John Garbutt
|
From Sunday Mail (Brisbane) 17 May 1936 p.29
|
Timeline
1834 Sep 12 John Garbitt (sic) born at Wilberforce to ticket-of-leave convict John Garbutt and Sarah Ann Ward; baptised Pitt Town CE parish on 7 Dec 1835; John later reported that he went to live at John Crowder’s at Saint Clair in early childhood, that he was such a young age at the time that he couldn’t remember how old he was; Crowder lived at Lochinvar in the mid-1840s and John remained in his employ until 1849 when he left and spent three months with Mr Gordon and nine months with Mr Wyndham, both on the Macintyre, then he was not engaged by anyone else until he returned to Mr Crowder’s employ in 1852; by then Crowder lived at Weranga in the Darling Downs (Qld), a property neighbouring that of James Snowden Calvert who accompanied explorer Ludwig Leichhardt on his first expedition into the interior; 1853: John was employed by J.P Wilkie Esq of the Darling Downs; Mar 1855: a warrant was issued for his arrest for horse stealing, leading him to flee back to NSW; 7 Apr: John Clune of Ipswich advertised that John Garbutt’s horse, which had been left in his paddock, would be sold to defray costs[1]
1856-61 Ringleader of a cattle and horse stealing operation; pleaded guilty at the Supreme Court on 2 Jun 1856 and sentenced to ten years on Cockatoo Island; received ticket-of-leave to the Mudgee district in 1860; married Mrs Elizabeth Blackman nee Aldridge on 27 Dec 1860 at Cooyal inn (see Marriage); convicted of stealing sheep at Mudgee in Jul 1861 and returned to Cockatoo Island[2]
1861 Sep + John Charles Garbutt. 16 & 18 Sep 1861: received visits from his wife; 27 Sep 1861: letter from Sheriff to Colonial Secretary mentioning confusion about where Garbutt was incarcerated; 30 Sep 1861: returned to Darlinghurst Gaol and forwarded to Mudgee to give evidence in perjury trial; 16 Oct 1861: unexpired term of last sentence remitted as Judge Dowling considered the evidence against Garbutt ‘by no means reliable or satisfactory’; 18 Oct 1861: Mrs Garbutt visited Cockatoo Island but her husband was not back from Mudgee; 19 Oct 1861: Garbutt received back at Cockatoo Island then returned to Darlinghurst Gaol for disposal in accordance with letter remitting sentence but returned to Cockatoo Island as Inspector of Police stated that remission letter had no reference to unexpired term of former sentence; 23 Oct 1861: acted as a witness in the Cockatoo Island hearing of William Sampson charged with clandestinely writing a letter to be sent off the island; 25 Oct 1861: discharged to Office of Inspector General of Police for disposal; 29 Oct 1861: ticket-of-leave restored to him per Colonial Secretary letter of that date; Oct/Nov 1861: Report that inquiry into alleged extortion being carried out at Cockatoo Island, some officers having received about £80 from John Garbutt’s wife without his knowledge (not mentioned in Cockatoo Island records)[3]
1861 late + Back at Mudgee: 2 Nov 1861: summoned before Mudgee Police Court for wages due to a Chinese shepherd but case dismissed; 6 Dec 1861: brought Samuel Pegg to police court on charges of assault with Pegg being fined 20 shillings; 6 Dec 1861: brought servants John Ward and wife to court for disobeying orders of Mrs Garbutt and Ward fined and officially dismissed; 10 Dec 1861: John Ward brought claim against Garbutts for wages[4]
1862 Sep 13 Armed gang robbed group of men camping at Garbutt’s Cooyal property[5]
1862 Oct 22 Convict Classification Board recommended Garbutt for a conditional pardon; 27 Nov 1862: Conditional Pardon granted (against advice of Chief Justice Alfred Stephen)[6]
