Charles Carlisle

Level 347

Maureen Withey on 8th April 2023

Convict Index. Charles Carlisle, per Earl Spencer 1813, Ticket of Leave, No 13/50. Born Sct, Galloway; Trade, Vet Surgeon; --------------------------------------------------------------------- C. CARLISLE, Veterinary Surgeon, begs to inform Gentlemen, Settlers, and Others, that he has commenced the practice of his Profession, in which he has had considerable Experience in England and in Spain; and he confidently flatters himself, that from his general knowledge of the Disorders and Treatment of Horses according to the excellent Principles of the Royal Veterinary College of London, his Efforts to render himself serviceable in this remote Colony, at a moderate Charge, will be his best recommendation to those who may have occasion to honor him with their Attention.—A Line or message to No. 1, Cambridge-street near St. Phillip's Church, will be at all times readily attended to. Sydney Gazette, 4 Dec 1813.

Level 347

Maureen Withey on 8th April 2023

Criminal Court, WEDNESDAY.- Richard Collyer, was indicted for the wilful murder of Charles Carlisle, at or near the settlement of New Norfolk, on Van Diemen's Land on the 24th of April, 1815. The facts stated in evidence against the prisoner minutely correspond with the account published in this Paper on the 20th of May 1815, detailing the melancholy particulars of an expedition composed of eight persons, of whose number was Mr. Dennis McCarthy, proceeding against a collected body of bush-rangers who were committing outrages at the settlement of New Norfolk, and who, being all armed with muskets and pistols, engaged the party, killed Mr. Charles Carlisle, and wounded all the rest; Mr. James O'Berne, one of the wounded persons, died a few days after in consequence of his wound. The assassins, who were 8 or 9 in number, besides a native black woman, were securely posted behind trees, and thereby rendered the fire of their opponents ineffectual. The prisoner at the bar was indicted as being present at and aiding in the affray, and as a principal in the murder for which he was now arraigned. Mr. Jemott, of Hobart Town, being called on as an evidence, deposed to his being of the party who had proceeded in quest of the banditti, and was one who was wounded by them. He narrated the circumstances of the unfortunate contest, but could not swear the prisoner was among the assailants. Patrick Flaherty, who lived as a servant with the deceased at the time of his death, deposed, that on the morning of the 25th of April the gang of bush-rangers, by whom his master was murdered, had previously robbed his house, and were soon after pursued by the party which his master accompanied to check their enormities, but that he never returned to his home alive. The prisoner at the bar he swore to positively as being one of the assailants. George King deposed, that he was the same morning pursued by a gang of bush-rangers, and was made prisoner by them after being thrice fired at, and that the prisoner at the bar, Richard Collyer, was one of the men who fired at him; he remained their captive, and was compelled to obey such orders as they chose to impose on him. - They had in the morning robbed the house of the deceased; and a few hours after, the party who had ventured to oppose them made their appearance; the witness was left with the booty they had then in possession, and the gang proceeded to the encounter ; witness saw five of the unfortunate persons fall, and the others discontinuing a further fruitless opposition to superior numbers, who were much better armed than themselves, effected a retreat. The witness made his escape during the affray ; and among the party of the bush rangers engaged in it were. Michael Howe, Peter Geary, John Jones, John Whitehead, and the prisoner at the bar. No further evidence being called, the prisoner was called on for his defence ; which consisted in a brief denial of his guilt, alleging also that he was ten miles distant when the encounter had taken place ; but the contrary fact was decidedly clear, and he was pronounced Guilty. His Honor the Judge Advocate now proceeded to the denunciation of the awful sentence, endeavouring to awaken in his mind a proper sense of his condition, which imperiously demanded an earnest and unrestrained solicitude for the forgiveness of his crimes, & the future destiny of his now fleeting spirit in a world winch was eternal. His lawless courses had in these colonies unfortunately been of long continuance. He had of his own accord withdrawn himself from the duties of his condition in society, and had abandoned its intercourses for a life of wild irregularity and enormity. He had been long a terror to the peaceful inhabitants of the country in which his destinies had placed him, and to a mind inured to crime as his had been, the magnitude of each offence depended upon chance, & murder was itself resorted to, when unhappily needful to the perfection of his guilty projects. The avenging arm of justice had at length determined his career-while the enormity of his offences had cut him off from every hope of earthly clemency :-but there was another life to come, which now demanded his entire care. A long eternity awaited him, and as he wished for mercy there, so would he endeavour to deserve the promised boon, by true repentance, and by constant fervent prayer. Sentence of death was then pronounced, to be carried into execution on such day as His EXCELLENCY the GOVERNOR should think proper to appoint, and the body to be after given for dissection. Sydney Gazette, 1 Nov 1817.

