The first in a series of caches highlighting Tasmanian bushrangers.
Matthew Brady was born in England in 1799. The official decription of him says that he was 5ft. 5.5 ins. tall, with dark brown hair and blue eyes. Born of poor Irish parents at Manchester, where many Irish had immigrated for work, he was employed as a groom at a gentleman's establishment, where he became a graceful and excellent rider. He got into debt and was caught forging letters of payment from his employer. Brady was tried for forgery at Lancaster in April 1820 and sentenced to seven years transportation. He arrived in Australia on the convict ship Juliana on 29 December 1820.
Brady was a rebellious convict and received, over time, a total of 350 lashes in punishment for misdemeanours and attempts to escape. In 1823, he was sent to the new penal settlement at Sarah Island in Macquarie Harbour, which had been established 'for secondary offenders and desperate prisoners'. On 7 June 1824, Brady was part of a group of fifteen escapees from Sarah Island, who sailed a whaleboat around the south coast of Tasmania to the Derwent River and spent the next two years as bushrangers.
Brady was considered a gentleman, who rarely robbed or insulted women. The Colonial Magazine of 1840 wrote of him, the most liked of all of Van Diemen's Lands' bushrangers, that: "He did much injury, but he also showed much forebearance. He never wantonly sacrificed human life, and on no occasion was feminine delicacy outraged or insulted."
The military considered Brady a dangerous bushranger after his gang held up the township of Sorell and captured the local garrison. On 14 April 1825 Lieut. Governor Arthur posted rewards for the capture of Brady and his gang. In return, Brady posted a reward of "Twenty gallons of rum" to any person who would deliver Governor Arthur to him.
Brady was caught in 1826 near Launceston after being betrayed by gang members Cowen and Callaghan. Countless petitions from settlers throughout Van Diemen's Land begged for Brady's mercy, but he was hanged on 4 May 1826 for murder, at the old Hobart gaol. Four other bushrangers were hanged with him: Patrick Bryant, John Perry, John Thompson and Thomas Jeffrey . Brady complained bitterly at being transported to Hobart with, and hanged alongside Jeffrey, who was, as Brady pointed out, an 'informer' as well as a 'cannibal and mass murderer'. Brady's cell had been filled with flowers from the ladies of Hobart Town, which tends to support his claim to be a "Gentleman Bushranger".
FTF Honours go to dty73, Tankengine, Aquilus1 and Dragon 1982