The Gilbert Brigade

Frank Gardiner on left and John William Gilbert (1842 - 1865) on right

On 15 June 1862 John Gilbert took part in the Eugowra gold escort robbery and had a £500 reward on his head. 

In May 1863 Gilbert returned to the Wedden Mountains and became Ben Hall's right-hand man although they did not always work together.

Tombstone Tuesday - John Gilbert's Grave

John Gilbert's lonely grave near Binalong, NSW.

In May 1865, Ben Hall, John Gilbert, and John Dunn were proclaimed outlaws.

The Felons Apprehension Act 1865, allowed known bushrangers to be shot and killed rather than taken to trial.

John Gilbert, aka Happy Jack, Johnny, and Flash, had a 1000 pound reward on his head and had been involved in around 630 hold ups including the death of a police man.

John Gilbert was shot and died instantly on the 13th May, 1865 near Murrumburrah, New South Wales, Australia in a shoot out with police troopers. 

The police involved in the shoot out were Senior Constable Charles Hales of the Binalong police station and constables John Bright, Michael King and Henry Hall. Constable Henry Hall was put in charge of the body. When Gilbert's body was searched money, jewelry, powder flask, guns, and bullets were found.

The guns included a Tranter revolving rifle and a government issue revolver.
Gilbert's body was taken back to the court house of the Binalong Police Station.

An inquest was held on the 14th May 1865 and it was generally agreed that Constable John Bright fired the fatal shot that had killed Gilbert and that he 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."

The Government reward for the dead bushranger was divided up: the informer received £500; Hales, £150; Bright, £130; King, £120; and Hall £100.

The New South Wales Police Report published in the Sydney Morning Herald 16th July, 1870 stated:
May, 1865.—John Gilbert, robbery under arms ; shot dead

by police under senior-constable Heales.

John Gilbert (1842 - 1865) was buried in a paddock at the back of the Binalong Police Station.



RESOURCES:
Felons Apprehension Act 1865 PDF
Australian Cemeteries Index
"NEW SOUTH WALES POLICE.". The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954)
Senior Constable Charles Hales's Police Report Dated 15th May 1865
The Yass Courier of 17th May 1865.
New South Wales, Australia, Registers of Coroners' Inquests, 1821-1937 for John Gilbert        

Australia’s largest gold robbery

Stage coach hold-up, Eugowra Rocks, oil on canvas, 137.5 x 183 cm

by Patrick William Morony (1858-1939) painted in 1894.

