There is a tree on Ancestry with a letter attached written by James Snr's son James to his brother Michael. James Snr. committed suicide at Ballarat around the 18th or 19th January 1862 and was buried as an unknown.
This is probably the news article referred to in the letter which led his son to make enquiries:
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/66330891 (top of second column)
An old man, aged between sixty and seventy years, seems to have committed suicide some time between Saturday at noon and Sunday morning, by hanging himself with a blue pocket-handkerchief, in a convenience attached to the school house of St. Peter's Church, in Pleasant-street. On Sunday morning, a man named Samuel Tucker, who went to open the school house found the body hanging from a rafter, and the feet within a few inches of the floor. Obtaining the assistance of Mr Williams, the schoolmaster, that gentleman cut down the body, and loosened the neckcloth which was in a slip knot and drawn very tightly around the neck. John Manning, a Constable, who took charge of the body found it clothed in a dark blue monkey jacket, a black cloth waistcoat, cotton cord trowsers, a blue checked shirt, and a flannel waistcoast,with blue woollen socks, military blucher boots, and a drab wide-awake hat, the latter all nearly new. In his pocket were a white-handled knife, a small German silver snuff-box bearing the initials J. H. on the lid, a leather portmonnaie, and silk and cotton handkerchiefs (one of each). An inquest was held on the body by Dr Clendinning on Monday morning, at the Royal Saxon Hotel......... Not any of the witnesses had ever seen the deceased before, or knew his name.
Debra
Author
Topic: James Hilton (Read 6273 times)