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Murder of John Hurford

murder in 19th century Australia

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionDec 22, 2025
Entity authorityQ6937918 ↗
Source-derived summary

The murder of John Hurford occurred on 8 April 1855 in Western Australia. His murder led to the first execution of a woman in Western Australia, for the crime of murder.

Background

Hurford arrived in the colony of Western Australia in 1830. He was granted 400 hectares of land at Augusta and purchased a further 100 hectares at Wonnerup Inlet near Busselton. By the age of 65, he had amassed a fortune of £2,000. He married Bridget Larkin in 1851. She had been widowed when her husband had drowned in Bunbury. There were six children of this earlier marriage.

The relationship was not to be a happy one. Larkin was abusive towards her new husband.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Murder of John Hurford” as murder in 19th century Australia. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1855, 1830, 1851—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Murder, John and Hurford can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as murder in 19th century Australia. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 22, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q6937918. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1855, 1830 and 1851.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Murder of John Hurford”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Murder of John Hurford primary sources, Murder of John Hurford archive and Murder research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Murder of John Hurford”?
  2. What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Murder of John Hurford” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.