Analysis:
Who was Mrs Garbutt of Cooyal?
Copyright Carol Baxter 2011
Martin Brennan, in his Police History of the Notorious Bushrangers of New South Wales and Victoria, reported that bushranger Fred Ward (later Captain Thunderbolt) went to the Mudgee district after being released from Cockatoo Island, where he “entered Mrs Garbutt’s employ as a horse-breaker”. He also wrote that Fred's later paramour, Mary Ann Bugg, was working at Mrs Garbutt's Cooyal station at that time (see below):[1]
Martin Brennan's Police History of the Notorious Bushrangers ... p.330 [1]
Thunderbolt researcher Bob Cummins was, seemingly, the first to discover Brennan's unpublished Police History and to notice the reference to "Mrs Garbutt of Cooyal". He had determined that Fred was the son of convict Michael Ward and his wife Sophia, and that Fred had an older sister Sarah Ann Ward who had married John Garbutt in 1835. Accordingly, in his self-published Thunderbolt (1988, p.19), Cummins attempted to elaborate upon Brennan's statement by writing: "Ward worked for his sister Mrs Garbutt at the Garbutt property at Cooyal near Mudgee."
Another Thunderbolt researcher, Barry Sinclair, took the claim a step further. He wrote that Sarah Ann Garbutt, the owner of Cooyal, was not Fred Ward's sister but his mother (see below):[2]
Another Thunderbolt researcher, Barry Sinclair, took the claim a step further. He wrote that Sarah Ann Garbutt, the owner of Cooyal, was not Fred Ward's sister but his mother (see below):[2]
Elsewhere, however, Sinclair wrote that "Cooyal station" was known as the "Garbutt property" but was then in the possession of Mrs Sarah Ann Shepperd (nee Ward), the "sister" of Fred Ward (see below):[3]
The claim that Fred worked for his "sister" (or "mother") Mrs Sarah Ann Garbutt (or "Shepperd") at Cooyal station is incorrect. Mrs Garbutt was not Sarah Ann Ward at all (and ignore the above erroneous information about Mary Ann Bugg; for accurate information, see Mary Ann Bugg's Biography). In fact, primary-source records reveal that no Mrs Garbutt lived in the Mudgee district – or indeed at Cooyal – before December 1860. So who actually owned the Cooyal station?
In the 1850s Cooyal station was owned by Henry James Blackman, as shown in the newspaper notice below:
In the 1850s Cooyal station was owned by Henry James Blackman, as shown in the newspaper notice below:
Empire 16 Nov 1853 p.3
Henry James Blackman had married Elizabeth Aldridge in 1840, as shown in the NSW Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages Online Indexes below:
Henry James Blackman, who also owned the Cooyal Inn, died in 1855 and his widow inherited his property[4] (see below):
Sydney Morning Herald 2 May 1860 p.6
In 1860, Cooyal was owned by Mrs E. Blackman – that is, Mrs Elizabeth Blackman, widow of Henry (see below).
Sydney Morning Herald 18 April 1860 p.8
On 27 December 1860 Elizabeth Blackman, widow of Cooyal and daughter of William and Kezia Aldridge, married John Charles Garbutt at Cooyal inn (see abbreviated marriage entry below or click here for full Marriage Certificate). John was the son of Fred's sister Sarah Ann Ward (later Garbutt, later Shepperd). John had received a ticket-of-leave to the Mudgee district shortly after Fred.
Extracted information from Marriage Certificate (see link above)
In the aftermath of the Garbutt-Blackman marriage, many references are found to Mrs Garbutt of Cooyal, but her given name was always listed as Elizabeth, not Sarah,[5] as shown below:
Empire 20 Apr 1865 p.2
Clearly Cooyal station, where Fred was indeed working in 1861 prior to his second conviction, was not the property of Sarah Ann Ward/Garbutt/Shepperd. It belonged to the Blackman family until the widowed owner Mrs Elizabeth Blackman married Sarah's son John Garbutt in 1860. Thereafter the "Blackman property" became the "Garbutt property".
Evidently, Martin Brennan was wrong when he stated that Fred Ward "entered Mrs Garbutt's employ as a horsebreaker" after being released from Cockatoo Island, because "Mrs Garbutt of Cooyal" only came into existence four months after Fred's arrival in Mudgee. That Fred was later employed by the Garbutts at Cooyal, however, there is no doubt whatsoever.[6]
Moreover, Fred and his nephew John Garbutt did not "return to Cooyal station" (as stated by Sinclair above) after receiving their tickets-of-leave. In fact, no evidence has been found to suggest that they had ever lived in or travelled to Mudgee prior to their incarceration. The ticket-of-leave regulations insisted that they did not return to family or friends (their old thieving grounds), so that in itself suggests that Mudgee was not well-known territory.
