As with today, scandals during colonial times often made for the most riveting reading in newspapers, with few details spared.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
When Shellharbour man Mr C Martin appeared before the court for threatening to kill Mary Henry in 1857, he provided an explanation that would have made for salacious reading. Martin had for some time been involved in an "undue intimacy" with Ms Henry, the Mercury reported.
On realising the affair could no longer be concealed, and being "painfully apprehensive of disclosure", he decided that the most effective way to prevent discovery was to shoot her.
Martin did not ultimately make good with his threat, but for his attempt he was reprimanded by the magistrate and ordered to keep the peace for 12 months.
In September 1872, a most shameful case of assault was heard in the Sydney Water Police Court when a Roman Catholic priest and a doctor answered to charges of fighting over the bed of a dying woman.
The principals of the affair were Rev Pere Garravel and Dr Reid, both of Randwick. The assault took place in a home belonging to Mrs Richardson, of Coogee, who was on her deathbed.
"As can be imagined, the one was looking after the interests of the body, and the other of the soul of the patient," the Mercury said.
"The result was that those zealous physicians quarrelled and, after a scuffle, part of which took place on the patient's bed and over her legs, they both 'waltzed out of the room' as the reverend gentleman was pleased to term it, a considerable quantity of the doctor's whiskers having given way in the meantime by the grasp of the man of 'holy orders'."
The priest was fined £1 for his part in the fracas. The case brought by him against the man of medicine was dismissed.
In June 1872, the Mercury published a "cure" for a "terrible disorder in the mouth, commonly called scandal".
"The symptoms are a violent itching of the tongue and roof of the mouth, which invariably takes place when you are in company with a species of animals commonly called 'gossips'," the article said.
When sufferers felt a fit coming on, they were advised to take "an ounce of 'good nature', a herb called 'mind your own business', a little 'charity for others' and two or three sprigs of 'keep your tongue between your teeth' " and simmer together in a vessel called "circumspection".
"When you feel a fit coming on, take a spoonful of the above, hold it in your mouth and you will find a complete cure."
GENEALOGY SEARCH TIP
Records relating to the purchase of land from the Crown, created by the Colonial Secretary, the Surveyor General and the Lands Department can be found in Archives Investigator. Go to investigator.records.nsw.gov.au.
