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Louisa Collins (née Hall; formerly Andrews) 11 August 1847 – 8 January 1889) was an Australian convicted murderer. Collins, who was dubbed the “Borgia of Botany” by the press of the day, was tried on four separate occasions, after the first three juries failed to convict. At the fourth trial the jury delivered a guilty verdict and she was sentenced to death. Collins was hanged on the morning of 8 January 1889. She was the first woman hanged to be at Darlinghurst Gaol and the last woman executed in New South Wales.

Biography[edit]

Early life[edit]

Louisa Hall was born on 11 August 1847 at ‘Belltrees’ station on the Hunter River, near Scone in New South Wales.^[1] She was the fourth-born of nine children of Henry Hall and Catherine (née King).^[2] Louisa was baptised on 7 November 1847 in St. Luke’s church in Scone.^[3] Her father, Henry Hall, was an agricultural labourer, born in Birmingham, England, who had arrived in Australia in 1832 as a convict aboard the vessel Asia.^[4] Louisa’s mother, Catherine King, was a native of Dublin, Ireland, who immigrated to Australia in 1841 aboard the Fairlie.^[5] Despite having four years of his sentence to complete, Hall obtained a ticket of leave and was granted permission to marry Catherine King. The couple were married at Scone in August 1842.^[1][4][6]

Louisa’s early teenage years were described in the following terms: “With good looks, attractive presence, and winning ways, she was no sooner in her ‘teens’ than she developed all the qualities of a country coquette, and earned for herself the reputation of being a heartless flirt”. As a consequence of her vivacious demeanour she “had many suitors and youthful sweethearts”.^[7]

When Louisa Hall was aged about fourteen she found employment as a domestic servant for a solicitor at Merriwa, 30 miles (49 km) west of Scone.^[1]

Marriage to Andrews[edit]

In Merriwa Louisa met Charles Andrews, who was working as a butcher in the township.^[1] Andrews was 14 years older than Louisa and a widower (though he probably presented himself as a bachelor).^[8][A] Andrews began to court Louisa, in a match that was encouraged by her mother “who seemed to consider she had secured an excellent alliance for her daughter”. Louisa’s opinion of her suitor was much more tentative; she later stated, “I never liked, or cared for Andrews, although I didn’t murder him”.^[7] Louisa Hall and Charles Andrews were married at Merriwa in August 1865 (several weeks after Louisa’s eighteenth birthday).^[9][1]

Louisa Andrews had nine children, born between June 1867 and May 1883, two of whom died as young children.^[2] After the birth of her first child at Merriwa in 1867, accounts of Louisa’s life state that she “took to drink”. Her intemperate habits, described as “secret drinking”, became a factor in the domestic discord that began to develop in the Andrews household.^[7][1] By 1871 the family had relocated to Muswellbrook.^[2] In December 1876 Andrews was granted a license to slaughter in his own yard by the local bench of magistrates.^[10] By 1877 Andrews had accumulated unmanageable debts and in January 1878 insolvency proceedings were initiated against him.^[11]

With Andrews in a precarious financial position, he relocated with his family to Sydney in order to find work.^[12] The family’s first place of residence was “in Berry’s paddock”, near Ricketty Street in St. Peters, where Andrews was employed by John Sugden Berry, a bonedust manufacturer.^[13] By May 1880, when Louisa’s seventh child was baptised, the family were probably living near Moore Park and Charles was working as a carter.^[13][14] By about 1882 Charles Andrews had found work as a driver of drays with the woolscouring and fellmongering establishments operated by the Geddes brothers (trading as Messrs. T. Geddes and Co.), based at Botany (in areas known as Springvale and Floodvale).^[15][16] With Andrews working for the Geddes brothers, the family began living at No. 1 Pople’s Terrace, in a swampy area of Botany known as ‘Frog’s Hollow’. They occupied one of two semi-detached cottages, in a row of such four-roomed cottages running at right angles to Botany Road, separated from the Springvale woolwash by a small paddock and a creek. ‘Frog Hollow’ was a low-lying flat adjacent to the creek.^[15][12] Andrews was recognised as a hard worker and “a sober, honest, good-hearted, simple-minded man”.^[8].

By about the mid-1880s Charles and Louisa Andrews began to take in boarders to ease their financial situation. In addition to themselves and the four children who remained in the household, there were often four or five boarders living in the small four-roomed cottage. From early in 1886, one of the boarders living in the house was Michael Peter Collins, known familiarly as ‘Mick’.^[15] Collins was also employed by Messrs. T. Geddes and Co., primarily carting skins from the Glebe Island Abattoirs to the Botany tannery.^[17] Retrospective assessments of Louisa…