To the magistrates charged by the jury presentment, as
well as to those secretly charged, Bannister sent invitations
of a similar tenour. Marsden disclaimed all recollection of
the case in 1822, in which he was accused of concurring
with Douglass in ordering Downes and Carroll "to be
confined in a solitary cell on bread and water, and every
second morning to receive twenty-five lashes until they tell
where the money is concealed." He asked Bannister to
call for the warrants, and his name was not found on them,
although in the record of attendance on the Bench it was
included. Forgery had been at work, and it had been
clumsy.[1] On the day on which Marsden was accused of
punishing Downes and Carroll at Parramatta, he was far
away on a tour to Portland Head at the Hawkesbury. He
had on that occasion performed a marriage ceremony (27th
June),[2] and Mr. Cox, one of the best-known gentlemen in
the district, was able to furnish a written statement that
Marsden was at Cox's house, Clarendon, on the 1st July, and
did not leave it until the 3rd. An alibi so established tended
to throw doubt upon the other charges. Marsden published
the refutation in a newspaper. There was a case which
occurred on the 5th April 1825, in which the records were
not disproved by external evidence, but Marsden denied
their accuracy.
His name was put at the heading of the
proceedings, but he had not signed them. When Brisbane's
Council investigated the matter, they observed the deficiency,
but surmised that as Marsden was present on the following
day he was present on the 5th.
The luckless Douglass was said to have signed an order to flog a man daily until he should tell the names of four associates in gambling, and Marsden's name had been entered at the head of the record. The report of Brisbane's Council stated that the clerk of the Bench at Parramatta placed the original minutes before the Council. Marsden
- ↑ The poor creature, believed to have been employed or to have worked from personal malice, was the man who had made the charges against Douglass before. He had been originally transported for forgery, and was eventually hanged in New South Wales for a similar offence!
- ↑ Mr. George Cox, son of the witness, was married on that day at Windsor to Miss Bell, in the presence of Wylde the Judge Advocate, the fathers of the bride and bridegroom, and others, in the church at Windsor.
