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===Business interests===

===Business interests===

In July 1875 James Johnston (junior) forwarded a “sample of washdirt” from the Sandy Creek Puddling Company as part of the collection of specimens intended for the Exhibitions of [[Centennial Exposition|Philadelphia]] and [[Royal Exhibition Building|Melbourne]].<ref>[https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/3144289 The collection of specimens…], ”Northern Territory Times and Gazette” (Darwin), 10 July 1875, page 2.</ref> In December 1875 Johnston’s Sandy Creek Puddling Company sold its plant and equipment at the gold mining settlement of Sandy Creek, near [[Pine Creek, Northern Territory|Pine Creek]] in the [[Northern Territory]] (north of [[Katherine, Northern Territory|Katherine]]).<ref>[https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/3144602 Sale By Auction], ”Northern Territory Times and Gazette” (Darwin), 27 November 1875, page 2.</ref> By May 1876 Johnston was carrying on business as a storekeeper at Sandy Creek.<ref>[https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/3144999 To Teamsters], ”Northern Territory Times and Gazette” (Darwin), 6 May 1876, page 1.</ref>

1875 James Johnston (junior) forwarded a “sample of washdirt” from the Sandy Creek Puddling Company as part of the collection of specimens intended for the Exhibitions of [[Centennial Exposition|Philadelphia]] and [[Royal Exhibition Building|Melbourne]].<ref>[https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/3144289 The collection of specimens…], ”Northern Territory Times and Gazette” (Darwin), 10 July 1875, page 2.</ref> In December 1875 Johnston’s Sandy Creek Puddling Company sold its plant and equipment at the gold mining settlement of Sandy Creek, near Pine Creek in the Northern Territory.<ref>[https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/3144602 Sale By Auction], ”Northern Territory Times and Gazette” (Darwin), 27 November 1875, page 2.</ref> By May 1876 Johnston was carrying on business as a storekeeper at Sandy Creek.<ref>[https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/3144999 To Teamsters], ”Northern Territory Times and Gazette” (Darwin), 6 May 1876, page 1.</ref>

In about February 1878 Johnston opened a wholesale store at Shackle (Yam Creek), near Pine Creek.<ref>[https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/3146537 Johnston’s Wholesale Store, Shackle], ”Northern Territory Times and Gazette” (Darwin), 12 January 1878, page 2.</ref>

In about February 1878 Johnston opened a wholesale store at Shackle (Yam Creek), near Pine Creek.<ref>[https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/3146537 Johnston’s Wholesale Store, Shackle], ”Northern Territory Times and Gazette” (Darwin), 12 January 1878, page 2.</ref>

Australian convicted murderer

James Johnston (1855 – 18 May 1891) was an Australian murderer who killed his wife and four children.

Biography

Early life

James Johnston was born in 1856 at Mount Hollowback, Victoria, and his birth was registered at Ascot, Victoria. He was the eldest son of James Johnston and Margaret Brown (née Howden).[1][2] His father had been an Assistant Gold Commissioner at Ballarat during the Eureka Rebellion, but by 1856 he was a landholder at Mount Hollowback near Ballarat.[3][A]

The Johnston family returned to Scotland for a short period in 1861.[3]

Johnston (senior) had left the Government service “after acquiring a moderate competency by mining”. However he eventually exhausted his funds, “and also through two or three very handsome remittances sent by wealthy friends” in the United Kingdom.[4]

Johnston (senior) eventually became the poundkeeper at Pound Hill near Learmonth, north-west of Ballarat.[4]

Business interests

By mid-1875 James Johnston (junior) was living at Sandy Creek, near Pine Creek in the Northern Territory (north of Katherine). In July 1875 Johnston forwarded a “sample of washdirt” from the Sandy Creek Puddling Company as part of the collection of specimens intended for the Exhibitions of Philadelphia and Melbourne.[5] In December 1875 Johnston’s Sandy Creek Puddling Company sold its plant and equipment at the gold mining settlement of Sandy Creek, near Pine Creek in the Northern Territory.[6] By May 1876 Johnston was carrying on business as a storekeeper at Sandy Creek.[7]

In about February 1878 Johnston opened a wholesale store at Shackle (Yam Creek), near Pine Creek.[8]

Johnston and Peter Alexander were in partnership in a store and licensed premises at Pine Creek. The partnership was dissolved in August 1878, with the business being carried on by Alexander.[9]

