JACOBS MOB
(www.whiskershill.dynamite.com.au)
Patrick RILEY or Reily,
alias Reiby, a convict assigned to the service of
Lieutenant Vicars Jacob, Hunter's River, was the leader of what may be the
first significant gang in the colony of
The gang selected their victims but reserved
violence for revenge. Laying the foundations for a bushranging
tradition, they did not ill-use women (despite some reports to the contrary);
they enjoyed their robberies with wine and song; they dressed well; they
terrorised overseers and officers who represented the respectable.
The first Australian folk songs were written
at this time – by definition "treason songs" and long since lost.
Peter Cunningham wrote of bushrangers in 1827:
The vanity of being talked of, I verily
believe, leads many foolish fellows to join this kind of life — songs being
often made about their exploits by their sympathizing brethren ... RILEY, the
captain of the Hunter's River banditti, vaunted that he should long be spoken
of (whatever his fate might be), in fear by his enemies, and in admiration by
his friends.
Cunningham also wrote that Jacob's Mob
"robbed indsicriminately" but "never
molested the premises of a friend of mine, on account of his having come out as
passenger in the ship in which one of them was a convict — into whose goodwill
this gentleman had so far ingratiated himself, that his unknown friend declared
he would forsake the gang if Mr. G.'s house were
assailed." [Cunningham: Two Years in NSW (1827), Letter XXVIII].
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On 5 July the original four men robbed
Standish Harris's farm; on the 8th, David Maziere's;
then Lieut. Hicks' and James McClyont's farms. On 2
August they were captured, handcuffed, ironed and lodged in the Wallis Plains
(Maitland) lockup. Two days later they overpowered their guards, seized weapons
and ammunition and escaped. They also took a musket from William O'Donnell and
horses from various settlers. Despite numerous pursuit parties, inc. those led
by Robert Scott of Glendon and Alex. McLeod of Luskintyre, the bushrangers went on to rob Jacob's farm
again, and Winder's farm. On 6 August they had two skirmishes with the police
from Luskintyre.
On 18 August they went to James Reid's house
at Rosebrook, and burnt the house down in revenge for
his treatment of convicts in general and RILEY in particular. On 20 August they
robbed Evans' farm and Dr. Radford's house near Lochdon.
On 25 August, A. B. Sparke
posted a reward of 60 Spanish dollars for the arrest of REIBY (Reily), CLINCH and CLEARY. Magistrate E. C. Close of Morpeth reported "there was scarcely a farm on which
they had not paid adherents, and a strong party of the emancipated population
aided them - transporting the robbers and their plunder in boats to elude
pursuit and succouring them in other ways."
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