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John Henry Batis' Remarkable Courtroom Claim

In 1939 a man called John Henry Batis shot dead his brother Robert Wilfred Batis (known as Bill). There was a court case, and in an unsworn statement to the court, John Henry (known as Henry) Batis made the interesting claim that he was the great grandson of an early colonist and well known Kangaroo Island identity, George "Fireball" Bates and an unknown aboriginal woman. Batis called him George "Fireball" Batis . This story of the family's origins has been handed down to the present day. This writer was told it at the Holdfast Bay History Centre by a person related by marriage to the family. Here is Henry Batis' statement to the court: ACCUSED'S STATEMENT FROM THE DOCK Dead Brother Had Hatred of Black Blood "GREAT-GRANDFATHER WAS 'FIREBALL BATIS' In an unsworn statement from the dock accused said:— "I have been in gaol since January, and so have had a lot of time to think things over. There is little I can add to t...
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The Hunt Begins

*Note* I've seen unreliable sources to say John II is the son of John Sr but I haven't seen them myself. I haven't seen anything to suggest John II is the son of anyone else either. John Henry's Father was also a John Batis. We have birth, marriage and death dates for this John Batis. He was born in 1846. But what of his parents? The family's word of mouth tradition says that he was also a John Batis. Parents of a child born in 1846 would likely be not much younger than 20, so let's say their birth dates were around 1826. That was ten years before colonisation, so no surprise they weren't registered in South Australia. Were they both immigrants? Well, there were three ways for non-indigenous people to arrive in South Australia: either as "official" colonists, or as crew of the immigrant ships, or a very few came from other British colonies such as Van Diemen's Land, New South Wales or Melbourne. Tasks : Search for records of colonists nam...
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