George Jones (bushranger)

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George Jones
Detail from George Jones' convict record (pertaining to his transportation to Van Diemen's Land in June 1842).
Born	c. 1815 (1815) London, England
Died	30 April 1844 (1844-05-01) Hobart, Tasmania
Occupation	Bushranger
Conviction(s)	Armed robbery
Criminal penalty	Execution

George Jones (c. 1815 – 30 April 1844) was a convict bushranger who, with Martin Cash and Lawrence Kavenagh, escaped from Port Arthur, Van Diemen's Land, in late 1842. The three men took to bushranging for a six-month period, robbing homesteads and inns with seeming impunity. After Kavenagh and Cash were captured, Jones remained at large for a further seven months, committing a number of robberies in company with two other escaped convicts. In April 1844 he was captured in a shoot-out with police, convicted and executed.

Early life and transportation[]

George Jones was born in about 1815 in London, England.^[1] By 1829 Jones was employed as an errand boy, living in London.^[2]

On 20 March 1829 Jones, aged about fourteen years, was tried at the Surrey Assizes for robbing a till and sentenced to transportation for life.^[3][2] George Jones was transported to New South Wales aboard the Dunvegan Castle with 179 other convicts, arriving in Sydney on 13 March 1830. On arrival he was assigned to Richard Lang on the Hunter River in the Newcastle district.^[2]

Servitude and highway robbery[]

Jones’ convict record indicates occasional bouts of resentful disobedience. In June 1833 he received twenty-five lashes for “stealing grapes”. In May 1835 he received fifty lashes for disobedience and the following September, one hundred lashes for “refusal and neglect of duty”. In March 1837 Jones was given fifty lashes for absconding.^[3] By 1841 George Jones was assigned to Captain John Pike of 'Pickering' farm near Merton, who was known as a harsh master whose convict servants were kept under deplorable conditions.^[4][5][6] Jones absconded from his service on 25 May 1841, remaining at large for eight months.^[4] While he was at large, Jones teamed up with another escaped convict, an older man with a variety of tattoos named Joseph Bowers.^[7] Bowers had been assigned to William Blaxland of Cassillis from whose service he absconded in June 1841.^[4][8]

In the early afternoon of 17 January 1842 two men, John Lucas, superintendent of Buchanan’s 'Marsheen' run beyond Muswellbrook, and a man named Cotterell, were riding on the road about nine miles from Maitland when they were bailed up by George Jones and Joseph Bowers, each of them brandishing double-barrelled guns. They compelled the men to dismount and took them about forty yards into the bush. The bushrangers took what little money the pair had, and kept them captive until nightfall. Before they were released Lucas was handed back five shillings "to pay for his bed", and both men had their horses returned to them.^[4][9]

George Street, Sydney, looking north (a painting by John Rae dated 1842); the dome of the Police Office can be seen, where George Jones unwisely agreed to go in order to get a cheque cashed.

The following morning the mail-cart travelling from Muswellbrook to Singleton was bailed up by Jones and Bowers. The cart was ascending a hill near Maidswater Creek, midway between the townships, when the two men emerged from the thick scrub with double-barrelled guns. They took the mail and their two captives (the driver and a passenger) into the bush back from the road and proceeded to cut up the mail-bags and open letters, during which process they were reported to be “very merry and jocular”. Afterwards the bushrangers prepared some pots of tea which they shared with their prisoners, before fetching their horses and riding off. The driver of the mail-cart recognised one of the bushrangers as someone who had participated in an earlier robbery of the same mail.^[10]

On Monday, January 24, George Jones walked into a Commercial Bank in Sydney Town soon after it had opened and presented a cheque to be cashed. The bank officer informed Jones that he would need to accompany him to the Police Office in order for Jones to account for how the cheque came into his possession. Jones agreed to do so; at the Central Police Office “having told a made-up story and given an assumed name” he was directed to make an affidavit. Certain details in the affidavit aroused suspicions in Police Magistrate Windeyer and he ordered that the man be detained. A search of his person revealed thirty bank cheques and orders totalling about £171, which he admitted were taken from the stolen letters from the Muswellbrook mail-bag. When asked why he had dared to go into the Police Office, Jones replied that “he knew it was neck or nothing, and if he did not get the cheques and orders cashed, there was no use in doing the job”.^[11]