As for Fred’s sister, Sarah Ann Ward, it seems surprising that anyone would claim that she was Mrs Garbutt of Cooyal. While she had indeed married John Garbutt Snr in 1835 (see Marriage entry), she was widowed in 1839 and married William Shepper/Shepherd the same year (see Marriage entry). Accordingly, she hadn’t been Mrs Garbutt for more than two decades by the time Fred was released from Cockatoo Island. Nor did Sarah and her first husband John Garbutt relocate to the Mudgee vicinity during the few short years of their marriage before Sarah abandoned him for Shepherd around 1837, as Garbutt was a ticket-of-leave-holder assigned to Hawkesbury district (see Timeline: Sarah Ann Ward and her family).
Additionally, while legally she might still have been Mrs Shepper or Mrs Shepherd in 1860, she had been living with and bearing children to Edward Sackville Edwards for nearly two decades by then (see Timeline: Sarah Ann Ward and her family). As a common law wife, she was undoubtedly calling herself Mrs Edwards throughout that period.
The Edwards had settled in the Warialda district in the 1840s (a few hundred miles from Cooyal), where Sarah was still living in 1860 according to the website of Barry Sinclair himself (see below):[7]
Evidently, Martin Brennan was wrong when he stated that Fred Ward "entered Mrs Garbutt's employ as a horsebreaker" after being released from Cockatoo Island, because "Mrs Garbutt of Cooyal" only came into existence four months after Fred's arrival in Mudgee. That Fred was later employed by the Garbutts at Cooyal, however, there is no doubt whatsoever.[6]
Moreover, Fred and his nephew John Garbutt did not "return to Cooyal station" (as stated by Sinclair above) after receiving their tickets-of-leave. In fact, no evidence has been found to suggest that they had ever lived in or travelled to Mudgee prior to their incarceration. The ticket-of-leave regulations insisted that they did not return to family or friends (their old thieving grounds), so that in itself suggests that Mudgee was not well-known territory.
As for Fred’s sister, Sarah Ann Ward, it seems surprising that anyone would claim that she was Mrs Garbutt of Cooyal. While she had indeed married John Garbutt Snr in 1835 (see Marriage entry), she was widowed in 1839 and married William Shepper/Shepherd the same year (see Marriage entry). Accordingly, she hadn’t been Mrs Garbutt for more than two decades by the time Fred was released from Cockatoo Island. Nor did Sarah and her first husband John Garbutt relocate to the Mudgee vicinity during the few short years of their marriage before Sarah abandoned him for Shepherd around 1837, as Garbutt was a ticket-of-leave-holder assigned to Hawkesbury district (see Timeline: Sarah Ann Ward and her family).
Additionally, while legally she might still have been Mrs Shepper or Mrs Shepherd in 1860, she had been living with and bearing children to Edward Sackville Edwards for nearly two decades by then (see Timeline: Sarah Ann Ward and her family). As a common law wife, she was undoubtedly calling herself Mrs Edwards throughout that period.
The Edwards had settled in the Warialda district in the 1840s (a few hundred miles from Cooyal), where Sarah was still living in 1860 according to the website of Barry Sinclair himself (see below):[7]
That Sarah was indeed living in Warialda in 1855 is confirmed by the Baptism Entry of her son William Henry Edwards. That she was still living in that vicinity in the 1860s is confirmed by the Police Gazette report, dated late 1864, stating that she had run away with another man to Queensland, and that Edwards had put out a warrant for her arrest.[8] As such, Sinclair's own family history website makes it clear that Sarah Ann Ward was residing nowhere near Cooyal in 1860-61, that she was in fact Mrs Sarah Ann Edwards of Warialda at that time. Yet, despite that, Sinclair states on his Thunderbolt website that as Mrs Sarah Ann Garbutt she was Fred Ward's mother and the owner of Cooyal when Fred received his ticket-of-leave to Mudgee in 1860,[2] and on another website that as Mrs Sarah Ann Shepherd she was Fred Ward's sister and the owner of Cooyal at that time.[3]
By exploring the history of the Thunderbolt myths, it is possible to determine the genesis and development of these type of erroneous claims. In this case, Brennan's sources – informants who provided anecdotal information (see Review) – made an error when they stated that Fred went to work for "Mrs Garbutt of Cooyal" upon his arrival in Mudgee. Then Bob Cummins compounded the problem by jumping to the conclusion that "Mrs Garbutt" was Fred's sister without researching Sarah Ann Ward's relationships and movements in the decades between her 1834 marriage to John Garbutt and the time when Fred Ward went to Mudgee. And it all deteriorated from there.
