BILL THE PUNTMAN
William Rattray, better known as 'Billy', (not to be confused as Billy the Puntman), was one of the first to convey people across the Ovens River at Wangaratta, Victoria, and became notorious for overcharging.
The first record of Billy comes from a letter written by Thomas Scott Townsend, Assistant Surveyor from Melbourne who wrote on 19th September, 1839:
'Now I beg to call your attention to the great impositions the public are subject to on this road for want of proper punts with a scale of tolls fixed. . . .
The Ovens is crossed by a boat belonging to T. Rattray and he will not allow a dray to be put on it. I towed my dray across it got foul of some logs at the bottom and it was not without much delay that I got it out. Rattray also charged £1. . . .'
On the 1st October, 1856, Billy was arrested in Albury by Chief Constable Henry Ringland. On searching him he was found to be carrying £77/6/0 and a gold ring. He was taken to Beechworth and at a preliminary hearing on the 8th October, was committed for trial. On Saturday, 18th October, 1856, he was brought before Mr Justice J. G. Forbes and Dr. Crawford J.P. at the Courthouse in Beechworth, on a charge of highway robbery. Several witnesses were examined, amongst whom, were William White, the Mail Driver, Edward Lucas, the Wangaratta postmaster, and several police constables.
The Constitution, of 21st October, 1856, reported:-
'The prisoner, in defence, said that he considered it very hard that he should have been taken into custody on such slight and conflicting evidence, stating that the mail driver had been in doubt whether the occurrence took place on the 12th or 13th of September, until he perused the almanac . . .'
Billy was, however, found guilty and sentenced to 12 years with hard labour.
On the trip to take him to Melbourne he made several attempts to escape, and according to some accounts was supposed to have finally hung himself with a strip of blanket in his cell at Donnybrook. But this was most likely not the case, as is shown in the following newspaper article, and the inquest into his death:-
The Constitution, of 6th November, 1856 quoted from the Kilmore Advocate:-'Billy, the puntman. . . Since the above was in type, we have learned that Billy, the puntman, has ceased to exist, while being conveyed from Beechworth to Melbourne he was seized with fever, brought on by an anxiety of mind and suddenly expired when within 17 miles from Melbourne. This occurred on Tuesday last (28th October, 1856). . . . A rumour has been current in Beechworth that the criminal had died by his own hands, having taken poison, which he was supposed to have concealed about his person. We understand that he was heard to say that he had the means of 'settling' himself whenever he liked. The usual custom of clothing prisoners in prison dress is not adopted in the Beechworth gaol, and it is certainly possible that he may have had the poison secreted, say, for instance, in the waist band of his trousers. We cannot understand why the inmates of the prison should not be clothed in accordance with the regulations that exist at other penal institutions, etc.).'
The Assistant Government Statist supplied the following cause of death:
'John Hyde (Billy the puntman) died at Cragie Burn on 28th October, 1856, due, according to a Coroner's inquest, to congestion of the brain.'