Gladesville Hospital for the Insane

On 14 June 1873, only a few months after his release from Parramatta Asylum, George Faulkner was convicted before James Styles, JP, for using obscene language in Cork Street, Gundaroo, "towards William Affleck of Gundaroo, to wit You bloody Scotch bugger, I'll break your bloody door and smash your bloody machinery".

Sentenced to three months in Queanbeyan Gaol, he was again separately examined by two doctors as required before he could be committed to an asylum.

Andrew Morton, surgeon, wrote that he had observed "his violent conduct in the gaol... - his obscene language - & at one time praying, quoting scripture & immediately afterwards blaspheming - cursing, swearing and altogether behaving as a Maniac with homicidal tendencies - his constant headaches & vertigo with confusion of thought & the wildness of his manner & eyes".

The jailer and warder told Morton that their prisoner "is increasingly so violent - threatening them & his fellow prisoners - that he had to be put under restraint - & that his habits were very filthy - & his insomnia".

John Newton MD noted similar observations - "his violent language, his obscenity, his threats to commit murder if called nicknames, his headaches and vertigo and the wildness of his appearance and manner".

On 24 June 1873 Morton and Newton signed a medical certificate certifying George Faulkner "to be of unsound mind, and a proper object for reception into a Lunatic Asylum". He was transferred to Goulburn Gaol on 28 June and from there to Gladesville Hospital for the Insane.

George Faulkner died of pneumonia in Gladeville Hospital on Oct 14th 1875. The death certificate gave his age as 75 and stated that he was married and had two children, "further particulars unknown". He was buried in the hospital cemetery.

Selmes family from Brede, Sussex in NSW

There are still Selmes in Wheo, New South Wales, where Eliza Jane (aka Mary Ann) Selmes was born in 1860.

Wheo or Wheeo is a locality rather than a village, about 23 km west of Crookwell, off the Crookwell-Boorowa Road, in the Southern Highlands of NSW. It is high undulating country with snow in winter, old bluestone buildings and gravel roads lined with poplars. Pines form windbreaks across the hilltops.

Mary Ann's father's parents, James Selmes and Maria Cook, had arrived in NSW as assisted immigrants on the Lady Nugent in 1838. James Selmes was a farm labourer, aged 26, Maria was 24, and they had three young children - Alfred, James and Harriet. They were Protestants, from Brede, Sussex. According to the Frater family website, they settled at "Springfield", now a heritage-listed farm estate, near Goulburn. At some stage they settled on what was presumably their own farm, in Wheo.

On 27 July 1854, the Sydney Morning Herald reported a court case in which a man named Arthur White was "charged with stealing two horses, the property of James Selmes, a carrier, residing in Goulburn". It is not clear if this is James Selmes snr, or his son James who would have been 19. The item continues: "It appeared that the horses were stolen, on the night of 11th July, out of a paddock belonging to H. G. Marsh, at whose inn, on the Sydney road, Selmes put up on the night in question" (p. 2).

Mary Ann's parents, James Selmes jnr and Amelia Howarth married in Tumut in 1857. They seem to have lived with his parents in Wheo for a few years. Their first child, Henry George, was born in Gundagai, but Mary Ann was born in Wheo in 1860 and five of the next six children were born there as well. The last four (Elizabeth aka Lila, Edward, William Albert and Edith Phoebe) were born in Wallacetown (near Junee), Wagga Wagga, Junee and Wagga Wagga respectively.

On 23 January 1892 the Town and Country Journal reported the death of James Selmes snr.: "News is just to hand of the death of Mr. James Selmes, of Wheeo, who met with an accident on Saturday last through falling off a load of wheat. The deceased, who is 80 years of age, and who has resided here for 35 years, was much respected by all classes, and his death has caused general regret".