By tracing the development of these errors, it is easier to understand how these errors were originally made and, therefore, to accept the truth revealed by the historical evidence. As Aldous Huxley said, "Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."
Sources
[1] Brennan, Martin Police History of the Notorious Bushrangers of New South Wales and Victoria p.330 [ML ref: CY934 - typescript]
[2] Mary Ann Bugg by Barry Sinclair - sighted 27 Nov 2011 [http://users.tpg.com.au/users/barrymor/Mary%20Ann%20Bugg.html]
[3] Mary Ann Bugg: Captain Thunderbolt’s Lady, adapted with permission by Barry Sinclair from an article written in 1998 by Andrew Stacpoole - sighted 23 Jun 2011 [http://www.thunderboltsway.com.au/resources/thunderbolt_mary_ann_bugg.pdf]
[3] You can confirm this by requesting “Elizabeth Garbutt” in a Google search or by searching the Online Newspapers.
[4] Henry James Blackman had the licence to the Cooyal Inn in 1854; Elizabeth Blackman had the licence to the (apparently renamed) Australian Arms in 1857, and the (seemingly re-renamed) Cooyal Inn in 1857, 1858 and 1860 (as per McNaught, Jean Butts & Certificates of the First Publican's Licences 1830-1860, Richmond & Tweed Regional Library, 1997)
[5] You can confirm this by requesting “Elizabeth Garbutt” in a Google search or by searching the Online Newspapers.
[6] See Timeline: 1835-1863
[7] Rootsweb site of Barry Sinclair - sighted 23 Jun 2011
[http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=barrysinclair34&id=I343]; NB. Sinclair claims here that Sarah Ann Ward was having children in Warialda around 1860-61, yet he is also responsible for the claim that Sarah Ann Ward was Mrs Garbutt of Cooyal, Fred's employer when he received his ticket-of-leave (as shown in the first image and source-referenced in footnote [2])
[8] See What happened to Sarah Ann Ward and to Fred Ward Jnr?
By exploring the history of the Thunderbolt myths, it is possible to determine the genesis and development of these type of erroneous claims. In this case, Brennan's sources – informants who provided anecdotal information (see Review) – made an error when they stated that Fred went to work for "Mrs Garbutt of Cooyal" upon his arrival in Mudgee. Then Bob Cummins compounded the problem by jumping to the conclusion that "Mrs Garbutt" was Fred's sister without researching Sarah Ann Ward's relationships and movements in the decades between her 1834 marriage to John Garbutt and the time when Fred Ward went to Mudgee. And it all deteriorated from there.
By tracing the development of these errors, it is easier to understand how these errors were originally made and, therefore, to accept the truth revealed by the historical evidence. As Aldous Huxley said, "Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."
Sources
[1] Brennan, Martin Police History of the Notorious Bushrangers of New South Wales and Victoria p.330 [ML ref: CY934 - typescript]
[2] Mary Ann Bugg by Barry Sinclair - sighted 27 Nov 2011 [http://users.tpg.com.au/users/barrymor/Mary%20Ann%20Bugg.html]
[3] Mary Ann Bugg: Captain Thunderbolt’s Lady, adapted with permission by Barry Sinclair from an article written in 1998 by Andrew Stacpoole - sighted 23 Jun 2011 [http://www.thunderboltsway.com.au/resources/thunderbolt_mary_ann_bugg.pdf]
[3] You can confirm this by requesting “Elizabeth Garbutt” in a Google search or by searching the Online Newspapers.
[4] Henry James Blackman had the licence to the Cooyal Inn in 1854; Elizabeth Blackman had the licence to the (apparently renamed) Australian Arms in 1857, and the (seemingly re-renamed) Cooyal Inn in 1857, 1858 and 1860 (as per McNaught, Jean Butts & Certificates of the First Publican's Licences 1830-1860, Richmond & Tweed Regional Library, 1997)
[5] You can confirm this by requesting “Elizabeth Garbutt” in a Google search or by searching the Online Newspapers.
[6] See Timeline: 1835-1863
[7] Rootsweb site of Barry Sinclair - sighted 23 Jun 2011
[http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=barrysinclair34&id=I343]; NB. Sinclair claims here that Sarah Ann Ward was having children in Warialda around 1860-61, yet he is also responsible for the claim that Sarah Ann Ward was Mrs Garbutt of Cooyal, Fred's employer when he received his ticket-of-leave (as shown in the first image and source-referenced in footnote [2])
[8] See What happened to Sarah Ann Ward and to Fred Ward Jnr?