John Gilbert (bushranger)
Encyclopedia
Johnny Gilbert was an Australia
n bushranger
shot dead by the police at the age of 23 near Binalong, New South Wales
on 13 May 1865.
John Gilbert was the only Australian bushranger never to go to prison
Gilbert was a member of Ben Hall's gang. Hall and Gilbert were both shot by Police within a week of each other. Hall was shot dead on 5 May 1865 near Forbes, New South Wales
. After Hall was killed his gang split up and Gilbert and John Dunn
travelled to Binalong where Dunn had relatives.
, Canada
in 1842. His mother Eleanor (née Wilson) died shortly after his birth. His father William subsequently married Eliza Cord, a girl only slightly older than his eldest surviving daughter, Eleanor. In 1852 John accompanied his family to the Victorian goldfields. Nine members of the Gilbert family arrived in Port Phillip
on board the Revenue in October 1852. They included William and Eliza, Eleanor (Ellen), Frank, James, Charles, Thomas Charbonnelle and Nicholas Wiseman.
A contemporary of Hall and Gardiner, Johnny Gilbert, alias Roberts, was one of the gang charged with the robbery of the gold escort at Eugowra Rocks, but had not been captured. He was born in Canada and emigrated to Victoria with his uncle, John Davis, after gold had been discovered there. When Davis was found shot in April 1854 Gilbert (then known as Roberts) was arrested and charged with murder. He was acquitted but later jailed for horse stealing.
Some suggest Gilbert accompanied his uncle, John Davis, to the Victorian goldfields. However there is no mention of Davis on the passenger list for the Revenue, though there is a ten year old John Gilbert. Roy Mendham, in his book, The Dictionary of Australian Bushrangers, asserts that Gilbert was responsible for the murder of his uncle. In 1854, Davis was found shot dead, and a Joseph Roberts, an alisas of John Gilbert, was tried for Davis's murder but acquitted. Roberts was later tried for horsestealing. Roberts however was said to be about seventeen, Davis's murder occurred at the Waverley Arms at Bondi Junction, New South Wales
. It would seem that Roberts, although possibly an alias for a John Gilbert, is not the same John Gilbert. The Gilbert family history does not include the names Roberts or Davis in Australia, although Wilson was used as an alias by Charles, his older brother who fled first to New Zealand's gold fields then to California to avoid arrest.
When he was only twelve, Gilbert worked as a stablehand at Kilmore, Victoria
for his sister Eleanor and her new husband, John Stafford, for a time before moving on to the Kiandra
goldfields in New South Wales.
John was usually described as quite a smart man who could read and write, and a very jolly fellow who was always laughing. It was because of his happy disposition, that John was nicknamed Happy Jack. He was also of thin slight build, and an excellent horseman.
.
In 1862, John Gilbert was first named as an accomplice of Gardiner when they and two others held up a storekeeper. Just over a month later, John Gilbert was involved in another robbery, this time with Gardiner, and Ben Hall, From then on John Gilbert was identified as being involved in several hold-ups between Lambing Flat (Young) and Lachlan.
Frank Gardiner enlisted the assistance of John Gilbert, Ben Hall, John O'Meally, Dan Charters, Henry Manns, Alexander Fordyce and Johnny Bow, to rob the Forbes gold escort at a place called Eugowra Rocks.
On 15 November 1864 the gang robbed the Gundagai Mail near Jugiong and Gilbert shot Sargeant Parry dead.
Senior Constable Hale immediately gathered constables John Bright and Michael King and headed out to watch Kelly's house. They watched most of the night, but saw no one enter, so returned to the police station about half a mile away.
The next morning at 8:00 AM, John Kelly (under the influence of alcohol) informed Senior Constable Hales that Gilbert and Dunn were at his hut. Hales gathered Constables John Bright, Michael King and Henry Hall and headed to Kelly's place. Two parties were formed, Bright and Hall went to the back of the hut and were stationed in the creek. Hales and King were stationed at the front of the hut.
