GGF was a BUSHRANGER?!

[Billyblue]

 My mother's paternal grandfather was one Robert Wilson. He was a gold miner on the Turon [goldfield on the Turon River near Hill End, NSW]
I recently discovered pretty conclusively that he was the Robert Wilson who in company with Bill Day "The Blacksmith Bushranger" held up the Bathurst Mail on 24 June 1859.  Day got 7 years hard labour on the roads for his trouble, but Wilson was apparently given indemnity for leading police to their stash which resulted in most of the almost £5000 being recovered.  But he escaped from custody (probably not trusting the police to hold up their end of the bargain re him turning Queen's Evidence )
Through TROVE I have found where he was apprehended in 1862, an item in Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday 19 Apr 1862 had this snippet:
"Period 11th to 18th April 1862.
The Yass Courier mentions the capture of a man named Robert Wilson, supposed to, have been one of the party of three who stuck up and robbed the Bathurst mail in the month of June, 1859. The capture was effected on Sunday week by sergeant Brennan, at Scurr's public-house, north Yass."

Does anyone know how I can find out what happened after that?  Anyone have access to copies of the Yass Courier and/or Yass courthouse records of that period?

I might add that other reports of his part in the holdup say after he escaped "he was never heard of again" which the above newspaper piece proves wrong.
Also that the local FH group say he is the only Robert Wilson they have found, in that period, on the Turon, which is why I'm pretty sure he is ours.

Many thanks for any assistance you can give.

Dawn M

[rosball]

Sorry Dawn not what happened to him afterwards but a more descriptive version of his recapture
and the background http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13227044

regards,
   Ros

[judb]

Dawn, I'm happy to do a look-up for you but I won't be at the NLA until Thursday 10th.  Judith

[giblet]

Just a out of the sqare thought but...

WILLIAM DEDICOAT
 aka WILLIAM DERECOURT alias WILLIAM JONES alias BILL DAY
Convict, Bushranger and Jack-of-all-Trades

BUSHRANGER (William Derecourt)
 
In June 1859, Derecourt was involved in a robbery on the western road up to Mt. Victoria.  As a result he spent the next several years on Cockatoo Island as a prisoner of Her Majesty.  He was released in 1863.
http://whatthebutlerdid.wordpress.com/2008/11/16/chapter-five-william-dedicoat/


So i wonder if your fella could have done time on Cockatoo Island as well once they caught him.

[Billyblue]

Sorry Dawn not what happened to him afterwards but a more descriptive version of his recapture
and the background http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article13227044
regards,
   Ros

Thanks for that Ros.  I spent days trawling through TROVE, but missed that one, which I've now added to my growing pile   
Interesting that the  £5000 stated as stolen in the court case, was just over 2 years later three times that       .  Also I see where Captain Battye again got the kudos for the original capture when it was, again according to the court case, because the publican Mr McGregor where they stayed one night suspected them when he overheard their conversation, and dobbed them in (McGregor being an ex policeman).  Someone signing himself TRUTH wrote to the papers in July 1859 complaining about Battye taking all the credit, too.   

It's all very intriguing.  Until I found out about this, just last September at the FH Conference at Gymea, this GGF was a very shadowy figure - there were about six Robert Wilson's around in NSW in the latter 1800s and nothing to define which one was ours.

Dawn M

[Billyblue]

Dawn, I'm happy to do a look-up for you but I won't be at the NLA until Thursday 10th.  Judith

Judith that's very kind of you.  As it's taken me over 20 years to discover this far, a few more days won't matter.  The SMH reported on 14 & 19 April about his apprehension but not what happened after, except that some guy called Richard Gosling identified him, having known him and Bill Day some years previously.
It appears that the paper was a weekly but I don't know which day it was published.  I can't pick up anything further on TROVE except that it is on microfilm, presumably not yet digitised.

As they seemed to get pretty swift hearings those days, I imagine anything to be found would be within a few weeks of mid April, don't you?

Thanks very much for your offer but don't worry about it unless you really do have time for it.

Cheers
Dawn M

[Billyblue]

Giblet, thanks for your input.  I've got a  copy of that chapter of the Butler book, plus one other, from the internet.  He's the one who stated that Robert Wilson was 'never heard of again' after his escape!  He (Butler) is descended from Derecourt/Dedicoat/Jones/Day and says they use the version Dedicoat in their family.

I thought about Cockatoo Island too, though when Day is released from there in 1865 he made no reference to having Wilson there with him - not that that's conclusive of course.

Have also found where Robert Wilson was convicted of stealing gold at the Turon in 1851, which we presume is him, and he got 3 years hard labour. But in 1852 he is witness to a fraud case involving the lease next to his on the Turon, with no mention that he is a prisoner anywhere, so maybe he didn't serve much time for that, at all.   Have yet to look into that, too.

Dawn M

[giblet]

Hi,

Have you had a look to see if he is mentioned in any family notices after he was re caught? You may have already checked for that, im just trying to think of where something might be found.

[Billyblue]

Hi Giblet
No I haven't looked for any family notices.  With a common name like Robert Wilson it's hard to pinpoint anything unless it mentions 'on the Turon' really.  His wife Johanna had a child William in 1862 which she registered under her maiden name, and Emily in 1867 also under her maiden name. Why maiden name and not married name was a puzzle, until we found all this info about his short bushranging career      .  In the Tambaroora parish records, Emily's father is acknowledged as Robert Wilson, too!
We now think maybe she did it to protect him while he was on the run.  I can't imagine there would have been any spare funds for newspaper notices, if she was trying to bring up the children on her own. The two older children were Robert (my gf) born 1858 and Caroline 1860, both Wilson. Caroline was married in 1877 with her mother giving permission, so we think that a Robert Wilson who died 1876 in Cooma may have been our fellow, but the d.c. gives no spouse or children or parents, and only 'born England' for origin. Ours was from Leicestershire, and one newspaper reports him as 'came free' but that's as much otherwise that we've found, so far.

Dawn M