1862/63 John Garbutt suffered concussion when thrown from his horse; at trial in March 1863 two doctors gave the opinion that “there was a change in [Garbutt’s] demeanour since the accident” but agreed that he could still distinguish right from wrong; Dr King said that he had known Garbutt for years and was called to attend him after the fall and that Garbutt “suffered for some weeks of a concussion of the brain”, that his character, manners and brains had undergone an alteration; while Dr Ramsay deposed that he had known Garbutt for three or four years and that his manner had “totally changed” since the accident[7]
1863 Feb + 25 Feb & 2 Mar: John Garbutt brought before Mudgee police magistrate on charges of cattle stealing; 12/13 Mar: tried, convicted and sentenced to 7 years’ hard labour despite his counsel’s plea that if the jury found his guilty they should acquit him on the grounds of insanity, in which case he would be sent to Tarban Creek or some other place where he would receive medical treatment[8]
1863 Apr 16 Transferred from Darlinghurst Gaol to Parramatta Psychiatric Institution as he was reported to be under a “delusional mania”. He expressed “a constant terror of imaginary persons and particularly of blackfellows”; he would “remain naked, day and night, wearing only a pair of stockings and would hide under a bed or in a corner if people approached him”; he was “seldom much excited unless he saw a blackfellow”; he “disliked everything black and frequently threatened to kill a fellow black patient ‘like a cat’”; he was “frequently sullen and morose, refusing to speak to those about him”, he sometimes refused food which had to be administered forcibly; and he made no mental improvement for many years until making a sudden improvement; he was then kept under observation for some months until he was discharged by the Medical Board to the care of his wife on 16 Aug 1873[9]
1863-1866 Problems with John’s 1863 trial regarding presence of judge at Quarter Sessions raised in Queen versus Garbutt[10]
1864 Nov 22 Five armed men rob Mrs Garbutt of Cooyal; they were arrested over the next few months, including three by Brisbane Police in March 1865, and remanded to Mudgee; police report that one of these men, John Ellis, was believed to be identical with Thomas John Ellis alias Tommy Richards alias Tommy the Native alias Frederick Britten alias John Thomas Clarke, escaped prisoner from Victoria[11]
NB. This is suggesting that the property belonging to Fred Ward’s nephew's wife might have been robbed by Fred Ward’s escapee partner; interestingly, a John Ellis visited Fred Britten on Cockatoo Island, so Ellis and Britten were clearly not the same men. More research needs to be done to determine the connection
1865 Aug 1 Report that little girl named Parker, adopted by Mrs Garbutt because the child’s father had died, had been seriously hurt in an accidental explosion of blasting powder[12]
1867 Nov 8 Report in Western Post that little half-caste girl being brought up by Mrs Garbutt had been drowned[13]
1868 Sep Mrs Garbutt purchased allotments in Cudgegong[14]
1872 Aug 16 Released from Parramatta Psychiatric Institution[15]
1873 Sep 8 + Murdered Thomas Conroy at Taroom by killing him with an axe while he was asleep then burning his body; 19 Oct: apprehended by police; etc etc ; 2-5 Feb 1874: tried and convicted; 10 Mar: executed at Brisbane Gaol; his wife Elizabeth tried to assist him by having details of his lunacy forwarded to the Brisbane authorities to no avail[16] Death Certificate
See also:
- Who was Mrs Garbutt of Cooyal?
