1844: The Quick and the Dead

March 1, 2025

By AHNZ

This week in history, on 26 February, 1844, Hugh Ross shot William Brewer dead in a Wellington street. The two lawyers had decided to settle their dispute over a case in the Wellington County Court outside of the law instead.

This Hobson Honour Culture time period was characterised by people who took life personally and sorted things out with blunt force rather than recourse to institutions (eg law.) The social hierarchy was all important and men at its leading edge showed each other, and the natives, who was the toughest by recourse to gun fights.

Brewer is reported to have fired into the sky. Ross decided to shoot his shot into Brewer’s groin; A deadly wound. The coroner couldn’t implicate Ross because none of the witnesses kept to the First Rule of Fight Club (“you do not talk about Fight Club.”) Apart from the pistol duel itself that’s a clear sign they were living in Honour Culture times.

“The duel followed a quarrel over a case in the Wellington County Court. When the two men faced off in Sydney St, Thorndon, Brewer fired into the air but ‘received Mr. Ross’ ball in the groin’. He died four days later. Although several people witnessed the duel, the coroner’s inquest concluded that there was no proof as to who had inflicted the wound. The fact that the survivor of a duel could be charged with murder may explain the witnesses’ reticence. Or perhaps it was a case of ‘what happens on the duelling field stays on the duelling field.’” – NZHistory.govt

“Brewer was seriously wounded, dying on 4 March. The coroner found that the evidence did not prove by whom the wound was inflicted.” – NZ Encyclopedia (1966)

Ross was, in my opinion, a Scottish hard man who had tried to go ‘legit’ by graduating thuggery into government work. What is a religion but a very successful cult? What is a government but a very successful pirate gang? I enjoyed watching Idris Elba’s character in The Wire (2001) and Vince Vaughn in True Detective (2014) cash in their criminal gains to try to become part of the official State establishment. And, Gene Hackman in The Quick and the Dead (1995) has shot his way to hegemony as outlaw-turned-mayor.

Well, Ross had formerly been acting Solicitor-General and the Crown Solicitor of Van Diemen’s Land (aka Tasmania) with great power, responsibility, and remuneration. He lost his government job at a time when the colonial economy went bust and so resolved to retreat into a life of crime. Ross used his position to collect Crown debts (not his job) and “loan” them to himself as he shot through to before being arrested and hauled back to Hobart to face embezzlement charges (1842.) Somehow Ross escaped joining the penal colony inmates he had no doubt helped incarcerate thanks to a legal technicality. No time was wasted in Ross leaving town to re-establish himself at as a lawyer at Lambton Quay, Wellington. Ref. Australian Dictionary of Biography

Now 49 years old and starting over, Ross evidently didn’t have time to be pestered by this William Brewer guy in his new country. So, he terminated him.

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Image ref. Gene Hackman, The Quick and the Dead (1995)

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