Biography

The deceased's wife, Sarah Hannah Yates, was born in Australind in 1871.

In April 1908, the Yarri State Battery processed 51.5 tons of ore for Mr Selborne for 34.8 oz of gold, in June that year another 23 tons for 17.40 oz. and in July 1908, a further 23 tons for 17.40 oz. The death of the deceased was certified to in writing by his daughter, M. Blythe, of Maylands.

At the Quarter Sessions in Bunbury on 23 October 1908, Sarah Hannah Selbome was convicted of bigamy, she having married George William Bruce on November 24 last while her husband, William Thomas Selbome, to whom she was married on December 26, 1835. at Picton, was alive. The evidence showed that the accused had not heard from her husband for years but her daughter, Margaret Mary Blythe, who was then unmarried, communicated with the Midland Junction police and ascertained that her father was at Yarri, near Yundamindera. and wrote to him. She received letters from him and told her mother that he was alive before the second marriage took place. The accused was given to be of good character. Mr. Eastman pleaded that the accused should be lightly dealt with. The jury returned a verdict of guilty, with a strong recommendation to mercy on account of the disgraceful conduct of her husband in leaving her unprovided for for so many years. The accused was sentenced to two months' imprisonment without hard labour. The accused, with a baby in her arms, broke down and said.

At a meeting in Kalgoorlie in October 1908, the Women's Labour League took it upon themselves to make every effort to obtain the liberty for one Sarah Selborne, who had been sentenced to two months with hard labour (with a young infant in her arms) after being convicted of bigamy at the Bunbury Quarter Sessions. The Women's Labour League protested against the severity of the sentence as it was stated that this woman, with four young children to keep, had been deserted by her husband for 10 years and, although in poverty, she had continued to be of good character. The jury had brought in a verdict of guilty, with a strong recommendation to mercy, on account of her husband having left her for so many years unprovided for. Much support for Mrs Selborne was raised in Bunbury at the time, with letters pouring into the editor of the newspapers in her support and a bid for leniency. One such supporter wrote that "Two or three years after the birth of their youngest child, she made inquiries of the local police with the object of instigating proceedings against her husband for maintenance, when it was pointed out how difficult it would be to enforce compliance with a maintenance order on a man who was supposedly flitting about in the faraway back blocks. Again, three years or so later, when contemplating similar proceedings, she was reminded of the difficulties in the way of carrying them into effect. This, added to the fact that the proceedings she desired to institute were costly and beyond her means, caused her to abandon the idea. From 1898, therefore, to November 24 last, Mrs. Selborne supported and maintained herself and her two children entirely by her own efforts, with money earned by her in a daily round of sewing, nursing, washing and such other casual drudgery as she was able to obtain. During this long period of poverty, privation and hardship, she brought up her children respectably, and gained for herself a reputation as an exceptionally worthy, hard-working, honest body." Since the commencement of the proceedings for bigamy against Mrs. Selborne, a child was born of the illicit union.

William Thomas Selborne is buried in the Non-Conformist portion of the Kookynie Cemetery.