John Peisley (c. 1834 – 25 April 1862) was an Australian bushranger who is believed to be the first bushranger born in Australia. He was a skilled bushman and horse-rider. While serving time at Cockatoo Island in the late 1850s for horse-stealing, Peisley became acquainted with Frank Gardiner. Peisley was granted a ticket-of-leave in December 1860 and soon afterwards commenced armed robberies in the Goulburn, Abercrombie, Cowra and Lambing Flat districts. He was highly mobile, riding well-bred horses and operating in districts familiar to him. Peisley’s criminal accomplices were often unnamed in newspaper reports, though Gardiner was a known associate. In December 1861 Peisley was involved in a drunken altercation, culminating in the shooting of William Benyon, who died from his wound. After his capture in January 1862 he was tried for Benyon’s murder and hanged at Bathurst in April 1862. Peisley achieved considerable notoriety within a short period and his activities and methods foreshadowed the spate of bushranging in the following years.

Biography

Early life and family

John Peisley was born in 1834 on the O'Connell Plains, south-east of Bathurst,No. 147; John Peisley; [Year of Birth] 1934; [Native Place] O’Connell Plains; [Trade] Horse Breaker; Parramatta Gaol Description and Entrance Book, 1857, page 71 (per Ancestry.com). the son of Thomas Peisley and Elizabeth (née Clayton).Family records, per Ancestry.com. His father had arrived in Sydney as a convict in September 1820 aboard the Agamemnon.Thomas Peisley (also recorded as Peasnall or Peasland) was born in about 1799 in county Nothampton, England; he was convicted of highway robbery in July 1819 and sentenced to seven years transportation. His mother Elizabeth arrived in Australia as an infant, born in 1812 aboard the ship Minstrel during her mother’s transportation as a convict.Elizabeth's mother was Sarah Green (alias Clayton); Thomas Peisley was living in the Bathurst district when he received his certificate of freedom (free by servitude) in December 1826.No. 442, Thomas Peasland, 8 December 1828; Certificates of Freedom (per Ancestry.com). After Thomas Peisley and Elizabeth Clayton were married in 1830 they lived on the O’Connell Plains. By the mid-1840s the family was living on a farm at 'Little Forest' near Carcoar. There were seven children in the family, four daughters and three sons, of which John Peisley was the third eldest.

In the period 1846 to early 1848 a series of incidents occurred that resulted in the father of the family, Thomas Peisley, being sentenced to seven years hard labour and incarceration in Darlinghurst Gaol. The consequences of the prolonged absence of their father, husband and provider, and the perceived injustice of the events, had a profound effect on the Peisley family, particularly young Jack who was in his mid-teens at the time. Thomas Peisley's farm at 'Little Forest' was "nearly adjoining" Thomas Icely's pastoral property 'Coombing Park', south-west of Carcoar.Wednesday, February 23, Bathurst Advocate, 26 February 1848, page 2. Icely was a wealthy landholder and stockbreeder, who had been appointed to the Legislative Council in 1843. He was often absent from his property for extended periods of time, leaving its running in the hands of his overseer and station-hands. In the 1840s wages were low and fencing was expensive, so paddocks were often unfenced and the control of the cattle was left to stockmen. The Peisley farm also ran cattle and there was occasional intermixing of stock from the nearby ‘Coombing Park’, with the distinct possibility that one or more of Icely’s prized bulls would have occasional opportunities to inseminate cows within Peisley’s herd. Straying stock was common in the general district, with animals often ending up in the nearest Government pound.

