William Gould was born in Limerick in 1835 and baptised in St John’s Church of Ireland. His family were related to that of Rev William Myles the first historian of Irish Methodism. Gould emigrated to Australia and became a Primitive Methodist minister in 1864.

He was living in Benalla, Victoria, Australia during the period 1873 – 5. Some of the family of the outlaw Ned Kelly, although they were of an Irish Catholic background, went to Gould’s Methodist mission in Benalla to get married:

On 15th September 1873 he conducted the marriage of Ned’s sister Maggie Kelly to William Skillion.
At his residence, Barkly Street, Benalla, on 19th February 1874 he then conducted the marriage of Ned Kelly’s mother to George King (his father had died in 1866). Ned himself was one of the witnesses.

Rev William Gould died on 31st January 1902 at the Primitive Methodist parsonage, Maryborough, Victoria…