The Bushranger-Matthew Brady
When Matthew Brady was hanged May 4, 1826, ladies wept and flowers were thrown. Governor Arthur was not among them. His troopers, police and bounty hunters had scoured the bush for two years, trying to capture him. Arthur had another axe to grind. Brady had nailed a proclamation to the door of Crossmarsh Inn: 'It has caused Matthew Brady much concerns that such a person known as George Arthur is at large. Twenty gallons of rum will be given to the persons that will deliver this person to me.'
Like many of the famous outlaws of the US, Brady had his own 'hole in the wall' place to hide, high in the mountains of Tasmania, surrounded by almost impenetrable bush. It took a small army to bring him to the hangman in 1826.
Matthew Brady was 21 when transported from England for forgery. Brady was assigned as a servant to Mrs. Ransom of the Crossmarsh Inn, who spoke of him being sober and industrious. Other ladies of the district also had high opinions of young Matthew, in which the word 'industrious' has other connotations. The truth is that Matty was in fact a gentleman of sorts, who stuck to his code of honour and decency. A contemporary described him as 'a leader of men, and a conqueror of women'.
For insubordination while at the Crossmarsh Inn, Brady was sent to the notorious Macquarie Harbour penal settlement, where soldiers laid into him with 350 lashes, in an attempt to break his spirit, but only succeeded in firing it up to escape and revenge.
On the night of June 9, 1824 Brady made his getaway with a group of selected convicts who seized a boat and headed for the open sea. Brady knew that he had little chance of crossing the straight to the mainland, and so sailed into the mouth of the Derwent River and struck inland. Brady was declared an outlaw.
He must have felt as free as a bird in those early few months after escape. Away into the almost trackless bush, with a stolen horse under him, and plenty of rich plunder around him. 'Great personnel violence' was used in the first of many Brady raids, and its first victim was a servant of William Gunn, ex-officer and farmer. Gunn was no ordinary man, and was to become Brady's most implacable enemy.
Gunn was a giant of a man and an expert bushman, who had a brilliant memory for faces. After the attack on his servant, he kept up a relentless pursuit of Brady and his gang. When Brady camped, so did Gunn, never far away, just enough to unnerve the outlaw. He finally forced Brady to break and run, Gunn called in his reserves and five of Brady's gang was captured. Gunn had the satisfaction of seeing them hang.
On the run, Brady found an ideal hideout in the mountains above the Great Lake, and would ride out with bands of thirty strong, to raid settlements and stage coaches, before retreating with a mob of stolen horses back into the mountain forests.
Proclamations from the Government poured out, warning settlers to lock their doors. Troopers were deployed in the hills, waiting to ambush Brady and his gang. Many settlers though, helped and informed Brady out of fear. He was often one jump ahead of the law.
On one occasion, Brady planned to raid the homestead of a settler who had vowed to kill him on sight. Soldiers were moved into the district. Brady was met on the boundary of the property by a boy who warned him that there were four soldiers at the farmhouse. Brady's band quietly surrounded the farmhouse, and jumped the troopers there inside. Their muskets were broken, the farm looted, and when Brady rode out, the lad asked to be taken along; and he was. Not long afterward, he was shot dead as he slept under a tree, by two locals, who were not taking any chances with bushrangers.
Danger of betrayal was ever present when Brady came out of the mountains. Brady was merciless with informers. One such spy, planted in his band as a police agent, was personally executed by Brady; another had his ears cut off. And yet, to the average bush people of Tasmania, he was never to commit acts of violence, especially to woman.
Governor Arthur's attempts to run Brady down had come to nothing, despite inducements like cash payments, grants of land, free pardons for convicts and free passages to England.
Brady made his biggest strike at Sorrell, a snug little town with a handsome church, schoolhouse and a strong jail. He virtually captured the town and many believe it was a gesture toward Lieutenant Gunn, who had a farm nearby. Brady released the prisoners in the jail, and spent the day having his dinner cooked, and discussing the politics of the day with his 'hosts'.
Gunn, and a magistrate named Garrett came into Sorrell looking for Brady. Garrett was grabbed by the gang and thrown into a jail cell, while Gunn was wounded in a shoot out that resulted in him losing an arm at the elbow.
Now, the entire colony was in turmoil. Armed patrols were closing the gaps in the mountain tracks. Men were firing at shadows. Men were calling for Lieutenant Gunn, now the one arm giant. But another bounty hunter got in first.
John Batman was a farmer, a freeborn settler. He was later to be one of the founding fathers of the city of Melbourne. Now he armed himself and set of to capture Matthew Brady.
At four thousand feet into the Tasmanian Alps, John Batman came upon a wounded Brady, shot through the ankle. The two men stared at each other.
'Soldier?' said Brady, and when Batman shook his head, he said 'Then I surrender.' It was March 17, 1826. He was taken down to Hobart town in chains where baskets of flowers and fruit were sent to his cell.
'Under other circumstances', wrote the historian James Boswick in 1856, 'Brady might have been a successful explorer in savage lands, a distinguished warrior or a prominent chieftain in some revolutionary struggle.'
At the last, they denied him the right to be executed alone. The gallows had been built for six men, condemned to die that day.
As he reached the scaffold, he bowed to the crowd. Ladies buried their faces in their handkerchiefs, and Matt Brady danced for the last time.
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