Refused admission.

Brian Walsh (right) has researched and written extensively about the history of Paterson and district. Here he shares the story of a ticket-of-leave convict who was refused admission to Maitland Hospital.

William McGill died in May 1846 after being refused admission to Maitland Hospital because he was a convict holding a ticket-of-leave.

Butt of William McGill’s ticket-of-leave.

(Downloaded from ancestry.com.au; original held in NSW State Archives)

McGill, who hailed from Nottingham, England, arrived in New South Wales in 1827 aged 18, with a life sentence for stealing a horse.

In 1832 he received his first ticket-of-leave, which in effect gave him an early release on parole, subject to good behaviour. McGill's ticket was soon cancelled when he forged an order for goods, and he was sent to work in an iron gang for six months. He ended up serving twelve months in the gang after absconding from it.

McGill was then assigned to John Eales of Berry Park (later of Duckenfield) and worked on Eales' squatting runs on the Liverpool Plains, where he regained his ticket-of-leave. Later he worked for Police Magistrate Edward Denny Day in New England before returning to work for Day in Maitland.

In 1846 William McGill suffered an inflammation of the lungs and presented himself to Maitland Hospital. There he was treated but refused admission as a patient because it was against hospital rules to admit ticket-of-leave holders. McGill died two days later in a hut adjoining Day's residence where he was taken after being turned away from the hospital. A post mortem indicated that death had been caused by inflammation of the lungs and, from the extent of the disease, death was inevitable. A Coroner's Court was convened at the Blue Bell Inn, East Maitland. Day told the court that when McGill was brought from the hospital he did not appear to be in a dangerous state. The verdict was death from natural causes. (Maitland Mercury, 27 May 1846)

Somewhat ironically, Day laid the foundation stone for the Maitland Hospital in January 1846, early in the same year that McGill was refused admission.

Brian Walsh researched McGill’s story for his book Toil and Trouble from Maitland to Moreton Bay - John Eales’ Convicts (Paterson, 2014). He has made an updated version of the book available free online.

Brian Walsh’s research data on McGill is also available online.