 |
 |
|||
|
John Donohoe arrived on the convict transport Ann & Amelia in January 1825. The Ann & Amelia had been four months at sea after leaving Cork the previous September and carried 200 male convicts below her decks. Among those 200 were at least 48 - and probably more - who were to be assigned to various settlers in the Hunter Valley region With the others from the Ann & Amelia, Donohoe was disembarked and forwarded to Parramatta for assignment. He was assigned to John Pagan in Parramatta however late in 1825 was to be found in the Hunter Valley on Lochinvar, the estate of Leslie Duguid. Duguid was a young man with capital and recommendations sufficient to qualify him for a 2,000 acre land grant and convicts to work it. At some stage a cottage was erected on the estate and in July of 1825 when Donohoe was arriving in the Valley, Duguid's farm was robbed by bushrangers. The notorious Jacob's Mob were active in the vicinity at this time and the exploits of 'Mr. Jacob's Irish Brigade' as the gang were first known probably impressed newly arrived Donohoe. They were Irish like Donohoe and their bravado and daring when they took to the bush after absconding from the properties of nearby settlers, encouraged sympathies amongst settlers who protected them. With little to lose, they intimidated the respectable and defied the authorities.When Donohoe first absconded with William Smith and George Kildray (Kilray) the small gang did not much resemble Jacob's Mob. They were on foot, robbing the slow moving drays that travelled the pot holed roads and were soon captured ( on the Richmond Road) and charged with highway robbery. After a daring escape from custody of the gaoler, Donohoe joined with other desperadoes - Walmsley and Webber and together they formed a far more formidable gang. Donohoe and Walmsley first committed highway robbery in company when they robbed Mr. Chilcott on the road to Hunter's River when Chilcott stopped for water. After this they gained confidence and each as desperate and ruthless as the other, they terrorised travellers and settlers from Sydney to Liverpool and Campbelltown down to the Illawarra in the south, out to Yass and Bathurst in the west and to the Hunter Valley in the north. They fell in with Mr. Clements in April 1829, whom they fired upon and mortally wounded; it was said that Walmsley committed the deed as Clements had known him when at the Hunter's River, as an absentee working as a sawyer. Realising he was recognised, Walmsley fired the fatal shot. They may not have been responsible for all the robberies attributed to them. In July 1830 Donohoe was said to be in the vicinity of the Nepean however the Australian remarked 'Like many a hero, we suspect Donahoe gets the credit of assuming more shapes and of doing much more mischief than he ever dreamed or was capable of.' A robbery of two elderly tenants of Sir John Jamison near Regent Ville was attributed to Donohoe and his companion in September. After tricking the elderly men into admitting them, the bushrangers threatened to kill them with a blunderbuss. 'One of the robbers was dressed in a blue jacket, dark waistcoat and trowsers, worn out half boots, white shirt, coloured neckerchief, and black hat, about 4 feet 8 or 10 inches high, brown hair, well featured, but a dark or sallow complexion, with rather a melancholy cast of countenance, athletic and active, and about 28 years of age; he was armed with a blunderbuss and four pairs of pistols, secured in a belt under his jacket. The other was a low set squat man, rather younger, about 5' 6' inches high, broad faced, with a scar on the lip or under the left nostril, flaxen hair, complexion between fair and brown, rather freckled; he wore a blue jacket, light cord trowsers, coloured waistcoat, half boots, white shirt, no neckerchief, and black hat; he was armed with a double barrelled pistol, and three pairs of pistols fastened to a belt round his body, under his jacket. The tall man seated himself on a stool, with his back against the door, and directed the muzzles of the blunderbuss and double barrelled pistol and the two inmates of the hut, whilst the least of the robbers secured all the valuables to be found in it, consisting of four hams, some bacon, and salted pork, in all about 100lbs, between 30 and 40 lbs, of flour, 1lb of tea 16 lbs of sugar, 7lbs of tobacco, a blanket that was covering a little boy then in bed and two pairs of trowsers. The robbers then decanted a bottle of rum they brought with them into a tin, and with threats of instant death forced Hoe and Dunn to drink so freely that the latter became violent and the robbers tied their hands behind their backs, fastened their knees and ankles, and then bound them back to back. The robbers then baked a cake, and fried enough pork for their supper; and after regaling themselves the low squat man piled wood on the fire until the blaze was nearly reaching the thatch, when old Hoe entreated them not to burn them alive. This caused the tallest of the robbers to find fault with the cruel intention of the other, and with a bucket of water he quenched the flame which otherwise, in a few minutes would have consumed the house, the old men lashed together and the boy asleep in his bed. The tall robber, who appeared to be an Englishman found fault with the unmerciful disposition of the squat flaxen headed robber, who spoke broad Irish and blasphemed, with murderous threats in all his actions. Barney Hoe asked them why they did not attack the houses of swells, where they would get more valuable property; they replied that swells kept bull dogs; and again, on observing Hoe looking minutely at them, they said they were well known, and knew well their fate if they were taken. The tall robber returned Hoe the trowsers, they being too small for him, and left a portion of pork, flour, tea, and sugar for breakfast and they went off with their booty." Details of Donahoe's fate were recorded in the Sydney Gazette in September: "This daring marauder has at length been met by that untimely fate which he so long contrived to avoid. On Wednesday evening, at dusk, as a party of the Mounted Police were riding through the bush at Reiby, near Campbell Town, they came up with three bushrangers, one of whom was Donahoe; on being called upon to stand, they threw away their hats and shoes, and ran off, when the Police fired, and killed Donahoe on the spot, one ball entering his neck and another his forehead. Favoured by the dusk, the others made their escape, and in defiance of the dreadful fate of their comrade, that very night broke into a hut and carried off what they wanted. The body of Donahoe was removed to Liverpool, and will be brought to Sydney this morning. Thus is the colony rid of one of the most dangerous spirits that ever infested it, and happy would it be were those of a like disposition to take warning by his awful fate." An inquest was performed on the body of John Donohoe by Major Smeathman the coroner at the Fox & Hounds in Castlereagh Street, Sydney and later a Plaster of Paris case was made by Morland. A product of the times, Donohoe was defiant, brutal and sometimes dangerous. In death his deeds were glamorised and perhaps exaggerated; ordinary folk may have envied his apparent charmed life, and with the help of the press of the day the name John (Jack) Donohoe passed into Australian folk lore. The ballad 'Bold Jack Donohoe' once banned in Sydney taverns, came to represent an enduring popular perception of Australian bushrangers.
One of several versions of 'Bold Jack Donohue'
Come all you gallant bushrangers who gallop o'er the plains |
||||
 |
 |