- Garbutt family
- Frederick Ward and the Garbutt brothers
Sources:
[1] Baptism: John Garbitt [SRNSW Vol.19 No.717; Reel 5004]; Marriage: Garbitt & Ward [SRNSW Vol.19 No. 1341; Reel 5004]; Legislative Assembly Tabled Papers: Statement of John Garbutt regarding Ludwig Leichhardt, 1857 [NSWPA LA TP 1857/409]; Sydney Morning Herald 22 Mar 1855 p.4, 1 May 1857 p.4; Brisbane Courier 7 Apr 1855 p.3
[2] See Timeline: 1835 – 1863 for more detailed information and source-references relating to John Garbutt’s activities
[3] Cockatoo Island – Daily State of the Establishment [SRNSW 4/6505, 1 Aug 1861, 16, 18 & 30 Sep 1861, 18, 19 & 25 Oct 1861] & Cockatoo Island – Letter Book, 19 Oct 1861 [SRNSW 4/6517 p.253?] & Cockatoo Island –Punishment Book: re William Sampson [SRNSW 4/6502 Year 1863 Oct 23]; CSIL: Re John Garbutt [SRNSW ref: 4/3455 No. 61/4042] & [SRNSW 4/3480 Item 62/5213] & [SRNSW 4/549 Item 65/1712]; Darlinghurst Gaol – Entrance Book [SRNSW 5/1896 Year 1861 Nos.1916 & 2032; Reel 2338]; Ticket of Leave: John Charles Garbutt [SRNSW 4/4233 No.60/30; Reel 893]; Brisbane Courier 4 Nov 1861 p.2
[4] Western Post 2 Nov, 7 Dec, 11 Dec 1861 from Annette Piper’s Newspaper Transcripts
[http://www.addison.homedns.org/transcriptions/others/othersintro.html]
[5] Hobart Mercury 7 Oct 1862 p.6 (from Bathurst Free Press)
[6] CSIL: Petition for mitigation of John Garbutt’s conviction [SRNSW ref: 4/3480 File 62/5213]
[7] Western Post 17 Mar 1863 p.2
[8] Western Post 3 Mar 1863 p.2, 6 Mar p.2, 17 Mar pp.2 & 3 (x2), 24 Mar p.2; Mudgee Liberal 26 Feb 1863 p.2, 5 Mar p.2, 19 Mar p.3 (x2)
[9] Parramatta Psychiatric Institution – Medical Case Book, 1861-65 [SRNSW 6/5351 fols.296, 382, 463, 556 & 598] & 1865-70 [SRNSW 4/8257 fols.207 +] & 1871-72 [SRNSW 6/5353 fol.209]; CSIL: re Garbutt, a lunatic shortly to be tried in Queensland [SRNSW ref: 1/2251 No. 74/1548]
[10] Western Post 17 Mar 1863 p.3; Sydney Morning Herald 3 Apr 1863 p.5, 23 May 1863 p.5, 15 Jan 1864 p.2, 30 Aug 1866 p.3
[11] NSW Police Gazette 1864 No.47 (23 Nov 1864) p.368, No.48 (30 Nov 1864 p.378, No.50 (14 Dec 1864) pp.397 & 402, 1865 No.12 (22 Mar 1865) p.113; Brisbane Courier 21 Feb 1865 p.2, 28 Feb 1865 pp.2 (x2) & p.5, 7 Mar 1865 p.2; Maitland Mercury 26 Nov 1864 p.2, 23 Feb 1865 p.2
[12] Maitland Mercury 8 Aug 1865 p.2
[13] Maitland Mercury 14 Nov 1867 p.4
[14] Maitland Mercury 3 Oct 1868 p.6
[15] Parramatta Psychiatric Institution – Medical Case Book, 1861-65 [SRNSW 6/5351 fols.296, 382, 463, 556 & 598] & 1865-70 [SRNSW 4/8257 fols.207 +] & 1871-72 [SRNSW 6/5353 fol.209]; CSIL: re John Charles Garbutt [SRNSW ref: 1/2181 No. 72/6287] & [SRNSW ref: 1/2251 No. 74/1548]
[16] Brisbane Courier 4 Oct 1873 p.4, 24 Oct p.2, 27 Oct p.3, 30 Oct p.7, 17 Nov p.3, 24 Nov p.2, 15 Dec p.3, 4 Feb p.3, 5 Feb p.3, 6 Feb p.2, 7 Feb p.4, 11 Mar p.2; see also other newspaper under Garbutt (and spelling variations) and the “Taroom murder”; CSIL: re Garbutt, a lunatic shortly to be tried in Queensland [SRNSW ref: 1/2251 No. 74/1548]
