A STRANGE STORY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4448, 22 June 1875, Page 3

A STRANGE STORY.

(From the Ovens and Murray Advertiser, 22nd May.) On Tuesday, the 18th instant, there died at Carlton, from strychnine poisoning, a woman who had for some time past borne the name of Johanna Pryor. The deceased woman—we cannot specify her by name, because we do not • know what name she should legally bear—has been mixed up with so many curious affairs in this district, that a sketch of her life, in the correctness of which we believe, but to which we do not pledge ourselves, may be interesting to our readers, and it certainly is a remarkable story;— In or about the year 1840, a girl named Johanna Corbett, hailing from the South of Ireland, arrived in Sydney as a nurse in the family of Dr. Keating, who established himself in Albury. She left that service to marry Maurice Herbert on the expiry of his imprisonment on a sentence for horse-stealing. The pair took up a selection of fifty acres on the Baranduda run, under a rural store license. Eventually they succeeded in obtaining a Crown grant for 200 acres. They kept a house on the road between Yaekandandah and Wodonga, known as the Middle Creek Hotel. Difficulties occurred between husband and wife; he drank constantly and she periodically. One day it happened that Herbert was found lying in the fireplace roasted to death. And at the coroner’s inquest the wife was committed for trial on the charge of wilful murder. She was acquitted by the Chief Justice of the colony on the ground that as no post-mortem examination had been made, there was no actual proof as to how the deceased man came by his death. Popular rumor asserted that a certain young man had helped Mrs. Herbert to hold her husband on to the fire. Mrs. Herbert then resumed occupation of the hotel. Among those who made it their head-quar-ters was Power, afterwards a feeble bushranger, but then in the preliminary stage of cattlestealing, and a man named Maokay. Mrs. Herbert took a strong fancy to Power, and was always melancholy when he was absent on—business. During one of these absences she drank very heavily, and while she was “suffering a recovery,” our informant tells us, that Mackay, by terrible threats, induced her to marry him. It proved to be an unhappy marriage, and Mackay, fancying that his wife preferred Power to himself, is said to have informed against him for horse-stealing, for which he was convicted and sent to Pentridge. Thence he escaped, and “ took to the roads,” stating openly that he would take Mackay’s life if he came across him. Mackay stole a horge of Mr. Houn’s, in order to escape this danger, but was apprehended and sentenced. On his release Mackay returned to his homo, armed with a billhook, supposed to be intended for an assault on Power, whom he believed to be living with his wife. The door was opened by Joseph Pryor—the man now in charge—who was felled to the ground by Mackay with the billhook, and had to be taken to the Ovens District Hospital, where he recovered. Mackay was imprisoned for a time for this offence, and on his release, on returning home, he smashed his wife’s skull with a tomahawk, for which he was imprisoned for two years. The wife in the meantime disposed of all the property and went to Beechworth, where Power was then awaiting trial. It was at this stage of her history that Mrs. Harvey, who gave evidence at the inquest in Melbourne, became acquainted with her. The conviction of Power seems to have driven Mrs. Herbert, alias Mackay, alias Pryor, he., to drinking heavily, and in her drunken, it might almost be called delirious talk, she spoke constantly of the vision of Herbert appearing to her. She suffered

n/'ouy which our informant describes as ““dreadful to witness.” On her recovery she went to Melbourne, where she again fell in with Pryor, who is a London carpenter, skilful in his trade, and bearing a good character. She could not have been married to him, if he proves to be true that there is a legal marriage between her and Mackay, who is now in gaol, having escaped the gallows by one of those inscrutable mysteries which are only known to juries, for the brutal murder of a paramour. What has passed since is known to our readers. This unfortunate woman, who seems to have been mixed up with criminals ever since she left an honest service, has gone to her account, and that account has not now to be rendered to any earthly tribunal.