In February 1881 Johnston, at “Port Darwin Camp”, posted a notice asking debtors to pay their accounts by the end of March “as it is my intention to withdraw from storekeeping at the end of the wet season”.[10]

Marriage

In July 1881 ‘Donor’s Hill’ pastoral station in north-west Queensland was sold by Martin Hetzer by Messrs. Chirnside, Johnston, and Co., a partnership of Johnston and Andrew Chirnside.[11][12][13][B] By 1881 James Johnston (junior) was residing at ‘Donor’s Hill’, probably managing the station.[14] ‘Donor’s Hill’ station had frontages to the Flinders and Cloncurry rivers in the Gulf Country region, south of the southern extremity of the Gulf of Carpentaria in the Stokes region, about 80 miles (129 km) south of Normanton.[15][12] In 1883 the property was running in excess of fifteen thousand sheep.[16]

James Johnston and Mary Gourlay (‘Minnie’) Harvey were married on 12 January 1882 at the house of the bride’s parents at Buninyong.[14][C]

In April 1882 Johnston was appointed as a magistrate in the Normanton jurisdiction.[17] The couple’s first two children were born at ‘Donor’s Hill’ station in Queensland. The eldest child, Mary Gourlay (known as ‘Queenie’), was born on 4 October 1882. Her younger sister, Constance Ruby (known as ‘Ruby’), was born on 23 August 1883.[18][2]

James Johnston (senior) died on 22 January 1885 at his home in Buninyong, aged 59.[19][20] After his father’s death Johnston returned to the Ballarat district. In December 1885 it was reported that James Johnston, a stock and station agent, held his first sale at the Corporation Saleyards in Ballarat.[21]

James and Mary (‘Minnie’) Johnston had two more children, both born in Ballarat. James Gordon (known as ‘Gordon’) was born on 19 June 1887 at the family residence of 22 Pleasant Street. The youngest child of the family, Gladys Pearl (known as ‘Pearl’), was born on 29 October 1888 at 21 Drummond Street.[22][23]

Johnston’s mother Margaret died on 15 July 1888 at Buninyong, Victoria, aged 57.[2]

Chirnside refs.[24][25]

Murders

By December 1890 Johnston and his wife and family were still living at 21 Drummond Street in Ballarat.

The children were murdered on 8 December 1890.[4][26]

James Johnston, a well-known stock and station agent, killed his four children (Queenie, 8 years; Ruby, 7 years; Gordon, 3 years, and Pearl, 2 years) by smothering them in their beds, on 8 December 1890. He then shot his wife, Mary Gourlay Johnston, through the head, and finished by poisoning himself. Mrs. Johnston died shortly afterwards, and Johnston stayed in hospital for more than two months in a critical condition. On 8 December 1890, James smothered his four children, killing them. He shot his wife, Mary, and she succumbed to her injuries several days later. James poisoned himself and was not expected to live, but recovered.

Johnston was charged with murder on 11 March 1891 and stood trial at Ballarat Supreme Court. He was convicted and sentenced to death on 10 April 1891.

Johnston’s execution was set for 11 May 1891, but as doubts arose as to his sanity, his execution was postponed and Johnston was examined by a medical board. The three doctors pronounced him to be quite sane on 13 May.

Johnston was hanged at Ballarat gaol at 10 a.m. on 18 May 1891. (The West Australian, 9 February 1891; 13 March 1891; 13 April 1891; The Brisbane Courier, 10 December 1890; 13 May 1891; 14 May 1891; 19 May 1891)

Summary.[3]

Trial and execution

http://www.cchg.asn.au/crime.html

He was convicted of murder and died by judicial execution on 18 May 1891.