Level 347

Maureen Withey on 8th April 2023

https://stors.tas.gov.au/RGD34-1-1p007j2k Burials at Hobart Town, 1815. This page records the burial of Charles William George Courlyle, (per Earl Spencer), a convict, aged 32 years who was shot and killed by the Bushrangers at New Norfolk, 24 April 1815, and was buried 27 April 1815; There are other deaths recorded on the same and the following pages: The burial of Thomas Conelly, (per General Hewitt) who died 7 May 1815, shot by James Morley, and the burial of James Whitehead, (per Indefatigable) shot 14 May 1815, a desperate bushranger, shot by soldiers at New Norfolk. https://stors.tas.gov.au/RGD34-1-1p008j2k Burials at Hobart Town, 1815. James O’ Burn was buried, having died on 20 May 1815, shot by bushrangers at New Norfolk. William Stevens was executed 25 May 1815. Later, 6 June 1815, Thomas Morley was executed for the murder of Thomas Connelly, and on 7th June, Richard McGuire (per Guildford) and Hugh Burn (per Guildford) were executed, the former, described as a desperate bushranger who was with the party at New Norfolk, and the latter as a desperate bushranger who was at the murder of James O’ Burn & Carlyle. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Newspaper reports of the events. The accounts received by the Cochin from Hobart Town teem with the enormities in daily practice by the bushrangers, of whom four had been apprehended. A party of villains, eight in number, and accompanied by a native woman, made a daring attack upon the settlement of New Norfolk on Monday the 24th of last month, and stripped the settlers of all property they could carry off, together with all arms and ammunition they could find. They had previously visited the Government herds about five miles from New Norfolk, and killed a fine cow. When in their course of plundering they had reached as far as the Back River, Mr. Dennis McCarthy, who resides about two miles distant, received information of their approach, and determined to give them a meeting, without knowing their number, or the manner in which they were armed; for during a late absence from the settlement his house had been plundered by a party of the banditti; and on the present occasion his vessel the Geordy lay near his premises, and contained a considerable property which would have been at the mercy of the plunderers. Accompanied by some acquaintances who happened to be on the spot at the time, namely, Mr Jas. O'Berne, master of the Geordy, Mr. Keith Hacking, mate, Messrs. Murphy, Jamott, Charles Carlisle, James Triffit, a neighbouring settler's son, John Brown, a servant, and ___Tooms, who belonged to the vessel, and was rewarded with a conditional emancipation for his good conduct in apprehending the desperate offenders, McCabe and Townshend, who were some time since executed for their crimes, and armed with four fowling pieces and one brace of pistols, the party set forward upon the laudable enterprize, and soon came within musket shot of the offenders, who were armed with twelve muskets, three or four brace of pistols, and a broadsword. Not relaxing from his determination to secure them, if practicable, Mr. McCarthy commanded them to lay down their arms—but received in reply the fire of three of the ruffians, by which five persons fell, one of whom (Carlisle) received a ball in the groin and three slugs in the breast, of which wounds he died in less than an hour after. Messrs. Jamotte and Triffit were severely wounded on the thigh, Murphy on the lower part of the belly, and Mr. O'Berne receiving a ball in the cheek, which perforated the tongue and lodged in the neck, his recovery was very doubtful. The major part of Mr McCarthy's party being thus disabled, the villains ordered him to lay down his arms; to which command he returned a shot. He fired thrice, but without execution, as the bush-rangers were positioned behind trees. Two of their balls passed through his coat; his servant Brown behaved with equal gallantry; and with only a broad-sword sprang forward to engage the miscreants hand to hand; but was alone with his master, and was compelled to retire with him. Murphy, whose wound confined him to the spot where he received it, fell into the hands of the miscreants, who, although suffering excessive pain, they threatened to tie up and scourge severely; which, however, the one who seemed to have the greatest authority among them would not permit. The persons who composed this sanguinary gang have been ascertained, from the declaration of two bushrangers since apprehended, to be John Whitehead, Michael Howe, Richard McGuire, Richard Collyer, Hugh Byrne, Peter Septon, Dennis Geary, Edward Edwards, John Jones, and the native woman before mentioned, who was armed with a musket and brace of pistols. The first eight are identified to have been present at the perpetration of the dreadful crimes that marked the progress of that ill spent day, but the affirmation does not so positively extend to Jones. From the same channel of information the incendiaries who set fire to the stacks of Mr. Humphries and Mr. Reardon have also been declared, as