It was at Eugowra, on the 15th June, 1862 that Frank Gardiner, and his gang of bushrangers, robbed the Ford & Co. coach on its way from Forbes to Bathurst in New South Wales. It was Australia’s largest gold robbery - 14 thousand pounds worth of gold and banknotes.
The rock, in the painting, above, where the bushrangers waited to ambush the coach is now called Escort Rock after the fact that the coach was a gold escort meaning it escorted or carried gold from one place to another.
Gardiner's gang included Ben Hall, John Gilbert, Henry Manns, Alex Fordyce, John Bow, John O'Meally, and Dan Charters.
"...the greatest achievement of Gardiner's gang, the Lachlan escort robbery; at Engowra Rocks, about forty-five miles distant from the town of Orange. Here the escort coach, carrying a sergeant and two troopers, was impeded by two bullock teams, without drivers, drawn across, the road. The driver made a circuit round them to pass, and when the coach neared a clump of rocks four men rose from their shelter. They were attired in red shirts, their faces were blackened, and they were armed with rifles. They dis charged their rifles in a volley at the coach. A bullet pierced the driver's hat, and another perforated his coat skirt. The constables in the coach were not hit. Then four other bandits stood up, and fired a second volley, whereupon the horses bolted, and the coach was upset. The gang rushed upon it and fired again. The sergeant was wounded in three places, and Trooper Horan in two. Trooper Haviland was uninjured, and he fled into the bush with the driver. The robbers carried away the escort boxes, two rifles, and the coach horses. Haviland and the driver ran to Clement's Station, and re turned with a party of men, who found only the scattered contents of the mail bags. These they gathered up, and, after obtaining fresh horses, proceeded on the road to Orange with the wounded police. They also discovered the bullock drivers, who had been bailed up by the gang,  ordered to draw their teams across the  road, and hide themselves in the bush, with, their faces on the ground. The coach arrived at Orangeat six o'clock   on the following evening. Shortly after it left the post office, a bullet struck Constable Haviland in the head, and killed him instantly. Doubtless it came from the rifle of one of the gang, who must have been lingering on watch in the   neighbourhood unseen. The robbers'  booty was heavy ; the escort boxes con tained 5509 oz. of gold, representing £22,000 in value, and £7490 in Oriental Bank notes. The gang consisted of Gardiner, Ben Hall, Gilbert, O'Mally, John   Bow, Alexander Fordyce, Henry Manns, and Daniel Charteris. They divided the booty into eight shares. Gardiner, For dyce, and Charteris put their gold on one of the coach horses, and proceeded towards the Weddin Mountains. The others took their shares separately, and went on other tracks. On ths following day Sir Frederick Pottinger, who was district superinten dent of police, set forth in pursuit of the bandits with eleven troopers, twenty   armed volunteers, and two black track ers. They followed the trail of Gardiner  and his two companions, whose pack horse became exhausted at the foot of the Weddin Range. While they were engaged in removing the gold they caught sight of their pursuers approaching, and fled into the hills, leaving behind 1239 oz. of gold, which fell into the hands of the police. Some time after Charter is turned informer. Manns, Fordyce, and Bow were arrested; Manns was hanged, and the other two were sentenced to life imprisonment. Gardiner disappeared. Hall, Gilbert, and O'Meally went on their way of blood and plunder for three years longer in defiance of the police.

The huge escort robbery was Gardiner's final exploit." TROVE: The Capricornian Newspaper. Rockhampton, Qld. Saturday 14th October 1905.

Read the details of the robbery here.

Linked up at History and Home

John Dunn

Teenage Bushranger:  The Story of John Dunn Who Rode with Ben Hall and John Gilbert in 1864-65 and Was Hung at the Age of 19  By Kerry Medway.

"Through the influence of his grandfather, Dunn was invited to join Ben Hall and John Gilbert's bushranging gang. His father chased after him for two days to try and rescue him. Dunn's wild adventure went horribly wrong. He shot a policeman and later when caught, was charged with murder and hung at Darlinghurst Goal."

John Dunn (14 December 1846 – 19 March 1866)

John Dunn was born near Yass, NSW. His parents, Michael and Margaret Dunn, nee Kelly, were both convicts and John was the first of their nine children.

Dunn joined Ben Hall's gang in 1864 robbing coaches, stations, inns, and stores. Two years later he was captured, tried and hung for being an outlaw and murderer.  In January 1865, Dunn had shot dead Constable Samuel Nelson in the robbery of Kimberley's Inn near Goulburn. This was the crime for which he was hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol. He was 19 years of age and both Hall and Gilbert were dead.

John Dunn was buried in the Devonshire Street cemetery. The  headstone, erected by Dunn's Godmother, read: "Memory of John Dunn, who died March 19th, 1866. Aged 19 years. May he rest in peace. Amen. He has gone to his grave but we must not deplore him though sorrow and darkness encompass his tomb - the Saviour has passed through its portals before him and the light of his love was the lamp through his doom".

The reward for the capture of the Ben Hall, John Gilbert and John Dunn had been substantial sum of 1,000 pounds each.

Happy Jack

Wood engraving of John Gilbert
by Eugene Montagu Scott,
held at the State Library of Victoria, Australia.