The troopers watched for about an hour in the rain. At some stage Kelly's son, Thomas, approached the stockyard. Hales called him over to ask if there were strangers in the house, to which he said "No." Hales and King approached the house and the dogs started barking. John Kelly and his wife came to the door of the hut, and seeing Trooper Hales, Kelly called out "Look Out, the hut is surrounded by bloody troopers." As Hales entered the hut two shots were fired, Hales looked through the slabs of the bedroom wall to see the shadows of two men. Hales immediately fired and ran to the front room of the hut. He then called out "Men, surround the hut—the bushrangers are inside". Hales warned Kelly if he did not immediately turn out, they would burn the hut.
Hales heard firing in the paddock at the end of the hut. He ran out to the area and saw the bushrangers firing at Constables King and Hall. The bushrangers kept up the fire as they got through a bush fence that led to the creek and took up position behind a large tree. Gilbert used his revolving rifle on Hales and Bright but it misfired. Meanwhile King and Hall took up positions. Dunn and Gilbert started firing their revolvers at Hall and King, and ran down to the creek. Hales and Bright immediately fired at the bushrangers, at which time Gilbert dropped.
Hales ordered his men to follow and to chase Dunn. King was left to guard Gilbert's body as King was wounded in the foot. The three constables chased Dunn for about a mile and a half, they were exhausted and had to give up the pursuit. Dunn escaped, but was caught later and was hanged on 19 March 1866.
The 3 constables returned to Gilbert's body. Constable Henry Hall was put in charge of the body. They searched the body and found money, jewelry, powder flask, guns, and bullets. The guns included a Tranter
revolving rifle and a government issue revolver.
Gilbert's body was taken back to the Binalong Police Station and deposited at the court house. John Kelly and his son were apprehended and brought before Magistrate Campbell of Yass. They were remanded for 8 days and released on bail.
An inquest was held on 14 May 1865 and it was generally agreed that Constable John Bright fired the fatal shot. It was also agreed that Gilbert had died instantly. The verdict of the jury at the inquest was "Justifiable Homicide." The jury also found "that Senior Constable Hales and Constables Bright, King and Hall were deserving of great praise for the gallant and courageous manner in which they acted." Gilbert's body was buried in the police paddock behind the station.
The Government reward for the dead bushranger was divided up as follows: the informer received £500; Hales, £150; Bright, £130; King, £120; and Hall £100.
At the time of his death he had become Australia's worst criminal, being involved in more than 630 hold-ups.
In the song "Ben Hall", the fifth verse references Gilbert and Dunn:
There is a similar song about "Frank Gardiner", where the third verse gives a slightly different version of Gilbert's death to the history books:
Gilbert is also mentioned in "The Streets of Forbes
", another song about Ben Hall.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n bushranger
Bushranger
Bushrangers, or bush rangers, originally referred to runaway convicts in the early years of the British settlement of Australia who had the survival skills necessary to use the Australian bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities...
shot dead by the police at the age of 23 near Binalong, New South Wales
Binalong, New South Wales
Binalong is a village in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales, Australia, 37 km north-west of Yass in Yass Valley Shire. In 2006, the town had a population of about 269 people.- Overview :...
on 13 May 1865.
John Gilbert was the only Australian bushranger never to go to prison
Gilbert was a member of Ben Hall's gang. Hall and Gilbert were both shot by Police within a week of each other. Hall was shot dead on 5 May 1865 near Forbes, New South Wales
Forbes, New South Wales
-Notable residents:*Carolyn Simpson - Judge of the Supreme Court of New South Wales; Member of the first all-female bench to sit in an Australian court*NSW Deputy Premier Carmel Tebbutt was born and raised in Forbes....
. After Hall was killed his gang split up and Gilbert and John Dunn
John Dunn
John Dunn may refer to:*John Dunn , English professional footballer for Aston Villa and Charlton Athletic*Jack Dunn , minor league baseball owner and manager*Jack Dunn , British figure skater...
travelled to Binalong where Dunn had relatives.
Early life
He was born in Hamilton, OntarioHamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
in 1842. His mother Eleanor (née Wilson) died shortly after his birth. His father William subsequently married Eliza Cord, a girl only slightly older than his eldest surviving daughter, Eleanor. In 1852 John accompanied his family to the Victorian goldfields. Nine members of the Gilbert family arrived in Port Phillip
Port Phillip
Port Phillip Port Phillip Port Phillip (also commonly referred to as Port Phillip Bay or (locally) just The Bay, is a large bay in southern Victoria, Australia; it is the location of Melbourne. Geographically, the bay covers and the shore stretches roughly . Although it is extremely shallow for...
on board the Revenue in October 1852. They included William and Eliza, Eleanor (Ellen), Frank, James, Charles, Thomas Charbonnelle and Nicholas Wiseman.
