People/lewingtonwilliam.html
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William Lewington
Erickson:
LEWINGTON, William, b. 1802, d. 16.7.1869 (Frem), arr. 6.10.1829 per Lotus one of Lautour's men, m. 27.8.1832 (Frem) Susannah MAYDWELL b. 1815 d. 18.9.1893 (Guildford), she arr. 5.8.1829 per Calista with parents Robert & Susannah. Chd. Robert William b. 1833, Harriet b. 1835, Sarah Mary b. 1838, Mary Ann b. 1840 d. 1918, Jessy b. 1843 d. 1874, Edward b. 1846 d. 1929, Susannah b. 1848. Bricklayer & builder & gravedigger. Frem. Town Lot 142 sold to Duffield to establish himself at Perth Town Lot 33 (1831). Town Lot H resumed for road & was granted another between G11 & H20 (SDUR L/49 L/L39). His destitute widow applied for admission to Poorhouse 11.6.1887.
Berryman:
Robert Maydwell, 41 widower, Leicestershire, constable, Calista, Leake.
Susan, his daughter, 15, London, Calista.
Peter Conole:
An incident of 1833 involved a man named William Lewington, who challenged his own father-in-law, Constable Robert Maydwell of Fremantle. There had been a marriage break-up and Lewington blamed the constable. Briefly, Lewington pursued the unarmed Maydwell to a hotel, took a shot at him, missed and was promptly arrested. A jury acquitted Lewington of the charge of attempted murder.
Allen Graham:
The town continued to have its fair share of tensions and in January 1833 a shot was fired into the Plough Hotel.
The circumstances giving rise to this shot were that one man had called out another, but the challenge was dismissed; a slight which prompted the challenger to take a shot at his foe as he stood inside the hotel. This incident took place in January 1833 when a gentlemen by the name of Lewington was having troubles with his father-in-law, Robert Maydwell. The cause of the trouble was Lewington’s recent marriage to Maydwell’s daughter, who seems to have left Lewington at the active urging of her father.
This caused great aggravation to Lewington who at around 10 pm one Saturday evening had taken possession of a pistol and having pursued Maydwell to the Plough Hotel threatened to shoot him. The Perth Gazette provides a colourful account of the incident stating that once Lewington had acquired the pistol ...
He returned immediately to Mr Coopers and seeing the prosecutor he exclaimed; you d-—d scoundrel, you have broke my piece of mind, if you are a man come out; to which the prosecutor replied. You foolish fellow, go about your business, the prisoner then raised the pistol and took a deliberate aim at the prosecutor, and said. If you don’t come out like a man here goes, he immediately fired the pistol, the contents of which lodged in the wall a few inches from the prosecutors head.
After firing the shot, Lewington bolted from the scene but was soon captured and taken to the gaol where in his defence ...
He said that the prosecutor had for a long time treated him in the most cruel and unkind manner, and that he only did it to frighten him; as he could easily have shot him dead, if he had any such intention.
References and Links
Berryman, Ian 1979 ed., A Colony Detailed: The First Census of Western Australia 1832, Creative Research, Perth.
Conole, Peter 2010, 'Policing the port in early colonial times', Fremantle Studies, 6: 12-28.
Graham, Allen 2005, 'Early duels of Fremantle', Fremantle Studies, 4: 95-106.
and as above.
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 15 August, 2023 and hosted at freotopia.org/people/lewingtonwilliam.html (it was last updated on 11 September, 2023). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.