Murder at the Diggings: Part Seven - The Curious Case of Andrew Marshall
Fact or Delusion? What caused Andrew to rant that he had killed Mary Young?
Part Seven of a multi-part series about the murder of Mary Young and what ensued afterwards. If you haven’t read the earlier posts in this series, you can catch up here:
Andrew Marshall & His Pitchfork
If you have read the preceding parts of this series, you will probably recall the mention of Andrew Marshall and his pitchfork.
Andrew lived with his wife Jessie, née Mackay, in Naseby where he ran his business as a coal carrier1. Naseby is 16km from the Kyeburn Diggings. Andrew also owned some land about 300 yards from, and opposite to, Mary Young’s house at the Kyeburn Diggings. That is where he kept his oat stack and it was there, with that oat stack, that his pitchfork was usually kept.
The pitchfork was never implicated in the murder of Mary Young but it’s placement outside of Mary’s house on the day of her murder, was a bit of a mystery2.
Andrew would have known Mary well. Both Mary and Andrew were immigrants from Ayrshire in Scotland. Both lived at Irvine in Ayrshire prior to travelling to New Zealand. Andrew was born in Irvine in 18373. He was a few years younger than Mary. When Mary was murdered on 4 August 1880, she was 58 years old and Andrew was 434.
At the time Mary died, Andrew had been in New Zealand for about 18 years. He had been living in the Naseby area for about 15 years, since 18655. It is uncertain how long he had owned the land opposite to Mary’s home at the Kyeburn Diggings.
The Murder of Mary Young
Andrew served on the Jury at the Inquest into Mary’s death. The Inquest was held between 6 and 11 August 1880. As you may recall, the Jury returned a Verdict of Murder by person or persons unknown. However, it also said that the evidence led it to believe the murder or murderers were Chinese.
At this time, the absolute focus of the Police was on the Chinese community and finding those responsible for Mary’s murder amongst that community. In fact, at the time, five Chinese men, including Ah Lee, who was eventually convicted and hanged for the murder, were already in custody at the Naseby Gaol on suspicion of murder.
Consequently, when Andrew Marshall became extremely distressed a few days after the Inquest ended, saying that he had been the one to kill Mary Young, it was considered to be a medical matter not a police one. The immediate assumption was that Andrew had lost his mind.
Admission to the Asylum
Andrew was considered to be delusional and immediately sent to be assessed at what was then known as the Dunedin Lunatic Asylum.
The first doctor who saw Andrew, was E. W. Alexander. He issued a certificate on 17 August 1880 saying:
“Nervous tremor. Excitement - Is unable to control emotion. Various delusions - Believes himself to be suspected of a murder”6
The second doctor, W. S. Roberts issued a certificate on 18 August 1880 saying:
“Exceedingly nervous. Unable to answer Questions. Reverts to a delusion that he has just committed a murder. He imagines he is the author of a recent Murder near Naseby”7.
An order for ‘Reception of a Lunatic into an Asylum’ was signed by a Justice of the Peace on 18 August 1880 and Andrew was admitted accordingly (No. 1370). A notice of admission, completed on 20th August 1880, confirmed that Andrew had been admitted on the 18th8. This was the same day that the police posted a reward notice in the hope of attracting more information to support a case against one, all, or some of the Chinese suspects they had in custody.
In the statement as to his mental and bodily condition dated 20 August, Andrew is described by D. MacGregor, Medical Officer at the Asylum as: “suffering from acute mania” but otherwise “in good condition”9.
Andrew was held in the Asylum for about two months. He was discharged on 20 October 1880 following a medical opinion that he was now ‘a person detained without sufficient cause’10. At this time, Ah Lee was awaiting execution in Dunedin Gaol having been found guilty in the Supreme Court on 9 October 1880 of murdering Mary Young.
On release, Andrew returned to Naseby. He was back home for less than a month before he was found wandering the Naseby streets confessing his guilt once more. This was on 11 November, six days after Ah Lee was hanged for Mary’s murder.
On 13 November 1880, Andrew was examined at Naseby by Dr Thomas Bain Whitton who completed a certificate of insanity:
“He has but lately returned from the Dunedin Asylum. He suffers from phases of insanity of a periodic nature. He still retains a delusion as to his part in the recent Kyeburn murder. He is not yet safe to be allowed at large as he takes no interest in his affairs, goes roaming about, has fits of weeping and despondency & imagines that his friends are conspiring to injure him &c. and yet with these delusions he has intervals when he will converse rationally on subjects, and express his inability to restrain these excited states when on him. He, when in the Asylum, will possibly appear quite capable of taking care of himself, but such is not the case. Two nights ago he arose about 4 o'clock in the morn from bed, dressed himself, became violent & went up & down the streets, until his friends called on the police for aid had him confined in gaol.”11
On the same day, the Resident Magistrate at Naseby, H W Robinson, signed a warrant of committal on the basis that:
“Andrew Marshall of Naseby coal carrier is a lunatic and a proper person to be detained under care and treatment.”12
This warrant required Andrew to be taken from Naseby to Maclaggan street police station in Dunedin and, from there, to the Dunedin Lunatic Asylum.
