I have previously written about John Weatherstone, and his death from taking arsenic at the age of 77, but the new Goulburn papers going up on Trove have given more detail from the inquest into his death.
This scan is quite hard to read, so I have put the text of the article below.
There was an inquest at Parkesbourne on Monday held by Mr. Betts, coroner,
when the following evi- dence was gone into as to the cause of death of John Weatherstone:—
Catherine Weatherstone deposed : The deceased was my husband ; on Saturday
last deceased said to me that he was going to Queanbeyan - that he had come to
see me for the last time, as he had made up his mind to put an end to himself ;
he said he had some poison in his pocket ; he asked me to give him a tea-cup
with a drop of water, but I said I would do no such thing ; subsequently he
went away and said good-bye ; in about an hour I went to where he was in the
bush ; he said "give me a drink of water, I have taken poison and
my stomach is burning out of me ;" he seemed to be in great pain ; I got
him home, and he went into the stable and asked me to let him lie down on the
straw there ; we tried to get him to take some emetics, but he would not ; he
continued vomiting until about 9 o'clock, when he died ; he frequently
threatened to take poison before ; he used drink heavily at times, and was of a
very desponding disposition ; he told me he got the poison at Vincent's, in
Goulburn, and that he had told Vin- cent it was to poison mice and rats ; I
could see on Saturday morning that deceased had been drinking ; my son was
away, and there was no one to send for a doctor after we found that deceased
had poisoned himself. Last Saturday deceased went to the house of Mr. James
Bugg ; he got a cup from Charles Bugg with water in it, and having placed some
white powder in it, drank the dose off ; deceased stated that he had poison in
the cup.
Jane Weatherstone deposed : I am the wife of William Weatherstone of
Parkesbourne, farmer ; the body just viewed by the coroner and jury is that
of John Weatherstone my husband's father ; he was 77 years of age, and
has left a widow and five children ; deceased had been living in Goulburn for the
last six or seven weeks with his daughter Mrs. Gowan ; he came out here about 9
o'clock last Saturday morning ; he asked for his wife and he saw her, and
talked with her for some time ; after this, about 11 o'clock, he came in and
got a cup, and com- menced putting something in the cup out of a little
paper ; I saw it was a white paper ; I took the cup from him and threw the
contents in the fire ; de- ceased then crumbled the paper up in his hands and
went out with it ; he went away from the place altogether, and in about
an hour Mrs. Warne's boy came for me ; I went away past Mr. Bugg's and I there
found deceased sitting on a log ; he had the same paper in his hand ; I asked
him to give the paper up, but he would not ; I saw some of the dry powder on
deceased lips ; deceased would not come to my house ; at about three o'clock he
sent for his wife, and she came and got him to come home ; when they reached
the place he went into the stable; he complained of a pain in his chest and was
vomiting frequently ; the vomiting was of a green appearance ; his wife stayed
with him, and took him some tea, but at about 9 o'clock p.m. he died ; I saw
nothing strange about his appearance or his manner when he came to my place ; I
saw no signs of his having been drinking ; deceased and his wife were not on
good terms, and had not been living together for some time.
Dr. Gentle made a post mortem examination of deceased's body ; from the
appearance of the stomach and the evidence of different witnesses, the doctor
was of opinion that death was caused by an overdose of arsenic.
The finding of the jury was that deceased died from the effects of a dose of
arsenic intentionally administered by his own hand.
