elizabeth, Gedge and Cross were tried before a jury at the gold mining town of Beechworth on 28 October 1863. Cross’s evidence sank them all. He told the court that Elizabeth had got himself and Gedge drunk on brandy and then told them to kill her husband. The court heard that the slug that killed Scott – the one that was removed from his head – was originally too big for the pistol they had, so Cross and Gedge had to heat and mould it until the weapon would fire it properly.

Despite mounting evidence, Gedge and Elizabeth stuck to their story. The jury soon found all three guilty. They were sentenced to death by hanging, and were immediately taken by coach to Melbourne Gaol.

While executions were commonplace in those times, a woman had never been hanged in Victoria before. Expecting a large crowd because of the novelty value of such a spectacle, the Sheriff limited the number of official spectators to 45. Then, shortly before the event, the time of the triple execution was changed. The execution was now set for 11 November 1863, on the scaffolds at Melbourne Gaol.

Elizabeth was convinced to the very end that she would be given a reprieve, but it never came. At 6 am on the designated day the trio were taken to the cells set aside for those condemned to death. Their arms were tied behind their backs. Cross was led out onto the balcony first, followed by Gedge. Elizabeth was last. It was obvious to all present that the two men were not ready to die. But the real curiosity of that morning was Elizabeth. Those gathered hadn’t expected her to be so attractive. They gasped as she came out to face the scaffold. She was wearing a long black coat, and her hair had been carefully braided. She was placed between the two men. All three were to die together. As the noose was placed over her head, Elizabeth asked the executioner’s assistant to make sure that the rope didn’t get caught in her clothing.

Elizabeth Scott’s last words were to her lover Gedge, imploring, ‘David, will you not clear me?’

He didn’t reply. Seconds later the trapdoors opened.