Samuel Wells Lazenby
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| Death: | |
| Parents: | George Lazenby October 1807 – 9 June 1895 Mary Ann Lazenby (née Wells) 1810 – 1886-04-16 |
| Siblings: | Hannah Boyd Hall (née Lazenby) 1849–1911 Lucy Hall (née Lazenby) 1840–1873 Jane Wesley Rowe (née Lazenby) b. c.1860 |
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| Children: | |
| Authority control |
Permalink: archives.org.au/SWL Wikitree: Lazenby-492 |
Born in Perth in 1841.[1]
Three of Samuel Lazeby's sister's children wrote of his death:[2]
Joy Hall:
Samuel Lazenby, the brother-ion-law of William Shakespeare Hall, was speared by natives when asleep. He had landed his pearling boat and was camped on the beach when it happened. Young Lazenby and his sister went north about the same time, she a bride of nineteen and he very little older.
These matters I heard talked of when a child. My father narrated the chief events of his life in such a graphic way as to grip our retentive young minds.
Ernest Hall:
I cannot give you the date of Uncle Sam’s (Lazenby) [5/8/1871 handwritten in margin and initialled J. Clifton] murder. It would be in the police records in Perth. The main facts are these. Uncle Sam was pearling in the cutter Venus (of which our father was part owner). They were at anchor close to an island now known as Lazenby’s Island. Uncle took a boat and boat’s crew and went on shore at night to get turtle. They split his skull with an axe and also killed Joe Murray, a Roebourne native. The murderers were all North West Cape natives. The cause of Uncle’s being killed was the natives could not account for Joe Murray (who they wanted to kill).
Aubrey Hall:
Samuel Lazenby was killed about 1870, I think. He had gone north to work in the Dad’s business at Roebourne (purchased from Padbury after his nephews the Nairns had made a financial failure of it) but subsequently acquired the schooner Venus and went pearling. He procured his divers from between Fortescue and Onslow and N.W.C., and I suppose on account of being so wild and uncivilised, a Roebourne native Joe Murray, who was mother’s house boy in Roebourne, and could speak a little English, was sent on the boat with Uncle Sam. The Western natives decided to kill Joe Murray but could not well do so on the boat. However an opportunity occurred. Uncle Sam, who was only about 20, I think, and of a kindly disposition decided to land on an island off shore, I think, from the mouth of the Fortescue, to get turtle for fresh meat for the natives. He sharpened a tomahawk for butchering the turtle; took a dinghy crew of natives on to the island, where they turned over a number of turtle, and all hands then turned in for the night, intending to return to the Venus in the morning.
Unfortunately Joe Murray, Uncle Sam’s boy was of the party; to compass his death they first buried the tomahawk in Uncle Sam’s skull, and then killed Joe Murray. Next morning the natives returned to the Venus and told the white man in charge that the dinghy had swamped coming off from the island, and uncle had lost his life. The man or man in charge weighed anchor and sailed in near the mainland to get a report to Roebourne, by some of the pearling craft, or else in their course en route for Cossack. Anyhow upon the first opportunity after nearing the land the natives ran away. A few days later other pearlers landing on the same island for turtle, found uncle’s body, in his blanket, buried in a shallow grave, and the murder was out.
Charlie was the ringleader in the murder and over him Dad, I fancy, came into collision with the then Governor, because Dad, who soon after this also went pearling, pursued Charlie upon every available opportunity, the authorities having failed to apprehend him. After some time had elapsed the Governor pardoned Charlie, but Dad held he had exceeded his powers, inasmuch, he argued, that the Crown could not pardon a man of an offence of which they had not proved him guilty. However Charlie was such a turbulent man even among his own people, that some of them waited one day for him, and when he went down into a deep native sand well for a drink they killed him. Uncle Sam is buried in Roebourne cemetery.
References
- ↑ WABMD-Birth-1841/9. Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages (Government of Western Australia, Department of Justice) Index entry for Samuel Wells Lazenby (Birth registered in 1841; number: 9; district: -). Accessed 2025-10-18. Record details: gender: M; father: George LAZENBY; mother: Mary Ann WELLS; birth place: Perth; year of birth: 1841.
- ↑ Miscellaneous Notes by J.M. Clifton
