The country now became more open, and our view was extended over undulating downs of thinly-wooded pasturage, with the blue tips of the western mountains rising in the distance. Here we met another curiosity of the morning, lt was no less than the ruins of a hut belonging to the notorious bushman, Michael Howe.
On Monday a Court of Criminal Jurisdiction assembled; when John Brown was put to the bar and arraigned, on various charges of murder committed by him, assisted by Richard Lemon in the neighbourhood of the settlement at Port Dalrymple.
About ten o’clock, on the night of the 30th ultimo, Sergt. Michael Doyle, and two troopers of the Mounted Police, fell in with a party of five armed bushrangers, at the foot of Razorback, and succeeded in apprehending them. The bushrangers are the same parties who escaped from the constables of the the 25th ultimo, on the road between Berrima and Campbelltown.
WHEREAS it has been represented to the Government that William Westwood, by the Ship Mangles (7), a Prisoner of the Crown, commonly known by the name of Jacky Jacky, who was convicted at the late Circuit Court, at Berrima, and sentenced to Transportation for Life, has effected his escape from the Watch-house at Picton, and is now at large :— His Excellency the Governor directs it to be notified, that a reward of Twenty Pounds will be paid to any Free person or persons who shall apprehend the said Jacky Jacky, and lodge him in any of Her Majesty’s Gaols
Continue reading Spotlight: Reward notice for William Westwood
In estimating the character of this man, who has obtained such an unenviable notoriety throughout the colonies during the past three years an insight into his early life may be of some assistance, and I have therefore, taken some pains to collect the following brief history of certain incidents concerning him.
Continue reading Spotlight: The not unfriendly biography of Ben Hall
On Saturday last, the following criminals received sentence of death :- Matthew Brady, Patrick Bryant, James Goodwin, James M’Kenny John Gregory, William Tilly, William Brown, and Samuel Hodgetts, (the above eight composed the residue of the gang of bushrangers of which Dunne only remained at large.) Thomas Jeffries, John Perry, and James Hopkins, whose horrid crimes are fresh in the recollection of the Public and John Thompson, for the murder of Margaret Smith in the watch-house. His Honor Chief Justice PEDDER, addressed the unhappy men in the most feeling manner. He stated to them, that the Law had awarded the punishment of death to the crimes of the least magnitude amongst them. Those of the greatest were attended with circumstances of atrocity, that he should only shock the feelings of the auditory by repeating them.
On Thursday night a horse was stolen out of a paddock at Murrumburrah, of which no particulars could be ascertained till about eleven o’clock on Friday morning, when a man named Furlonge, who was travelling with sheep, stated that he had been visited by Gilbert and Dunn, who rounded up his horses and took a favorite animal, leaving in its stead the one taken from Murrumburrah.
Continue reading Spotlight: DEATH OF JOHNNY GILBERT & INQUEST ON BEN HALL
On Tuesday morning the bushrangers Brady, Bryant, Tilley, McKenney, Brown, Gregory, and Hodgetts, were put upon their trial for making an assault on William Andrews, a private of the 40th, at Bagdad, on the 26th of December last, and stealing his gun. The Jury returned a verdict of guilty against Brady, Bryant, Gregory, Tilley, and Brown, and acquitted McKenney and Hodgetts, their being no evidence to prove that they were present at the time.
Continue reading Spotlight: The Van Diemonian Bushranging Scourge
Power’s cub has been taken, though (states the Benalla Ensign) the old fox has up to the present managed to escape. It was hoped when the information reached here that Kelly was visible in his old whereabouts, that Power was not very far off, and superintendent Nicolas himself went to look after the prey.
A writer in Wingham ‘Chronicle,’ discussing the career of Frederick Ward, alias Thunderbolt, says he was a crack horse breaker before developing into a scientific bushranger and horse thief on a big scale. Nevertheless, his daring horsemanship procured him many friends.
