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John Donohoe
(Donohue) arrived on the
convict ship
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 in November 1828 when they robbed
Mr.
James Chilcott on the road to Hunter's River when Chilcott stopped for
water. Their descriptions were posted in the Sydney Gazette..... one
of the Men appeared to be an Englishman, of about 22 or 23
Years of Age ; about five Feet five Inches in height; and a
dark Complexion, with jet black Hair and Eyes; he wore, at
the time, a blue Jacket, Velveteen Trowsers, and a black Hat.
The other Man is an Irishman ; about 25 Years of Age; about
five Feet three inches High; with light Complexion, almost
sandy Hair; small Eyes, and marked with
Scrofula on the right
Side of the Neck; he was dressed in a
Nankeen Jacket and Trowsers, and a black hat.
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 at the Bulgar Road 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 shot. (Martin
Cash in his memoirs, has a different version -
The Bulgar Road ran along an interminable chain of hills for the
distance of one hundred miles. Mr. Clements, on seeing three armed men
some little distance ahead, observed to those in his company that he
would ride up and capture them; and putting spurs to his horse, he
rode on sharply in front. But not having far to ride before coming up
with the party he was in pursuit of, the men in rear could see and
hear distinctly what took place. On calling upon them to stand and
throw down their arms, they laughed at him, which seemed to put him
very much out of temper, and after repeating his command (which they
still treated with derision), he took a pistol from his breast pocket,
on seeing which, one of the bushrangers ordered him to 'put that back
again', but on his attempting to cock it, one of the bushrangers shot
him through the head.' ).
Donohoe, Webber and Walmsley 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 Donohoe 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 Donohoe'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 Donohoe; on being called upon to stand,
they threw away their hats and shoes, and ran off, when the Police
fired, and killed Donohoe 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 Donohoe 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.
Sir
Thomas Mitchell is said to have made a
Pencil drawing
while the body of Donohoe lay in the morgue.
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.
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