Before admission to the asylum, a second medical opinion was sought. On 16 November 1880, Dr A. J Ferguson completed the certificate appropriate to confirming that Andrew was ‘a proper person to be detained’. He crossed out the word ‘lunacy’ on the form and replaced it with ‘of unsound mind’. He wrote:
“He suffers from fits of crying & despondency for which he cannot account - when he takes no interest in his affairs & does not care whether he lives or dies”13
Andrew was admitted to the Asylum on 16 November 1880 (No. 1401). In the statement about Andrew completed by his wife, Jessie Marshall, at the time of his admittance, she says that the cause of his attack was “shock at the murder of a friend”. The form also indicates that he is suicidal and dangerous to others14.
A form about his mental and bodily health was completed by D. MacGregor, the Medical Officer of the Asylum on 18 November 1880. He said that Andrew was suffering from “melancholia with delusions” but otherwise in a fair condition15.
On this occasion, Andrew was at the Asylum for just under a year. The order of discharge confirming that there was no longer cause to detain him, was signed on 15 October 188116.
Resuming His Life at Naseby
I have yet to fully research Andrew Marshall but it appears that, after being discharged from the Dunedin Lunatic Asylum for the second time in October 1881, things returned to normal for him and life carried on without further issues.
Andrew died at the age of 80 years on 3 August 191617 , one day short of 36 years since Mary Young was murdered on 4 August 1880. He is buried in the Naseby Cemetery with his wife Jessie who died two years before him on 5 November 1914 at the age of 7418.
The information in this post is drawn from my one-place study - Kyeburn Diggings One-Place Study on the WeAre.xyz platform
Andrew had married Jessie Mackay on 10 September 1863 in Dunedin - Marriage Registration Number: 1863/4081 Births, Deaths & Marriages Online [Digital Index] via New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs [Website]. Accessed 3 April 2025
Although Ah Keen, while at custody in Naseby, said he saw Lee Guy move the pitchfork, the statements made in the few days after the reward notices were posted are generally considered unreliable.
Scotland, Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950 via Ancestry.com. Scotland, Select Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014.
According to his birth record he would have been 43 - See Note 3.
Note, however:
Andrew’s age is shown as 27 at the time of his marriage in September 1863 suggesting a birthdate of 1863 - See Note 1; and
Andrew’s age is shown as
4445 on admission papers to the Dunedin Lunatic Asylum in August 1880 suggesting a birthdate of about 1835 if he had already had his birthday - See the Documents Section of my Kyeburn Diggings One-Place Study Archive
Andrew Marshall’s obituary - Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 11 August 1916, Page 2 via Papers Past
Image 0009 - Source: 🌀 Archives New Zealand / CC BY 2.0 - Item Code: R25257513 - Box number: 9 Record number: 1370 [Mental Hospital Statutory Admission Papers]. Physical access - Dunedin Repository Archives New Zealand - Digital Access - IE92374911
Image 0008 - See Note 6.
Image 0005 - See Note 6.
Image 0004 - See Note 6.
Images 0003 and 0002 - See Note 6.
Image 02 - Archives New Zealand / CC BY 2.0 - Item Code: R25257544 - Box number: 10 - Record number: 1401 [Mental Hospital Statutory Admission Papers] via Flickr and found on the NZ Ancestor Research Helper. Physical access - Dunedin Repository Archives New Zealand - Digital Access via NZ Ancestor Research Helper.
Archives New Zealand / CC BY 2.0 - Probate Letters of Administration Files - Item Code: R22063041- Box number: 347Record number: 3770 Years: 1907 - 1950. Physical Access: Dunedin Repository. Digital Access: IE73550323 and via Family Search
Billion Dollar Graves - Andrew Marshall Death date is incorrectly stated as 4 August 1916. Probate records say 3 August - See Note 17.
The best stories always surprise you as a researcher, right?
This is a great twist, tragic - if we are to assume he was actually the guilty party and an innocent man paid the price.
IF that’s the case, his breakdown may have been a chicken or egg case - was he already unstable when he killed Mary, or did killing Mary make him unstable?
Thanks for letting us ponder the “truth” on our own in this fascinating series! Well done!
Well that’s a twist I wasn’t expecting. This has been a great series written so well. After all the research you’ve done I’m not sure how you can bear the not knowing exactly what happening. I suspect Andrew was the guilty one and his crime sent him a bit insane for a while. Unless the insanity caused him to commit the crime