On Saturday, December 28, 1867, my ancestor, John Harborne, working as a stockman on the NSW Hunter Valley property, Wambo, found some human bones that turned out to be those of a young family murdered about thirty years earlier. The story was told in the Maitland Mercury of January 2, 1868:
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/18728788?searchTerm=(john%20harborne)%20date%3A%5B1868%20TO%201868%5D%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20&searchLimits=with a follow-up on January 14 noting that the murder victims were probably an itinerant hawker, his wife and two small children, murdered by convicts who were building a bridge across the local creek.
Your mission, dear Rootschat detectives, should you accept it, is not to find the murderer/s but to find which one of two possible John Harbornes was the discoverer of the bones.
My great great grandfather, John Harborne (1812-1882) was born in Birmingham, England and transported to Australia in 1828 for burglary. He had a defacto relationship with Alice (nee) Clarke who was officially married to Edwin Baldwin (who was serving time on Norfolk Island for being extra naughty). John and Alice stayed together until Alice died in 1863. John then married for the first time, aged 53, at Warkworth, a 22 year-old Elizabeth Sleath with whom he had 8 more children, the last born in 1880 when he was 68).
John died at Wambo aged 69. However, the informant was his son, John (then 36), who is also described as “of Wambo”. John senior is variously described in records as a farmer or as a labourer.
My great grandfather, John Harborne (1845-1919) was born at Cockfighters Creek, (part of Wambo) Parish of Warkworth, to John Harborne and Alice Baldwin. John married Sarah Wyburn in 1878 at Singleton. In later life his home was alternately given as Doctors Creek and Boggy Flat (close together so perhaps the same home but given different descriptions by different people and/or at different times). John owned at least two small portions in this area (no.s 110 and 89, SE of the village of Warkworth).
John junior was also variously described as a farmer or a labourer.
At the time of the discovery of the bones John senior would have been 55, and John junior, 22.
William Durham had managed Wambo, then inherited the property from his stepfather, James Hale (1780-1857) an ex-convict who had amassed a large number of properties of which he was an absentee landlord. Durham died in 1891 and Wambo was sold out of the Durham family in 1894.
It seems that for at least part of the time, both Johns were living on the Wambo estate, at least until John senior died (1882).
So far I haven’t been able to separate the two John Harbornes during the period in which the discovery of the bones occurred.
I am leaning towards it being John senior. For these reasons:
James Hale was in the habit of employing ex convicts to help run his burgeoning enterprises.
John Harborne appears in the papers a number of times as a witness regarding thefts of stock from Wambo. It is probably more likely that the 50 something John would have had that responsibility rather than the 20 something John.
But it would really be great to get a bit more evidence.
As always, should any of you be caught or killed, the other Rootschat members will disavow any knowledge of your actions.
Cheers,
Peter
[I’ve posted a couple of map portions to show the localities involved. On the first, “Wollombi Brook” (underlined in white), between Wambo and Warkworth, is the newer name for the old “Cockfighters Creek”. The murder took place somewhere near that creek.
On the second map, John junior, in later life, lived at Doctors Creek/ Boggy Flat, SE of Warkworth village, marked by the white X. ]