John Gilbert was born in Canada in 1842 to William John Gilbert (1797 – 1879) and Eleanor Gilbert nee Wilson (1802 – 1845).
He arrived at the Victorian goldfields in 1852 together with nine members of his family to search for gold.
At the age of 12 he left home to work as a stablehand for his sister Eleanor and husband, John Stafford, and he became a good horseman and was called "Happy Jack" due to his good disposition.  He later went to the Kiandra goldfields in New South Wales.
By 1862 he was robbing stores and coaches with Frank Gardiner, the bushranger. He participated in the gold coach robbery at Eugowra.
When he was shot and killed, in 1865, he had a 1000 pound reward on his head and had been involved in around 630 hold ups including the death of a police man.

Read the story of his death.

Frank Gardiner led a notorious gang

Frank Gardiner 1829 - ? date unknown

Frank Gardiner was born Francis Christie in 1829 in Ross-shire, Scotland to Charles Christie (1791 – 1864) and Jane Christie (1800 – 1842), née Whittle. He came to Australia in 1834 with his parents.

He began his career as a criminal in 1850 by stealing horses and was apprehended and tried at the Geelong Circuit Court and sentenced to five years imprisonment, with hard labour, as Francis Christie, in Pentridge, Melbourne.  He escaped and was recaptured 4 years later when he was again arrested for horse-stealing and given seven years hard labour.

He conducted the largest robbery of gold in Australian history in 1862 with Ben Hall and Johnny Gilbert. Who were part of his notorious gang: (This list is from WikiTree)

1. Ben Hall - Shot dead by police

2. Frank Gardiner - Sentenced to 32 years in prison (served 10 years and then exiled from Australia

3. John Gilbert - Shot dead by police

4. John Davis, one of the Three Jacks-Sentenced to 15 years in prison

5. John McGuiness, one of the Three Jacks - Shot dead (probably by Gardiner for leaving Davis alone to fight police)

6. John Connors, one of the Three Jacks

7. John Youngman - Skipped bail and disappeared

8.  Patrick Daley - Sentenced to fifteen years in prison

9.Henry Manns - Hanged

10. Alexander Fordyce - Sentenced to death, later commuted to fifteen years in prison

11. Dan Charters - Caught, testified against the gang

12. John Bow - Sentenced to death, later commuted to fifteen years in prison

13. John O’Meally - Shot dead

14. Fred Lowry - Shot dead by police

15. Larry Cummins - Sentenced to fifteen years in prison

16. Francis Foley (younger brother of notorious bushranger, John Foley) - Sentenced to ten years in prison

17. Michael Burke - Shot himself dead after receiving a mortal stomach wound

18. John Vane - Sentenced to fifteen years in prison, paroled after six years

19. John Dunleavy - Sentenced to life in prison

20. Jin Gordon, AKA Old Man James Mount - sentenced to twenty five years in prison

21. John Dunn - Hanged

22. John Peisley - Hanged

This hold up, of the Lachlan Gold Escort coach, near Eugowra, N.S.W. was of 14,000 pounds.
Gardiner fled to Queensland and was arrested there in 1864, tried and found guilty on two charges and given a sentence of 32 years hard labour. In 1874 Gardiner was released, due to public petitioning. A large petition signed by Members of Parliament, magistrates, doctors and many notables was given to the Governor, Sir Hercules Robinson. The Governor decided that Gardiner had been harshly sentenced and released him subject to his exile. This decision caused a public controversy which led to the fall of the Parkes government.

In 1874 Gardiner travelled to Hong Kong and then California where he later owned the Twilight Star Saloon in San Francisco. There are many rumours about his life in America, none of which have been proven. 
It is not know for sure when he died and his death was reported many times between 1880 to 1904. The uncertainty is mainly due to the destruction of records in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

Unfortunately, as yet, I cannot find a better portrait of Frank Gardiner or Frank Christie (his real name).

SOURCES: 
Ancestry Family Tree.
Australian Dictionary of Biography Gardiner, Francis article by Edgar F. Penzig.
TROVE: The Capricornian Newspaper. Rockhampton, Qld. Saturday 14th October 1905.
Charles White, Australian Bushranging, Gardiner "King of the Road".
G. E. Boxall, The Story of the Australian Bushrangers.