Notes

A.^ James Johnston (senior) arrived at Melbourne from Scotland in 1852. In November 1853 he was appointed as an Assistant Gold Commissioner on the Victorian gold-fields. Soon afterwards Johnston sent for his fiancée Margaret Brown Howden to join him. She arrived on the vessel Hurricane and the couple were married a week later, at Geelong on 9 August 1854. By September the couple were living in the government compound of Camp Hill, on an escarpment overlooking the gold diggings and shanties at Ballarat. Johnston was one of the three government officials presiding over a judicial enquiry in October 1854 into the death of James Scobie, a prelude to the armed rebellion by disgruntled miners. After the events of the Eureka Stockade and the treason trials of February 1855, Johnston took up farming. The couple had fifteen children born from 1855 to 1875, about ten of whom survived to adulthood.[3][27][2]
B.^ The ownership of ‘Donor’s Hill’ was transferred from Martin Hetzer to Cyrus Mason “at a satisfactory price” in July 1881.[28] In 1882 the owners of ‘Donor’s Hill’ was described as either “Chirnside and Mason” or “Messrs. Chirnside, Johnston, and Co.”.[29] One 1883 reference records Messrs. Chirnside, Johnston, and Co. as the owners of ‘Donor’s Hill’.[12]
C.^ Margaret Gourlay Harvey was born on 2 August 1858 at Buninyong, the eldest daughter of Robert M. Harvey (surveyor) and Jane (née Rankin).[30][14]

References

  1. ^ Victorian birth registration: James Johnston; reg. no.: 4689/1856.
  2. ^ a b c d Family records, Ancestry.com website.
  3. ^ a b c d Susie Douglas (2014), From the Borders to Ballarat and Beyond, Borders Ancestry website; accessed 27 September 2025.
  4. ^ a b c A Horrible Tragedy, The Ballarat Star, 10 December 1890, page 4.
  5. ^ The collection of specimens…, Northern Territory Times and Gazette (Darwin), 10 July 1875, page 2.
  6. ^ Sale By Auction, Northern Territory Times and Gazette (Darwin), 27 November 1875, page 2.
  7. ^ To Teamsters, Northern Territory Times and Gazette (Darwin), 6 May 1876, page 1.
  8. ^ Johnston’s Wholesale Store, Shackle, Northern Territory Times and Gazette (Darwin), 12 January 1878, page 2.
  9. ^ Public Notice, Northern Territory Times and Gazette (Darwin), 22 March 1879, page 1.
  10. ^ Public Notice, Northern Territory Times and Gazette (Darwin), 26 March 1881, page 2.
  11. ^ The Drummond Street Tragedy, The Ballarat Courier, 11 April 1891, page 4.
  12. ^ a b c A Trip to the Gulf of Carpentaria, The Brisbane Courier, 8 January 1883, page 3.
  13. ^ Mr. Fookes, the overseer…, The Argus (Melbourne), 21 April 1882, page 6.
  14. ^ a b c Marriages, The Ballarat Star, 21 January 1882, page 2.
  15. ^ Mr. James Johnstone, of Donors Hill…, The Brisbane Courier, 3 November 1882, page 4.
  16. ^ The Far North Pastoral Company, Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney), 28 July 1883, page 20.
  17. ^ New Magistrates, The Capricornian (Rockhampton), 29 April 1882, page 12.
  18. ^ Births, The Ballarat Star, 20 October 1882, page 2.
  19. ^ Our Buninyong correspondent writes…, The Ballarat Star, 24 January 1885, page 2.
  20. ^ Ballarat, Bendigo Advertiser, 24 January 1885, page 2.
  21. ^ Mr. James Johnston…, The Ballarat Star, 10 December 1885, page 2.
  22. ^ Births, The Ballarat Star, 27 June 1887, page 2.
  23. ^ Births, The Ballarat Star, 10 November 1888, page 2.
  24. ^ Obituary: The Late Mr. Robert Chirnside, The Australasian Pastoralists’ Review, 15 February 1900, page 718; Australian Dictionary of Biography website, accessed 29 September 2025.
  25. ^ J. Ann Hone (1969), Andrew Spencer Chirnside (1818–1890), Australian Dictionary of Biography website, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University; accessed 29 September 2025.
  26. ^ The Johnston Tragedy, The Ballarat Star, 3 April 1891, page 2.
  27. ^ Eureka: A Multicultural Affair, Ballarat Heritage Services website; accessed 27 September 2025.
  28. ^ Stations, The Argus (Melbourne), 7 July 1881, page 10.
  29. ^ Stock Movements and State of the Country, The Queenslander (Brisbane), 29 July 1882, page 153.
  30. ^ Births, The Star (Ballarat), 9 August 1858, page 2.
Sources
  • Victoria Maria Nagy & Georgina Rychner (2021), ‘Longitudinal Analysis of Australian Filicide Perpetration Trends: Filicide in Victoria, 1860-1920’, International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 10(2), pages 50-66.

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