1834 Sep 12 John Garbitt (sic) born at Wilberforce to ticket-of-leave convict John Garbutt and Sarah Ann Ward; baptised Pitt Town CE parish on 7 Dec 1835; John later reported that he went to live at John Crowder’s at Saint Clair in early childhood, that he was such a young age at the time that he couldn’t remember how old he was; Crowder lived at Lochinvar in the mid-1840s and John remained in his employ until 1849 when he left and spent three months with Mr Gordon and nine months with Mr Wyndham, both on the Macintyre, then he was not engaged by anyone else until he returned to Mr Crowder’s employ in 1852; by then Crowder lived at Weranga in the Darling Downs (Qld), a property neighbouring that of James Snowden Calvert who accompanied explorer Ludwig Leichhardt on his first expedition into the interior; 1853: John was employed by J.P Wilkie Esq of the Darling Downs; Mar 1855: a warrant was issued for his arrest for horse stealing, leading him to flee back to NSW; 7 Apr: John Clune of Ipswich advertised that John Garbutt’s horse, which had been left in his paddock, would be sold to defray costs[1]
1856-61 Ringleader of a cattle and horse stealing operation; pleaded guilty at the Supreme Court on 2 Jun 1856 and sentenced to ten years on Cockatoo Island; received ticket-of-leave to the Mudgee district in 1860; married Mrs Elizabeth Blackman nee Aldridge on 27 Dec 1860 at Cooyal inn (see Marriage); convicted of stealing sheep at Mudgee in Jul 1861 and returned to Cockatoo Island[2]
1861 Sep + John Charles Garbutt. 16 & 18 Sep 1861: received visits from his wife; 27 Sep 1861: letter from Sheriff to Colonial Secretary mentioning confusion about where Garbutt was incarcerated; 30 Sep 1861: returned to Darlinghurst Gaol and forwarded to Mudgee to give evidence in perjury trial; 16 Oct 1861: unexpired term of last sentence remitted as Judge Dowling considered the evidence against Garbutt ‘by no means reliable or satisfactory’; 18 Oct 1861: Mrs Garbutt visited Cockatoo Island but her husband was not back from Mudgee; 19 Oct 1861: Garbutt received back at Cockatoo Island then returned to Darlinghurst Gaol for disposal in accordance with letter remitting sentence but returned to Cockatoo Island as Inspector of Police stated that remission letter had no reference to unexpired term of former sentence; 23 Oct 1861: acted as a witness in the Cockatoo Island hearing of William Sampson charged with clandestinely writing a letter to be sent off the island; 25 Oct 1861: discharged to Office of Inspector General of Police for disposal; 29 Oct 1861: ticket-of-leave restored to him per Colonial Secretary letter of that date; Oct/Nov 1861: Report that inquiry into alleged extortion being carried out at Cockatoo Island, some officers having received about £80 from John Garbutt’s wife without his knowledge (not mentioned in Cockatoo Island records)[3]
1861 late + Back at Mudgee: 2 Nov 1861: summoned before Mudgee Police Court for wages due to a Chinese shepherd but case dismissed; 6 Dec 1861: brought Samuel Pegg to police court on charges of assault with Pegg being fined 20 shillings; 6 Dec 1861: brought servants John Ward and wife to court for disobeying orders of Mrs Garbutt and Ward fined and officially dismissed; 10 Dec 1861: John Ward brought claim against Garbutts for wages[4]
1862 Sep 13 Armed gang robbed group of men camping at Garbutt’s Cooyal property[5]
1862 Oct 22 Convict Classification Board recommended Garbutt for a conditional pardon; 27 Nov 1862: Conditional Pardon granted (against advice of Chief Justice Alfred Stephen)[6]