In late January Constable Lynch apprehended Joseph Bowers in Castlereagh Street in Sydney, on suspicion of being "a runaway". Jones and Bowers were committed for trial at the Hyde Park Barracks court.^[4] In late February, in what was obviously a formality, their tickets-of-leave were cancelled.^[12]

At the Sydney Court of Quarter Sessions on Monday, 4 April 1842, the escaped convicts, Joseph Bowers and George Jones, were indicted on charges of highway and mail robbery and being illegally at large with firearms in their possession. They were identified by John Lucas as the pair who had stopped and robbed him on January 17 on the Maitland Road. Both men were found guilty, and sentenced to transportation to a penal settlement for life.^[13][14] On 30 May 1842 George Jones, along with forty-two other prisoners of the Crown (including Joseph Bowers and Lawrence Kavenagh),^[15] was transported from Sydney to Van Diemen’s Land aboard the schooner Marian Watson, arriving at Hobart on June 8, from where he and Kavenagh were taken to the Port Arthur penal settlement.^[16][17]

Escape from Port Arthur[]

Escape plan[]

Towards the end of 1842, while in a work gang carting stone from the Port Arthur quarry, Jones and Lawrence Kavenagh met Martin Cash. Jones had previously heard of Cash, who had been an assigned convict to George Bowman, a landholder near Muswellbrook and neighbour to Captain Pike (although Cash had left the district before Jones had been assigned to Pike's farm). The three convicts had a common interest: “a strong inclination to abscond”. Cash had made a previous attempt at escaping from Port Arthur, being captured within a mile of the mainland near East Bay Neck.^[18] They discussed a plan of escape, and agreed to make the attempt on the afternoon of Boxing Day as the carts came up to the quarry for the first load.^[19]

On Boxing Day, 26 December 1842, the escape occurred as planned. In Martin Cash’s words: “I walked deliberately over to where [Kavenagh and Jones] were at work; fixing my eyes on them for a moment, they both instantly dropped their picks, and springing on a steep bank, were lost in a minute in the scrub, I soon following their example”. Kavenagh took the lead, directing the others to where he had previously stashed a quarter of a loaf and some flour. Then the three convicts headed for the thick scrub at the foot of Mount Arthur. They decided to remain hidden in the bush for the next three days, expecting that the soldiers “would relax in their vigilance, under the impression that we had made our escape”.^[20]

Eaglehawk Neck[]

An image of Eaglehawk Neck (published in 1872), showing Pirates Bay in the background and, in the foreground, guard-dogs chained on platforms surrounded by water in the much narrower Eaglehawk Bay.

On the night of their third day of freedom they left their hiding place, keeping to the bush and flanking the coastline to their right. Near Long Bay they crossed a road and continued north-west through the bush to the side of Signal Hill, where they rested until morning. Cash made a "charcoal fire" in a hollow tree and cooked a damper for breakfast. The three convicts continued on through the thick scrub until dusk when they came in sight of Eaglehawk Neck where they could “see the line literally swarming with constables and prisoners”. Realising that crossing the Neck was impossible they decided to swim past it.^[21]

Eaglehawk Neck is a narrow isthmus connecting the Tasman Peninsula (where Port Arthur was located) with the Forestier Peninsula. Across the neck were placed guards, lamps and chained guard-dogs, some of them on stages set out in the water. To the west of the Neck was the narrow Eaglehawk Bay and on the eastern side was the much wider expanse of Pirates Bay. Following Cash's lead the escapees chose the longer swim on the eastern side, about half a mile in width and the same route that Cash had taken on his first escape attempt.^[22] Moving stealthily through the bush in darkness they reached the water-line along the arc of Pirates Bay and started swimming with their clothes bundled above their heads. With a strong wind blowing, waves crashed against the swimmers and carried away their bundles, so each of the men arrived naked on the other side.^[23]

