Fred ward bushranger biography of william shakespeare
Hundreds flocked to see the body of Captain Thunderbolt (1835-1870) after his death and for a shilling, you could buy a postcard of his bullet-ridden body.
It was an ignominious end to the last of the professional bushrangers in New South Wales. Frederick Ward (his real name) had become something of a folk hero due to his gentlemanly behaviour and his tendency to avoid violence.
WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGE - Captain Thunderbolt (bushranger Frederick Ward), dead, 1870, Cartes-de-viste, PXA 362, Vol. 6/109]
Horsebreaker and thief
As a young man, Ward became an expert horseman while working as a horsebreaker and drover on the Tocal Run on the lower Paterson River. This, and his strong self-reliance and physical endurance meant that he could survive in the bush for long stretches of time.
His first brush with the law came with his arrest in April 1856 for attempting to drove forty-five stolen horses to the Windsor sale yards. Found guilty, he spent four years imprisoned at Cockatoo Island, Sydney Harbour before being released on a ticket of leave (parole).
In 1860, he met Mary Ann Bugg. When she became pregnant with his child, Ward settled her in the Dungog area. He soon was in trouble with the authorities again and arrested for breaking the terms of his parole and for horse stealing. Ward was sent back to Cockatoo Island.
Escape
Yearning for freedom, Ward fled Cockatoo Island with another prisoner, Fred Britten, on 11 September 1863 by swimming to shore and then heading north out of Sydney. Travelling toward New England and then Maitland, Ward went on a robbing spree. Enduring bushranger mythology claims the name Captain Thunderbolt was established when Ward entered the tollbar house on the road between Rutherford and Maitland and startled the customs officer from his sleep by banging loudly on the door. The startled officer, Delaney, is purported to remark, 'By God, I thought it must have been a thunderbolt'.
Roaming across a vast area of
Bushranging in Australia has its origins with the arrival of the First Fleet. Convict bolters such as John 'Black' Caesar vanished into the bush around the Sydney settlement.
For more than a century bushrangers struck fear and fascination into the Austalian population.
The peak of bushranging came during the the gold rushes. Gold escorts and diggers returning from the goldfields were vulnerable to attack. Outlawed bushrangers could be shot on sight; a notorious example is the Kelly Gang and the stand-off at Glenrowan in 1880.
The popularity of bushrangers and their ethos of 'fight before surrender' was commemorated in bush songs and folklore. The Gresford region witnessed bushrangers at close range. Frederick Ward, (known as Captain Thunderbolt) and the Governor Brothers all travelled through the area.
Frederick Ward was the last of the professional bushrangers in New South Wales and one of the most successful. The Governor Brothers, Joe and Jimmy, were the last proclaimed outlaws in New South Wales and were responsible for the largest manhunt in Australian history. Their story is a tragic one of race, discrimination and violence on the eve of Australian Federation.
The hunt for the Governor gang of bushrangers. A posse of mounted police, aboriginal trackers and district volunteers...
Captain Thunderbolt
Frederick Ward generated much support and sympathy due to his gentlemanly behaviour and his tendency to avoid violence in his bushranging escapades. A highly skilled horseman, his strong self-reliance and physical endurance meant he could survive in the bush for long stretches of time.
As a young man, Frederick Ward worked as a horsebreaker and drover on the Tocal Run on the lower Paterson River and acquired extensive knowledge of horses. He was first arrested in April 1856 for attempting to drove forty-five stolen horses to the Windsor sale yards. Found guilty, he served four years imprisonment at Cockatoo Isla
Plater, David; Crofts, Penny --- "Bushrangers, the Exercise of Mercy and the 'Last Penalty of the Law' in New South Wales and Tasmania 1824-1856" [2013] UTasLawRw 16; (2013) 32(2) University of Tasmania Law Review 294
Bushrangers, the Exercise of Mercy and the ‘Last Penalty of the Law’ in New South Wales and Tasmania 1824-1856
DAVID PLATER & PENNY CROFTS
Abstract
The death penalty in the 19th century in both colonial Australia and Great Britain was widely seen as necessary for punishment and deterrence. However, the prerogative of mercy served a vital role during this period in mitigating the effects of capital punishment. This article examines the exercise of the death penalty and the prerogative of mercy in colonial Australia during the period from 1824 to the grant of responsible government in 1856 with respect to bushrangers. Bushrangers despite their often celebrated and even sympathetic status in ‘popular culture’ were perceived (in official and ‘respectable’ circles at least) as more than mere colonial criminals and as posing a particular threat to the often tenuous stability and even existence of early colonial society. However, even offenders ‘beyond the pale’ such as bushrangers were not exempted from the benefit of mercy. It is argued that the prerogative was taken seriously in colonial Australia by the public, the press and notably the authorities to even the worst of capital offenders such as bushrangers. Different conceptions were expressed during the time, ranging from ideas of mercy as based on desert and equity, as something that was predictable and consistent, to ideas of mercy as an undeserved gift. These debates about the prerogative of mercy articulated different conceptions of law and order, community and justice in an embryonic, self-governing society.
We trust these awful and ignominious results of disobedience to law and humanity will act as a powerful caution; for .