1862/63 John Garbutt suffered concussion when thrown from his horse; at trial in March 1863 two doctors gave the opinion that “there was a change in [Garbutt’s] demeanour since the accident” but agreed that he could still distinguish right from wrong; Dr King said that he had known Garbutt for years and was called to attend him after the fall and that Garbutt “suffered for some weeks of a concussion of the brain”, that his character, manners and brains had undergone an alteration; while Dr Ramsay deposed that he had known Garbutt for three or four years and that his manner had “totally changed” since the accident[7]
1863 Feb + 25 Feb & 2 Mar: John Garbutt brought before Mudgee police magistrate on charges of cattle stealing; 12/13 Mar: tried, convicted and sentenced to 7 years’ hard labour despite his counsel’s plea that if the jury found his guilty they should acquit him on the grounds of insanity, in which case he would be sent to Tarban Creek or some other place where he would receive medical treatment[8]
1863 Apr 16 Transferred from Darlinghurst Gaol to Parramatta Psychiatric Institution as he was reported to be under a “delusional mania”. He expressed “a constant terror of imaginary persons and particularly of blackfellows”; he would “remain naked, day and night, wearing only a pair of stockings and would hide under a bed or in a corner if people approached him”; he was “seldom much excited unless he saw a blackfellow”; he “disliked everything black and frequently threatened to kill a fellow black patient ‘like a cat’”; he was “frequently sullen and morose, refusing to speak to those about him”, he sometimes refused food which had to be administered forcibly; and he made no mental improvement for many years until making a sudden improvement; he was then kept under observation for some months until he was discharged by the Medical Board to the care of his wife on 16 Aug 1873[9]
1863-1866 Problems with John’s 1863 trial regarding presence of judge at Quarter Sessions raised in Queen versus Garbutt[10]
1864 Nov 22 Five armed men rob Mrs Garbutt of Cooyal; they were arrested over the next few months, including three by Brisbane Police in March 1865, and remanded to Mudgee; police report that one of these men, John Ellis, was believed to be identical with Thomas John Ellis alias Tommy Richards alias Tommy the Native alias Frederick Britten alias John Thomas Clarke, escaped prisoner from Victoria[11]
NB. This is suggesting that the property belonging to Fred Ward’s nephew's wife might have been robbed by Fred Ward’s escapee partner; interestingly, a John Ellis visited Fred Britten on Cockatoo Island, so Ellis and Britten were clearly not the same men. More research needs to be done to determine the connection
1865 Aug 1 Report that little girl named Parker, adopted by Mrs Garbutt because the child’s father had died, had been seriously hurt in an accidental explosion of blasting powder[12]
1867 Nov 8 Report in Western Post that little half-caste girl being brought up by Mrs Garbutt had been drowned[13]
1868 Sep Mrs Garbutt purchased allotments in Cudgegong[14]
1872 Aug 16 Released from Parramatta Psychiatric Institution[15]
1873 Sep 8 + Murdered Thomas Conroy at Taroom by killing him with an axe while he was asleep then burning his body; 19 Oct: apprehended by police; etc etc ; 2-5 Feb 1874: tried and convicted; 10 Mar: executed at Brisbane Gaol; his wife Elizabeth tried to assist him by having details of his lunacy forwarded to the Brisbane authorities to no avail[16] Death Certificate
See also:
- Who was Mrs Garbutt of Cooyal?