East Bay Neck[]

Finding themselves at the base of steep and scrubby hill the three convicts advanced up the slope and rested near the top until daybreak. Martin Cash knew of the location of a hut near the road connecting Eaglehawk Neck and East Bay Neck, normally occupied by a road-repair gang who had nearly completed their sentences. In their naked state and without shoes or food, the three convicts decided to take the risk of raiding the hut. They rushed through the door, Kavenagh holding an axe he had found outside, to find it occupied by only one man, the sub-overseer of the work gang. The man was tied to a post and clothes, boots and a quantity of food were procured.^[24]

Realising that, upon discovery of their raid on the road-gang’s hut, the focus of those engaged in the pursuit would shift to the Forestier Peninsula and the East Bay Neck, the escapees decided to remain hidden for a few days more. At the northern end of the peninsula they considered swimming to the mainland (which was half the distance of their previous swim), but with a strong current flowing both Kavenagh and Jones expressed disquiet. Kavenagh told the other two “that he had a very narrow escape from drowning when crossing at the Neck, at one time giving himself up for lost, observing that it was nothing short of a miracle that he had reached the land”. Deciding to attempt a crossing by land at East Bay Neck, the three convicts waited for nightfall and, by stealth, managed to evade the sentries and then crawled through a field of wheat until they were a safe distance from the military barracks. A quarter mile further on they came to dense bush where they could momentarily relax, having “escaped the sharks by land and water”.^[25][22]

Bushranging[]

Cash, Jones and Kavenagh began a seven month spree of bushranging, robbing mail coaches, homesteads and inns.

The three became known as Cash and Co and their reputation grew. In July 1843, the Government offered 'one hundred acres of land or one hundred sovereigns, in addition to the reward of fifty sovereigns, free pardon, and passage from the colony, for the apprehension of' Cash, Jones and Kavenagh.^[26][27]

Shortly afterwards, on 10 July 1843, Kavenagh tripped over and the charge in his gun exploded. He said he had to give himself up or he would have bled to death in the bush.

On 29 August 1843, Cash made his way to Hobart, wanting to confront his partner Bessie after hearing she was with another man. Cash was spotted in Brisbane Street, and a gunfight ensued resulting in Cash's capture.

Capture, trial and sentencing[]

Jones remained at large, recruiting other outlaws, James Platt and Frederick Moore, and continuing to rob settlers and travellers for another six months. On 10 April 1844 the three bushrangers, Jones, Platt, and Moore, having recently committed several robberies in the Brighton district, were tracked by the Chief District Constable of Brighton and a posse of five to a hut situated on a cross-road between Brighton and Richmond.^[28]

Knowing that the gang was well-armed, the posse decided to burn them out. The hut was set on fire, and when the bushrangers rushed outside a gunfight ensued with Jones being shot in the face by buckshot; Moore was mortally wounded.

Jones and Platt were put on trial for armed robbery, found guilty and sentenced to death. Jones revealed during his trial that he was now blind.^[29][30]

George Jones and James Platt were executed by hanging on the morning of 30 April 1844 in front of a large crowd. It was reported that Jones seemed “very penitent, praying all the time, with much apparent fervor”, whereas Platt “met his fate with that dogged indifference which characterised his demeanour in the Supreme Court”.^[31]

See also[]

• List of convicts transported to Australia
• List of people legally executed in Australia

References[]

Sources

• Martin Cash (edited by James Lester Burke), The Adventures of Martin Cash, Comprising a Faithful Account of His Exploits, While a Bushranger under Arms in Tasmania, in Company with Kavanagh and Jones in the Year 1843; Hobart Town: "Mercury" Steam Press Office, 1870.