|
Brothers Thomas (c. 1840—25 June 1867) and John Clarke (c. 1846—25 June 1867) were Australian bushrangers from the Braidwood district of New South Wales. They were responsible for a series of high-profile robberies and murders which led to the embedding of the ''Felons' Apprehension Act (1866)'', a law that introduced the concept of outlawry and authorised citizens to kill bushrangers on sight.〔http://www.anzlhsejournal.auckland.ac.nz/pdfs_2005/Eburn.pdf〕 Active in the southern goldfields from 1865, Thomas, John, their brother James and several other relations were responsible for a reported 36 hold-ups and the deaths of five policemen—four of them bounty hunters looking to bring them in. Some modern-day writers have described the Clarkes as the most bloodthirsty bushrangers of all. They were captured during a shoot-out in April 1867 and hanged two months later at Sydney's Darlinghurst Gaol. Their execution ended organised gang bushranging in New South Wales. ==Bushranging== The Clarkes' father Jack, a shoemaker transported to Sydney in 1828 for seven years aboard the ''Morley'', arrived in the Braidwood district as a convict assigned to a pastoralist. He married Mary Connell and took up a leasehold in the Jingeras, which proved too small to support his family of five children. He took to selling sly-grog, initiated his sons Tom and John into cattle duffing, and raised them to believe in his view of the fair and equitable distribution of property. They constantly raided crops and livestock, aided by their uncles Pat and Tom Connell. Their gang, the Jerrabat Gully Rakers, were regarded as scientists in the art of cattle duffing and horse stealing. The Clarke gang of relatives and friends was well trained in bushcraft and heavily armed. They plundered publicans, storekeepers, farmers and travelers. They ambushed gold shipments from Nerrigundah and Araluen and the coaches that traveled from Sydney and the Illawarra. Till November 1866 they marauded virtually unchecked in a triangle through the Jingeras from Braidwood to Bega, and up the coast to Moruya and Nelligen. On 9 January 1867, a party of special constables—John Carroll, Patrick Kennagh, Eneas McDonnell and John Phegan—were ambushed and killed near Jinden Station. They had been tied to a tree and then shot. The Clarke brothers were implicated in the murders. A blood-soaked pound note was pinned to Carroll, the leader, as a warning to anyone else intent on pursuing them. Their run of luck ended with the conviction at Darlinghurst on 15 February 1867 of Tom Connell for the robbery and assault of John Emmott, when he stole 25 ounces of gold dust, two one-pound notes, some silver coins and a gold watch . The many other exploits of the "Blacksmith", including the death of Constable Miles O'Grady were ignored, but his death sentence was on appeal remitted to life imprisonment. In February 1867 Long Jim "Jemmy the Warrigal", a second member of the gang, fractured his skull in an accident and died. In late March 1867 the drought broke with floods which swept away steam engines, huts and mountains of earth. The remains of Billy Scott believed to have been murdered by his own gang, were found on 9 April, thus reducing the gang to two men, Tom and John Clarke. During April a police patrol led by Senior Constable Wright and an Aboriginal tracker Sir Watkin Wynne (later Sergeant Major Sir Watkin Wynne), followed information to Jinden Creek, and reached Berry's hut on Friday 26 April. After a shoot-out on the Saturday morning, Senior Constable Walsh called for their surrender. The reward for Tom Clarke had by then been raised to 1,000 pounds and that for John to 500 pounds. The brothers were arraigned in Braidwood and then taken by coach to the port of Nelligen, where they were shackled to the prison tree. From there they were conveyed to Sydney. On 13 May they appeared in court for their committal hearing, on wounding Wayne, prior to their capture by Wright, Walsh, Egan and Lenehan. The £1500 reward was distributed as follows: Wright £300; Walsh £130; Wyne £120; constables Lenehan, Wright and Egan £110 each; sergeant Byrne £30; constables Ford, O'Loughlin, Armstrong, Brown and Woodlands £15 each; and £7 10s each to trackers Emmott and Thomas. £500 went to a civilian informer (the highest reward offered until the £2000 for Ned Kelly). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Clarke brothers」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|