Martin Cash Bushranger - his early life

Martin Cash (1808-1877)

Martin Cash was born in Ireland and became one of Tasmanian’s most notorious bushrangers. He was born at Enniscorthy, County Wexford, Ireland, the son of George and Margaret Cash.

• Gaoled at Wexford, Ireland March 1827 at eighteen for five months
• Transported from Ireland to Botany Bay, New South Wales in 1927 aboard the Marquis of Huntley with 170 other convicts.
• Assigned to Mr George Bowman of Richmond whose property he worked on for 3 years.
• June 1834 issued Certificate of Freedom a NSW government document given at the end of the convict's sentence. This stated that the convict was now restored "to all the rights and privileges of free subjects" and could seek out employment or leave the colony.
• 1837 he arrived in Hobart Town.
• 1840 Trial and sent on vessel Frances Freeling to Van Diemans's Land Hobart. From NSW and Tasmania Convict Musters 1806 to 1849. 
• Caught and gaoled in Port Arthur, Tasmania.
• Escaped from Port Arthur in 1842.
• Led a band of bushrangers which terrorized the whole colony.
• 200 guinea reward (with a free pardon and passage from the colony, if required) was offered to any person giving information that would lead to Cash's capture.
• September, 1843, tried and convicted of murder with sentence of death. At the end of the trial after being called "Guilty" of the murder of Constable Peter Winstanley, Martin Cash said the following: "May it please your honor. I am the man that has stopped murder my- self in the bush ; we never acted cowardly to any one. I hope you will not think or consider that I am a man to do any cow- ardly or deliberate murder. Let me get into ever such close quarters, if I should have to fire I would not try to kill a man, but to cripple him so that I could get away. If I had been a man to do violence, there would have been a deal of murders com- mitted since I have been in the bush. I do not beg for my life ; I do not value it one straw." Launceston Examiner 16th September, 1843.
• Reprieved and sentenced to transportation for life at Norfolk Island
• Sent to Norfolk Island.

complexion very ruddy, head small and round, hair curly and carroty, whiskers red small, forehead low, eyebrows red, eyes blue small, nose small, mouth large, chin small.  Remarks remarkably long feet, a very swift runner. Police Department description of Martin Cash, Hobart, 1st March, 1843, in The Hobart Courier Friday 3 March 1843 when M. Forster, Chief Police Magistrate, was offering rewards for his arrest.

MORE ON MARTIN CASH:

• Martin Cash - his later life
• Australian Dictionary of Biography Martin Cash: The Bushranger of Van Diemen's Land in 1843-4: A Personal Narrative of His Exploits in the Bush and His Experiences at Port Arthur and Norfolk Island. Author Martin Cash.
• DECONSTRUCTING AND RECONSTRUCTING THE MARTIN CASH/JAMES LESTER BURKE NARRATIVE/MANUSCRIPT OF 1870 PDF by Duane Helmer Emberg
• Way Back Machine

REFERENCES:

Trove Launceston Examiner 1st September 1877
Trove Clarence and Richmond Examiner (NSW), 11 September 1877
Trove Launceston Examiner 16th September, 1843.
All New South Wales and Tasmania, Australia Convict Musters, 1806-1849