Hugh Burne

52

Robyn Everist on 20th September 2025

29 June 1815 - executed at Hobart for bushranging and the murder of James O'Burn on 20th May 1815. Burial record: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/RGD34-1-1/RGD34-1-1P008

342

Maureen Withey on 11th October 2022

List of 80 male convicts (originally sent on Guildford 1812) be embarked per Ruby of Calcutta to Hobart Town, with the indents from Guildford, master Johnson, in 1812. https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON13-1-1$init=CON13-1-1P23 Hugh Benne, (or Burne?) tried at Cadiz C.M, 22 May 1811, Life.

116

Tony Beale on 28th May 2021

Our present accounts from Hobart Town of the bush-rangers retrospectively comprehend a narrative of events concerning this desperate banditti from the period of our last information, which stated the murder of Mr. William Carlisle, and the wounding of Mr. James O'Berne, master of the Geordy, with several others of Mr. Dennis McCarthy's friends, who had bravely accompanied him on his expedition to render assistance to the settlers of New Norfolk on the 24th of April last (for the account of which we beg to refer our Readers to the Gazette of May 20). Mr. O'Berne, we are concerned to state, died of his wound a few days after the skirmish, owing to the sudden rupture of a blood vessel of the neck. On the 25th, a party of eight, of the 40th Regt, arrived at Mr McCarthy's, in consequence of his having represented to His Honor the LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR that he expected to have his house attacked. A week elapsed without any attack being offered, or any further violences heard of; when suddenly the house of Mr. Humphrey, at Pitt water (50 miles from Mr. McCarthy), was beset by night, and stripped of every portable article of value. A week after this affair Mr. McCarthy went to Hobart Town on business, leaving the corporal of the detachment in charge of his house. About five in the evening of the same day the doors were attempted to be forced from without. The party, with five men who were servants of Mr. McCarthy, were in the kitchen, the doors of the house were all barred, but the front door was nevertheless forced in, and a fire immediately commenced from the assailants, who levelling their muskets through a long hall that led into the kitchen, wounded a soldier in the thigh. Their reception as warm as it could possibly be, and after a brisk interchange of shot that lasted about twenty minutes, the villains went off, leaving their chief ringleader behind, without his head, which some of the gang severed off (accounts say before the man was dead), in order that it might not be identified, and it might still remain a secret who had fallen. The conduct of the military party was conspicuously meritorious, and that of Mr. McCarthy's men, as their assistants, was no less entitled to commendation. They had taken the precaution to extinguish all lights, and rifle firing was kept up through the doors and window shutters, which were of course perforated in many places. Whitehead, who as commander of the assailants was dressed in a cocked hat, part of the spoil taken from the house of Mr. Humphrey, was killed in the act of surveying the premises to find an entrance; and upon his fall, which was effected by a soldier who caught his glimpse as be passed, the attack appears to have been abandoned. Mr. Hacking, jun. who was at a neighbouring farm in hearing of the conflict, but incapable of affording assistance or relief, took the earliest occasion of informing the party of the return of security, after the villains had gone off. They called at the hut of a stockman the same evening, after their retreat, about four miles from Mr. McCarthy's, and informed him of their having decapitated one of their companions who had fallen, declaring their determination to carry off the heads of all as well protesting at the same time, that as they could not again rob McCarthy's house, the next time they came that way they would set fire to it. The same night Mr. McCarthy returned home with all possible expedition, and found the headless body at his threshold: he augmented the number of his guard, and conveyed the body down to Hobart Town the same night, where he arrived very late, but found all the inhabitants up, waiting with anxious expectation the report of the result. The death of Whitehead (whose person was identified in that of the deceased), was a subject of general satisfaction. The body was next morning hung in chains; and that morning Mr. James O'Berne breathed his last. One of the parties who were out in search of them fell in with one of their huts about a fortnight afterwards in a thicket, and put to flight the only two that chanced to be there at the time. Several stand of arms, with a quantity of ammunition, were found in the hut, as were also several of their hunting dogs; which latter were afterwards destroyed, and means taken to prevent their being replaced by the bush rangers, to whom at so harrassing a period they were the chief dependence for a subsistence. These two persons proved lo be Richard McGwire and Hugh Byrne, who were of the party that had committed the late sanguinary outrages at New Norfolk. — They were pursued, and obliged to adopt a route which prevented their rejoining their accomplices, without the most imminent hazard; and in this dilemma were, reduced to the necessity of advancing to that part of the river fronting Hobart Town, to endeavour thence to procure a boat to convey them down to the Straits. To accomplish this they engaged a settler to procure a boat, giving him a silver watch in advance for his assistance, and promising a more liberal compensation on his return: they were shortly after surrounded by a party, at some of whom they nevertheless had the temerity to level their muskets. Serjeant Beaufort, who commanded the party, immediately on perceiving this, fired upon them and wounded Burne in the hip. They were then both secured, and tried a few days after by a court martial, who sentenced them to be executed and hung in chains, which sentence was carried into effect accordingly.

338

Penny-Lyn Beale on 27th May 2021

Full details refer; https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/629176?searchTerm=mcgwire

338

Penny-Lyn Beale on 27th May 2021

Burials in the Paris of St David's Hobart - No; 184 Name; Hugh Burn When Died; 29 June 1815 When Buried; Hung in chains Age; 22 Ship's Name; Guildford Remarks; A desperate Bushranger who was at the murder of James O'Brien Hugh Byrne - June or early July 1815 - Hanged at Hobart for his part in the murder of William Carlisle and James O'Byrne at New Norfolk