A contemporary of Hall and Gardiner, Johnny Gilbert, alias Roberts, was one of the gang charged with the robbery of the gold escort at Eugowra Rocks, but had not been captured. He was born in Canada and emigrated to Victoria with his uncle, John Davis, after gold had been discovered there. When Davis was found shot in April 1854 Gilbert (then known as Roberts) was arrested and charged with murder. He was acquitted but later jailed for horse stealing.
Some suggest Gilbert accompanied his uncle, John Davis, to the Victorian goldfields. However there is no mention of Davis on the passenger list for the Revenue, though there is a ten year old John Gilbert. Roy Mendham, in his book, The Dictionary of Australian Bushrangers, asserts that Gilbert was responsible for the murder of his uncle. In 1854, Davis was found shot dead, and a Joseph Roberts, an alisas of John Gilbert, was tried for Davis's murder but acquitted. Roberts was later tried for horsestealing. Roberts however was said to be about seventeen, Davis's murder occurred at the Waverley Arms at Bondi Junction, New South Wales
Bondi Junction, New South Wales
Bondi Junction is an eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Bondi Junction is located 6 kilometres east of the Sydney central business district and is part of the local government area of the Waverley....
. It would seem that Roberts, although possibly an alias for a John Gilbert, is not the same John Gilbert. The Gilbert family history does not include the names Roberts or Davis in Australia, although Wilson was used as an alias by Charles, his older brother who fled first to New Zealand's gold fields then to California to avoid arrest.
When he was only twelve, Gilbert worked as a stablehand at Kilmore, Victoria
Kilmore, Victoria
Kilmore is a town in the Australian state of Victoria. Located north of Melbourne, it is contentiously claimed as Victoria's oldest inland settled town...
for his sister Eleanor and her new husband, John Stafford, for a time before moving on to the Kiandra
Kiandra, New South Wales
Kiandra is an abandoned gold mining town and the birthplace of Australian skiing. The town is situated in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales, Australia, in the Snowy River Shire inside the Kosciuszko National Park. Its name is a corruption of Aboriginal 'Gianderra' for 'sharp stones for...
goldfields in New South Wales.
John was usually described as quite a smart man who could read and write, and a very jolly fellow who was always laughing. It was because of his happy disposition, that John was nicknamed Happy Jack. He was also of thin slight build, and an excellent horseman.
Gang activities
At eighteen he fell under the influence of the bushranger who used the alias Frank GardinerFrank Gardiner
Frank Gardiner was a noted Australian bushranger of the 19th century. He was born in Scotland about 1827 and migrated from to Australia as a child with his parents in 1834,. His real name was Francis Christie, though he often used one of several other aliases including Gardiner, Clarke or Christie...
.
In 1862, John Gilbert was first named as an accomplice of Gardiner when they and two others held up a storekeeper. Just over a month later, John Gilbert was involved in another robbery, this time with Gardiner, and Ben Hall, From then on John Gilbert was identified as being involved in several hold-ups between Lambing Flat (Young) and Lachlan.
Frank Gardiner enlisted the assistance of John Gilbert, Ben Hall, John O'Meally, Dan Charters, Henry Manns, Alexander Fordyce and Johnny Bow, to rob the Forbes gold escort at a place called Eugowra Rocks.
On 15 November 1864 the gang robbed the Gundagai Mail near Jugiong and Gilbert shot Sargeant Parry dead.
Gilbert's capture and death, based on the report from Constable Hales
Senior Constable Charles Hales of the Binalong Police Station received information at 8:00 PM on 12 May 1865 that the two bushrangers had "stuck up" the Woolshed near Murrumburah. He suspected they would be in the area of Binalong due to John Dunn's relatives living in the area. He thought they might visit John Kelly, Dunn's Grandfather.Senior Constable Hale immediately gathered constables John Bright and Michael King and headed out to watch Kelly's house. They watched most of the night, but saw no one enter, so returned to the police station about half a mile away.
