The Life of Ben Hall (9/5/1837 – 5/5/1865)
Ben Hall was one of the Bushrangers, like Ned Kelly, who brought a touch of glamour to Bushranging. He was a bushranger from 1862 until his death in 1865, when he was shot dead at the age of 28 at Billabong Creek, near Forbes, NSW.
THE HONEST MAN
Ben Hall was born on 9th May, 1837 to Benjamin Hall and Elizabeth Sommers, both ex-convicts. Many biographies claim he was born at Breeza, however this is incorrect. At the time of Ben's birth, his father, Ben Senior was an overseer on Samuel Clift's Doona (or Dono Range) Station, which was near Caroona on the Liberty Range. In the 1840’s his family moved west to the Lachlan Valley area. Hall worked as a stockman for John Walsh of Wheogo Station in the Weddin Mountains, near Forbes. Walsh had been transported to Australia for life in 1823. In 1856, Ben Hall married Bridget Walsh, one of John’s daughters, and settled down on 7000 hectares at Sandy Creek, near Wheogo. He was in partnership with another son-in-law of John, John McGuire. When John Walsh died in 1858, the two of them helped his widow Elizabeth, her daughter Kitty, and Kitty's husband, John Brown, to run Wheogo as well. (Kitty was later to run off with Frank Gardiner to Queensland). In the beginning Ben Hall was an honest, hard-working man and known well for his generosity to fellow neighbours.
LIFE OF CRIME BEGINS
A quote from Ben: “I'm not a criminal. I've been driven to this life. Pottinger arrested me on Forbes racecourse last year and I was held for a month in gaol, an innocent man. While I was away me wife ran away - with a policeman. Well, with a cove who used to be in the police force. Then I was arrested for the mail coach robbery and held another month before I was let out on bail. When I came home, I found my house burned down and cattle perished of thirst, left locked in yards. Pottinger has threatened and bullied everybody in this district just because he can't catch Gardiner. Next thing I knew is that the troopers fired at me 3 weeks ago for robbing Pinnacle police station, when I had nothing to do with that little joke. Trooper Hollister has skited that he'll shoot me on sight. Can you wonder I'm wild? By Gawd, Mr Norton, it's your mob have driven me to it and, I tell you straight, you'll never take me alive!"
In 1860, Hall was arrested on the orders of Police Inspector Sir Frederick Pottinger, for participating in an armed robbery at a race meeting. Although Hall was arrested, he was later acquitted of the robbery due to a lack of evidence. When he retuned home he found that Bridget had run away with an ex-policeman and his one year old son, Harry. Soon afterwards, Hall was again arrested for participating in a gold robbery. He wasn't committed for trial but when he returned to his home he found that all his stock were dead from thirst, and the police had burnt his house to the ground. Hall became very bitter. He joined up with Frank Gardiner’s gang, and after Gardiner headed north to Queensland with Kitty Walsh, he took to the roads with two of Gardiner's men, Johnny Gilbert and John O'Meally. Frank Gardiner was later arrested at Apis Creek, near Rockhampton. He was sentenced to thirty-two years but after eight years in prison he was released on condition that he left the colony. He became the proprietor of a saloon in San Francisco and is believed to have died there in 1895.
HALL THE GANG LEADER
The rest of Frank Gardiner's gang quickly fell under the leadership of the 25 year old Hall. For 3 years Ben Hall and his gang completely outsmarted the police. He liked to cry "Bail Up" and charge onto a road firing his gun into the air, while his gang surrounded a coach and robbed it. From 1863 to 1865 Ben Hall's gang robbed 10 mail coaches, held up towns and stations 21 times and stole 23 racehorses. Hall’s gang committed many robberies and the fact that he never killed anyone was more a matter of good luck and poor shooting than anything else. He wounded several people and on at least one occasion deliberately tried to murder a policeman. Known members of the gang were Johnny Gilbert, Johnny O'Meally, Johnny Vane, Micky Bourke, Johnny Dunn, and Daniel Charters. Other mentioned as being part of the gang are Lowry, Bow, Manns and Fordyce.
THE HOLD UP OF CANOWINDRA
Early one morning Hall and his bushrangers woke the owner of the Robinson Hotel in Canowindra and took over his building. They gathered all the town's people, about 40 of them, and kept them at the Hotel for 3 days. They treated their prisoner's well giving them food and drink, even providing music and other entertainment to create a party atmosphere. They did make the only policeman of the town march up and down along the verandah of the Hotel. Eventually Hall agreed that it was fair to let the prisoners go so that they could return home. He even gave some 'expenses money' to them.
The object of this 'Hold up' was not to frighten the town people but to show the power he had and his dislike for the police. This endeared him as the poor people's champion. This is one of the incidents that amused ordinary people and led to the admiration and romancing of the Ben Hall gang and bushrangers in general.
THE CAPTURE
By April 1865 Ben Hall had grown tired of his life as a bushranger. He was saving money to eventually escape to America. However a reward of 2,000 pounds was offered on Hall's head, and Mick Connelly, one of his old friend’s, betrayed him.
On 29 April 1865, a police party led by Sub-Inspector James Davidson, with the aid of two black trackers (one of whom was an old friend of Ben’s, Billy Dargin) left Forbes. On the night of 4 May 1865 the police party found Ben hiding in the bush near Billabong Creek. A cold apprehensive night was spent in the bush and on the morning of 5 May 1865, Ben Hall died in a hail of bullets. The wounded bushranger's last words were "Shoot me dead Billy! Don't let the traps take me alive.
It was said that no less than 36 bullets were found in his body. His bullet-riddled body was tied to the back
of a horse and led through the streets of Forbes. John McGuire, Hall's
brother-in-law, was sitting outside a shop as the procession went past. Ben Hall was buried in Forbes Cemetery on
Sunday 7 May 1865. His funeral was well attended for his
reckless courage, courtesy to women, humour and hatred of informers had won him
much public sympathy.
Ben Hall was the ideal type of bushranger -modest, game, a most skillful bushman, chivalrous to women, averse to killing (though some of his gang were readier to shoot), gaily defiant of the police, the wealthy, and all colonial authority. Popular admiration shows clearly in all the many ballads about him
The Ballad of Ben Hall
Come all Australian sons to me: a
hero has been slain,
And cowardly butchered in his sleep upon the Lachlan plain.
Oh, do not stay your seemly grief but let a teardrop fall,
Oh, so many hearts will always mourn the fate of bold Ben Hall.
No brand of Cain ever stamped his
brow, no widow's curse did fall.
When times were bad the squatters dread the name of Ben Hall.
He never robbed a needy chap, his records best will show,
He was staunch and loyal to his friends and manly to the foe.
Oh, and savagely they murdered him,
those cowardly blue-coat imps,
Who were set on to where he slept by informing peeler's pimps.
Every since the good old days of Turpin and Duval,
The people's friends were outlaws too and so was bold Ben Hall