Published: 4 April 2019
Last updated: 4 March 2024
Yet Edward Davis, Australia’s only known Jewish bushranger, deserves a better legacy than a badly-reviewed opera, even though much of his life is a mystery.
Davis was not his real surname, nor was his first name Edward. When sentenced to seven years transportation at London’s Old Bailey in 1832 - for attempting to steal a wooden till and its contents, worth seven shillings - his name was recorded as George Wilkinson.
Yet when he arrived in Sydney aboard the Camden in 1833, he was Edward Davis. In the next six years he absconded four times before forming his unique bushranger gang which terrorised a large part of NSW from the Hunter Valley to Tamworth in 1839 and 1840 from their base - Pilcher’s Mountain, south of Dungog.
Davis himself was short (“impish” according to one writer), light-framed, curly-haired and bore “curious” tattoos. He wore rings on each finger, loved “gaudy” clothes and tied pink ribbons to his bridle.
Yet despite his lack of stature, Davis was the undoubted leader of what became known as “the Jewboy gang”, consisting of seven former convicts. Davis’s entry in the Australian Dictionary of Biography was written by GFJ Bergman, who compared the bushranger to “an Australian Robin Hood”.
Despite his lack of stature, Davis was the undoubted leader of what became known as “the Jewboy gang”, consisting of seven former convicts.
“When he stripped the rich, he went out of his way to relieve the misery of the assigned servants, to whom he distributed part of his booty,” Bergman wrote.
As for Davis’s gang, “From descriptions of their attire … and their gallantry to the ladies, it seems that they were not hardened criminals but juvenile delinquents who considered themselves chevaliers of the road.”
David Hunt, author of the recently published popular history True Girt: The Unauthorised History of Australia, was another fan: “Teddy the Jewboy Davis, as he was known, terrorised the Hunter Valley between 1839 and 1841 ... except on Saturdays” (when the gang observed Shabbat).
Another story which distinguishes Davis from other bushrangers goes like this: while robbing Twickenham Downs Station, the gang discovered manager Captain John Pyke and neighbour Captain John Bingle had ordered merciless floggings of convicts merely suspected of minor misdemeanours. Incensed, Davis set up a mock trial, sentencing each man to 50 lashings.
Normally, though, Davis was careful to ensure minimal violence. He knew if any victim was ever murdered, the authorities would relentlessly hunt them down.
By 1840, the “Jewboy Gang” included John Marshall, John Shea, James Everett, Robert Chitty, Richard Glanville and a mysterious “seventh man” whose identity was never discovered.
At 35, Marshall was by far the oldest gang member - and had been the leader before Davis. Complex and conflicted, Marshall was covered in Christian tattoos but appears to have served the younger Jew loyally.
“When he stripped the rich, he went out of his way to relieve the misery of the assigned servants, to whom he distributed part of his booty.”
Their relationship was tested in December 1840, when Marshall led part of the gang as they “bailed up” a bullock cart containing the formidable local landowner, Isabella Mary Kelly.
Kelly was notorious, known for her cruel treatment of convicts. As the bushrangers were riding away, Kelly regained her pistol and shot Marshall in the shoulder. Badly injured, Marshall managed to ride back to Pilcher’s Mountain.
Davis then led the gang into Dungog, kidnapped the local doctor and took him blindfolded back to their hideout. Once the bullet had been removed, Davis kept his word and released the doctor.
Everything came unstuck on December 21, 1840, when the gang rode into Scone. They divided into two groups. Davis led Everett and Glanville to rob the St Aubin Arms hotel while Marshall, Shea, Chitty and “the seventh man” attacked Thomas Dangar’s store.
As Marshall’s group left the robbery scene, Dangar’s clerk, John Graham, ran into the street, firing to raise the alarm. Shea panicked and killed him. Davis hadn’t witnessed the murder but knew the game was up, leading the gang to Doughboy Hollow, near Murrundi.
Amazingly, Davis thought they’d be safe for a few hours. But Captain Edward Day had assembled a small posse of constables and ticket-of-leave men and they soon tracked the gang down. In the ensuing gunfight, Day concentrated on Davis. Each fired before Day’s second bullet hit Davis in the shoulder.
The bushrangers were captured and committed for trial at the Supreme Court on February 24, 1841. Shea was charged with murder, the others with aiding and abetting. Despite Davis’s counsel arguing he wasn’t even present at the murder, the jury found all six seven? guilty. They were sentenced to death by the chief justice, Sir James Dowling.
Before they were hanged in public at Old Sydney Gaol on March 16, 1841, Davis was visited by a rabbi from the Sydney synagogue. Contemporary reports note that Davis - who had always been against bloodshed - was the only one to show repentance on the scaffold. He was 24 or 25 when he died, and was buried in the Jewish section of Devonshire Street cemetery (later the site of Sydney’s Central Station).
Bergman’s verdict of the only Jewish bushranger on record? “A misguided and tormented youth, he had yet preserved a certain dignity, and a moral code which might have been inspired by the Jewish teachings of his early life.”
Illustration: John Kron