The next morning at 8:00 AM, John Kelly (under the influence of alcohol) informed Senior Constable Hales that Gilbert and Dunn were at his hut. Hales gathered Constables John Bright, Michael King and Henry Hall and headed to Kelly's place. Two parties were formed, Bright and Hall went to the back of the hut and were stationed in the creek. Hales and King were stationed at the front of the hut.
The troopers watched for about an hour in the rain. At some stage Kelly's son, Thomas, approached the stockyard. Hales called him over to ask if there were strangers in the house, to which he said "No." Hales and King approached the house and the dogs started barking. John Kelly and his wife came to the door of the hut, and seeing Trooper Hales, Kelly called out "Look Out, the hut is surrounded by bloody troopers." As Hales entered the hut two shots were fired, Hales looked through the slabs of the bedroom wall to see the shadows of two men. Hales immediately fired and ran to the front room of the hut. He then called out "Men, surround the hut—the bushrangers are inside". Hales warned Kelly if he did not immediately turn out, they would burn the hut.
Hales heard firing in the paddock at the end of the hut. He ran out to the area and saw the bushrangers firing at Constables King and Hall. The bushrangers kept up the fire as they got through a bush fence that led to the creek and took up position behind a large tree. Gilbert used his revolving rifle on Hales and Bright but it misfired. Meanwhile King and Hall took up positions. Dunn and Gilbert started firing their revolvers at Hall and King, and ran down to the creek. Hales and Bright immediately fired at the bushrangers, at which time Gilbert dropped.
Hales ordered his men to follow and to chase Dunn. King was left to guard Gilbert's body as King was wounded in the foot. The three constables chased Dunn for about a mile and a half, they were exhausted and had to give up the pursuit. Dunn escaped, but was caught later and was hanged on 19 March 1866.
The 3 constables returned to Gilbert's body. Constable Henry Hall was put in charge of the body. They searched the body and found money, jewelry, powder flask, guns, and bullets. The guns included a Tranter
William Tranter
William Tranter was a British gunmaker and gun designer famous for inventing the Tranter Revolver.-His youth and early career:Born in Oldbury in Worcestershire, William Tranter was the eldest son of a blacksmith...
revolving rifle and a government issue revolver.
Gilbert's body was taken back to the Binalong Police Station and deposited at the court house. John Kelly and his son were apprehended and brought before Magistrate Campbell of Yass. They were remanded for 8 days and released on bail.
An inquest was held on 14 May 1865 and it was generally agreed that Constable John Bright fired the fatal shot. It was also agreed that Gilbert had died instantly. The verdict of the jury at the inquest was "Justifiable Homicide." The jury also found "that Senior Constable Hales and Constables Bright, King and Hall were deserving of great praise for the gallant and courageous manner in which they acted." Gilbert's body was buried in the police paddock behind the station.
The Government reward for the dead bushranger was divided up as follows: the informer received £500; Hales, £150; Bright, £130; King, £120; and Hall £100.
At the time of his death he had become Australia's worst criminal, being involved in more than 630 hold-ups.
Folklore
As a member of Ben Hall's gang, Gilbert is mentioned in a number of songs about Hall's life and exploits. For example, in the chorus of a song called "The Morning of the Fray", also called"Eugowra Rocks", the chorus runs:-
- You can sing of Johnny Gilbert Dan Morgan and Ben Hall
- But the bold and reckless Gardiner he's the boy to beat them all
In the song "Ben Hall", the fifth verse references Gilbert and Dunn:
-
- With twelve revolving rifles all pointed at his head
- Where are you Gilbert? where is Dunn? he loudly did call
- It was all in vain they were not there to witness his downfall
There is a similar song about "Frank Gardiner", where the third verse gives a slightly different version of Gilbert's death to the history books:
-
- Young Vane, he has surrendered, Ben Hall's got his death wound
- And as for Johnny Gilbert, near Binalong was found
- He was all alone and lost his horse, three troopers came in sight
- And he fought the three most manfully, got slaughtered in the fight
Gilbert is also mentioned in "The Streets of Forbes
Streets of Forbes
"Streets of Forbes" is an Australian folksong about the death of bushranger Ben Hall. The song is one of the best-known elements of the Australian folk repertoire. It has been recorded by many folk and popular artists and groups including The Bushwhackers, Gary Shearston, Niamh Parsons and Weddings...
", another song about Ben Hall.