well as those who effected the robbery on Mr. Fisk, whose property, we are happy to state, has been in great part recovered. The inquest summoned on the body of the unfortunate Carlisle returned a Verdict of Wilful Murder against the above persons, and parties are sent in various directions to run them down. A party of the 73d detachment was upon the 31st ult., close up with a body of them; they found their fires newly extinguished, and the skin of a sheep that had been but recently killed. A party of the 40th was in pursuit of others; and 18 inhabitants of Hobart Town, well armed, were scouring the woods in another direction. All their succours must be now necessarily cut off, and they must either deliver themselves up, or perish through harrassing and hunger. —In addition to the parties above mentioned, another was formed to pursue the murderers of Carlisle, and led forward by Tooms, who is well acquainted with the intricacies of the woods, and every place of retirement that can afford shelter to the objects of the pursuit. His Honor the LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR, deriving every possible assistance from the Magistrates and other Officers of the Settlement, has adopted every measure that promised to bring their crimes to a crisis, and themselves to condign punishment. The necessity of the case imperiously required the establishment of Martial Law, as the lives of the inhabitants were in equal danger with their properties, and on the 25th of April a Proclamation was accordingly issued by the Lieutenant Governor, declaring at the same time that Martial Law should continue in force until repealed by a counter Proclamation. This measure will very soon bring the excesses of the banditti to a termination, and by their example we trust others will be hereafter awed from the adoption of their ruinous courses. A previous Proclamation, bearing date the 11th of March, published a Reward of 50 guineas to any person, whether free or bond, who would apprehend a Bush-ranger, and lodge him in safe custody; holding out at the same time the most encouraging prospects of Pardon and Reward to such of the offenders themselves (not personally implicated in any act of felony), as would procure the apprehension of any one or more of his associates. And as it had been represented to His Honor the LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR that the bush-rangers derived much occasional assistance, and indeed all the supplies they stood in need of, from settlers or other fixed inhabitants, the same Proclamation, in taking review of a conduct in itself so highly criminal and unworthy, offered a further reward of 50 guineas to any person giving information that should lead to the conviction of an offender of this heinous class, without whose assistance the desperadoes could not have subsisted in the woods for any length of time. Sydney Gazette, 20 May 1815. 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. The winter season being unfavourable to bush travelling, little effect was expected from the pursuit of the general body till the return of fine weather ; when it is apprehended they will recommence their outrages, against which the most decisive measures have been adopted.—The condition of those miscreants is now hopeless, and the more they are in consequence to be dreaded. If totally deprived of dogs, they must resort to the flocks more than they have done, and by thus necessarily approaching the various settlements, fall move frequently within the power of the inhabitants. Without the means of leaving a country, in which their own misconduct has rendered them obnoxious, the sea coast can afford them no prospect of relief ; and, if they fail of ammunition, their condition will be completely wretched. The dread of treachery will then become the stimulus to mutual treasons, particularly with those who have been less remarkable in deeds of desperation than their more marked companions— and who are no longer useful to society than by their miserable example to warn others from entering into their unhappy courses. Sydney Gazette, 2 Sep 1815.

Level 338

Penny-Lyn Beale on 13th March 2021

1812 - New South Wales, Australia, Convict Indents. Ship; Indent No; Name; Charles Carlisle Age; 26 [1786] Native Place; Scotland Trade or calling; Veter' Surg Trial where & Date; Middlesex. 28 Oct 1812. Sentence; 14 years Height; 5 ft. 8 in Eyes; Hazel Hair; Black Completion; Dark Ruddy 1817 - New South Wales, Convict List. New South Wales. Name; Charles Carisle [Carlisle] Ship; Earl Spencer. Trial; London - 1812 Remarks; DEAD 1815

Level 338

Penny-Lyn Beale on 13th March 2021

1812 - Old Bailey Proceedings Online October 1812, trial of CHARLES CARLISLE (t18121028-52). CHARLES CARLISLE, Royal Offences > coining offences, 28th October 1812. 933. CHARLES CARLISLE was indicted for that he, on the 5th of October , had in his custody and possession three pieces of paper apparently to resemble bank-notes with the words, five hundred, pounds, in white letters, on a black ground ....... GUILTY , aged 35. [1777] Transported for Fourteen Years .