George Wilkinson

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Maureen Withey on 15th December 2024

Supreme Court. John Shea, convict per Calcutta, was indicted for the wilful murder of John Graham, by shooting him at St. Alban's, on the 21st December; and John Marshall, convict per Clyde, James Everitt, convict per Mangles, Edward Davies, otherwise Wilkinson, convict per Camden, Robert Chitty, convict per Sophia, and Richard Glanville, convict per Lord Lyndoch, were indicted for being present, aiding, abetting, and assisting in the commission of the murder. A second count stated the murder to have been committed by some person unknown, and charged all the prisoners as accessories. .... ... Sydney Herald, 25 Feb 1841. (The case is fully reported in the above newspaper on this date.) EXECUTION.-On Tuesday morning the six bushrangers, James Everett, Robert Chitty, John Marshall, Richard Glanville, John Shea, and Edward Davies, who were convicted at the last criminal sittings of the wilful murder of John Graham, at Scone, on the 21st December last, all paid the forfeit of their lives by expiating their offences on the scaffold. An immense crowd was collected to witness the last awful scene of these men’s career, as they had been long notorious for the many burglaries which they had committed in various parts of the interior, but chiefly in the Hunter's River district. At a few minutes past nine o’clock the wretched men were conducted from their cells to the area in front of the drop, where they knelt for some time in the exercise of their devotions. Chitty, Everett, Marshall, and Glanville, were attended by the Rev. Mr. Cowper and the Rev. John Elder; Shea by the Very Rev. Mr. Murphy ; and Davies, being of the Jewish persuasion, was attended by Mr. Isaacs, the Jewish Rabbi. They all appeared to be deeply impressed with a full sense of their awful situation, and paid the greatest attention to the instruction and prayers of their spiritual attendants. After about ten minutes spent in devotion they arose, and Everett in a very hurried manner ran up the steps leading to the scaffold, and was followed by Chitty, Glanville, and Marshall; they all four in a loud and clear voice sung the first verse of the hymn commencing ‘Awake my soul, and with the sun.’ Shea was the next to ascend, and Davies, who was dressed in a suit of mourning, was the last to ascend; he cast his eye with a keen penetrating glance upon the crowd assembled in the gaol yard as if to recognise any acquaintance, and then with a firm step mounted the ladder. A few minutes more were spent in devotion, and then the ropes were adjusted and the caps drawn over their faces; they still continued (particularly Everett and Glanville) in loud and apparently fervent prayer till the bolt was drawn, and they were launched into the presence of their Maker. They all died almost without a struggle. They had long been a terror to the inhabitants in the district of the Hunter, and it is to be hoped that awful example which has been made of them will deter others from the pursuing such law. The above report of the Execution was published in The Australasian Chronicle, dated Thursday 18 March 1841. They would have been executed on the 16 March 1841.

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Eric Harry Daly on 22nd December 2012

George Wilkinson aka Edward Davies aka Teddy the Jewboy Old Bailey Procedings: http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?id=t18320405-114-defend1065&div=t18320405-114#highlight Edward Davis (1816-1841), Jewish convict and bushranger, is said to have been born at Gravesend, England, but this is not certain and it is doubtful that his name was Davis. In April 1832 at the Old Bailey, under the name George Wilkinson, he was sentenced to transportation for seven years for having attempted to steal a wooden till, valued at 2s. and copper coins to the value of 5s. He arrived in Sydney in February 1833 in the Camden and was put to work at Hyde Park Barracks. He escaped on 23 December 1833, was caught and was sentenced to a further twelve months. Obsessed by the idea that he had been wronged when he was transported and governed by an indomitable desire for freedom, he accomplished an impressive series of escapes. On 1 December 1835 he absconded from Penrith and another twelve months was added to his term. He was assigned to a farmer at Hexham, but on 10 January 1837 he ran away for a third time, and two more years were added to his sentence. He was caught, but on 21 July 1838 he absconded for the fourth time and remained at liberty. In the summer of 1839 he formed a bushranger gang in northern New South Wales. For two years his gang maintained a reign of terror from Maitland to the New England highway, in the Hunter valley and down to Brisbane Water, near Gosford. Their main lair was in Pilcher's Mountain, south of Dungog, whence they made sudden raids on townships or settlements or ambushed travellers on the road. The 'Jewboy gang', as it was soon called, although the term is not to be found in the contemporary press, consisted mainly of runaway convicts and convict servants. Nearly all the outrages committed in the lower Hunter valley at this time were ascribed to Davis's gang. It has been said of Davis that he played the part of an Australian Robin Hood and, 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. During 1840 the gang committed numberless depredations in the Quirindi, Tamworth and Maitland districts. From descriptions of their attire and behaviour and their gallantry to the ladies, it seems that they were not hardened criminals but juvenile delinquents who considered themselves chevaliers of the road. Davis bore curious tattoos and members of the gang wore gaudy clothes and tied pink ribbons to their horses' bridles. In December 1840 the gang had seven members; Davis, John Shea, John Marshall, James Everett, Robert Chitty, Richard Glanville and an unknown seventh man. Unlike other bushrangers the gang had so far avoided murder. Davis insisted that his companions should resort to violence only for the preservation of their own liberty. The inevitable happened, however, when one of the bushrangers lost his nerve. On 21 December 1840 they entered Scone and, while Davis, Everett and Glanville bailed up the inhabitants of the St Aubin Arms, Marshall, Shea, Chitty and the seventh man went to rob Thomas Dangar's store. When the store-keeper's clerk, a young Englishman named John Graham, fired a shot, Shea killed him. Davis, realizing that now murder had been committed the game was up, assembled his men and fled to one of their hiding places, Doughboy Hollow near Murrurundi. Pursued by Captain Edward Day, with a posse of settlers and ticket-of-leave men, the gang was surprised at its hideout. The bushrangers fought in a most determined manner, Davis's ball grazed Day's ear; Davis was wounded in the shoulder. The gang, except the seventh member, who escaped, was captured and taken to Sydney gaol. On 24 February 1841 the bushrangers were committed for trial at the Supreme Court. Shea was indicted for murder, while Davis and the others were accused of aiding and abetting Shea. Davis's counsel tried to save his life by contending that as he had not been present at the murder, there could be no question of aiding and abetting, but the jury found all prisoners guilty and Chief Justice Sir James Dowling sentenced them all to death. The public sympathy that Davis enjoyed was illustrated when his many friends appealed for a reprieve, pointing out that Davis had always been averse to shedding blood. However, the Executive Council confirmed the sentence. On 16 March 1841 Davis, who was assisted by the reader of Sydney Synagogue, was hanged at the rear of the old Sydney gaol, together with his companions. Witnesses reported that 'he had been the only repentant man of them'. Davis was buried in the Jewish portion of the Devonshire Street cemetery. Davis seems to have been 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.

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Roxanne Ciddor on 4th November 2012

Jewish convict, formed the "Jew boy" gang in NSW from 1839-1840. Hanged in Sydney.