- Garbutt family
- Frederick Ward and the Garbutt brothers
Sources:
[1] Baptism: John Garbitt [SRNSW Vol.19 No.717; Reel 5004]; Marriage: Garbitt & Ward [SRNSW Vol.19 No. 1341; Reel 5004]; Legislative Assembly Tabled Papers: Statement of John Garbutt regarding Ludwig Leichhardt, 1857 [NSWPA LA TP 1857/409]; Sydney Morning Herald 22 Mar 1855 p.4, 1 May 1857 p.4; Brisbane Courier 7 Apr 1855 p.3
[2] See Timeline: 1835 – 1863 for more detailed information and source-references relating to John Garbutt’s activities
[3] Cockatoo Island – Daily State of the Establishment [SRNSW 4/6505, 1 Aug 1861, 16, 18 & 30 Sep 1861, 18, 19 & 25 Oct 1861] & Cockatoo Island – Letter Book, 19 Oct 1861 [SRNSW 4/6517 p.253?] & Cockatoo Island –Punishment Book: re William Sampson [SRNSW 4/6502 Year 1863 Oct 23]; CSIL: Re John Garbutt [SRNSW ref: 4/3455 No. 61/4042] & [SRNSW 4/3480 Item 62/5213] & [SRNSW 4/549 Item 65/1712]; Darlinghurst Gaol – Entrance Book [SRNSW 5/1896 Year 1861 Nos.1916 & 2032; Reel 2338]; Ticket of Leave: John Charles Garbutt [SRNSW 4/4233 No.60/30; Reel 893]; Brisbane Courier 4 Nov 1861 p.2
[4] Western Post 2 Nov, 7 Dec, 11 Dec 1861 from Annette Piper’s Newspaper Transcripts
[http://www.addison.homedns.org/transcriptions/others/othersintro.html]
[5] Hobart Mercury 7 Oct 1862 p.6 (from Bathurst Free Press)
[6] CSIL: Petition for mitigation of John Garbutt’s conviction [SRNSW ref: 4/3480 File 62/5213]
[7] Western Post 17 Mar 1863 p.2
[8] Western Post 3 Mar 1863 p.2, 6 Mar p.2, 17 Mar pp.2 & 3 (x2), 24 Mar p.2; Mudgee Liberal 26 Feb 1863 p.2, 5 Mar p.2, 19 Mar p.3 (x2)
[9] Parramatta Psychiatric Institution – Medical Case Book, 1861-65 [SRNSW 6/5351 fols.296, 382, 463, 556 & 598] & 1865-70 [SRNSW 4/8257 fols.207 +] & 1871-72 [SRNSW 6/5353 fol.209]; CSIL: re Garbutt, a lunatic shortly to be tried in Queensland [SRNSW ref: 1/2251 No. 74/1548]
[10] Western Post 17 Mar 1863 p.3; Sydney Morning Herald 3 Apr 1863 p.5, 23 May 1863 p.5, 15 Jan 1864 p.2, 30 Aug 1866 p.3
[11] NSW Police Gazette 1864 No.47 (23 Nov 1864) p.368, No.48 (30 Nov 1864 p.378, No.50 (14 Dec 1864) pp.397 & 402, 1865 No.12 (22 Mar 1865) p.113; Brisbane Courier 21 Feb 1865 p.2, 28 Feb 1865 pp.2 (x2) & p.5, 7 Mar 1865 p.2; Maitland Mercury 26 Nov 1864 p.2, 23 Feb 1865 p.2
[12] Maitland Mercury 8 Aug 1865 p.2
[13] Maitland Mercury 14 Nov 1867 p.4
[14] Maitland Mercury 3 Oct 1868 p.6
[15] Parramatta Psychiatric Institution – Medical Case Book, 1861-65 [SRNSW 6/5351 fols.296, 382, 463, 556 & 598] & 1865-70 [SRNSW 4/8257 fols.207 +] & 1871-72 [SRNSW 6/5353 fol.209]; CSIL: re John Charles Garbutt [SRNSW ref: 1/2181 No. 72/6287] & [SRNSW ref: 1/2251 No. 74/1548]
[16] Brisbane Courier 4 Oct 1873 p.4, 24 Oct p.2, 27 Oct p.3, 30 Oct p.7, 17 Nov p.3, 24 Nov p.2, 15 Dec p.3, 4 Feb p.3, 5 Feb p.3, 6 Feb p.2, 7 Feb p.4, 11 Mar p.2; see also other newspaper under Garbutt (and spelling variations) and the “Taroom murder”; CSIL: re Garbutt, a lunatic shortly to be tried in Queensland [SRNSW ref: 1/2251 No. 74/1548]