It was claimed that Thomas Peisley lost a young bull of the Durham breed from his farm in January 1846, supposed to be unbranded and being saved for a man named Thomas Pye. After searching for the animal, in October 1846 he enquired of the poundkeeper at Carcoar, Charles Spink, who told him he had a young bull answering the description which had been impounded from Icely’s 'Coombing Park' property by the overseer, John Kater. Of the cattle advertised as impounded at Carcoar, the following bull, received at the pound on 21 September 1846, seems most likely to be the animal at issue: "one red bull, small horns, spot of white on forehead, white belly and white hind legs, brand on off rump not legible; damages £5".Impounded at Carcoar, New South Wales Government Gazette (Sydney), 6 October 1846 (Issue No. 83), page 1188. Peisley paid the poundage charge, returned with the animal to his farm and had branded it with his ‘TP’ over ‘TP’ mark. In about mid-1847 Thomas Peisley was informed that Kater, Icely’s overseer, had sent some strayed cattle to the pound, but had detained one of their number (the young bull in question). When Peisley went to Kater to enquire why he was holding the bull, Kater replied that he was detaining it “because Mr. Icely had lost a bull of the same description, and he suspected this to be the bull lost”. When asked if it had been branded, Kater replied it was branded 'TI' on the hip and shoulder. When Peisley objected that there was “no other brand upon it but his own”, Kater responded “that he did not care, but that he would detain the beast until the arrival of Mr. Iceley”. After Icely’s return from Sydney two months later, Peisley went to ‘Coombing Park’ to claim his property and was apprehended on a warrant Icely had procured from his brother-in-law, William Rothery, a local magistrate. Thomas Peisley was subsequently committed to stand trial for cattle stealing.To the Editors, letter to the editors from Elizabeth Peisley of Little Forest, Carcoar, Sydney Morning Herald, 18 April 1848, page 1.Assize Intelligence: Bathurst Circuit Court, Sydney Morning Herald, 28 February 1848, page 2.

At the Bathurst Circuit Court on 23 February 1848 Thomas Peisley was charged with having stolen a young bull from Thomas Icely’s property in mid-1846. Peisley was defended by Arthur Holroyd. During the selection of the jury twenty-one were challenged, “mainly magistrates and wealthy stockholders – to whom the prisoner seemed to express a natural objection”. The newspaper report commented that “we noticed a greater attendance of wealthy stockholders and graziers than we have witnessed for a long time past”. Icely gave evidence that the animal was the progeny of “two valuable animals” imported from England, a Devonshire cow and a Durham bull, and had been branded with 'TI' on the off (right) shoulder and the near (left) rump. Twelve months later the same animal, as claimed by Icely, was found with another brand ('TP' over 'TP'), one of the brands used by Thomas Peisley. In summing up, the judge “occupied the attention of the Jury for nearly two hours and a half” and after an absence of only five minutes the jury returned a verdict of guilty. The next day Peisley was sentenced to seven years hard labour “on the roads”.Bathurst Circuit Court, The Sentinel (Sydney), 2 March 1848, page 2.

In April 1848 a notice was published advising that an auctioneer in York Street, Sydney, had received instructions to sell Thomas Peisley’s cattle, “said to muster about 600 head, now running in the district of Carcoar”, which were forfeited to the Crown after Peisley’s felony conviction.Cattle at Carcoar, Sydney Morning Herald, 11 April 1848, page 4. On 18 April 1848 a letter from Elizabeth Peisley, wife of Thomas, was published on page one of the Sydney Morning Herald. Mrs. Peisley described herself as “a lonely and desolate woman, deprived by the interference of the law of the aid and support of a husband” and claimed to set forth in her letter “a plain and simple statement of facts connected with the conviction of my husband”. The letter sets out in detail the sequence of events leading to Peisley’s conviction, paying particular attention to the question of whether Icely’s brand was on the young bull that was the subject of the trial. The point was made: “I should here remark that upwards of two hundred individuals examined the bull during the course of the trial, none of whom could discern Mr. Icely’s or any other brand than my husband’s thereon”. According to the letter, the only witnesses to swear at the trial that Icely’s brand was present were Icely himself, John Kater (Icely’s overseer), William Rothery (Icely’s brother-in-law) and the poundkeeper, Charles Spink. Mark Mills, stockman at ‘Coombing Park’, attested to taking the young bull, which he described as “strange and unbranded”, to the Carcoar pound, and furthermore, that he had “seen Mr. Icely’s bull two days previous to impounding the bull in question”. Two other witnesses, former employees, gave evidence to having seen Icely’s bull “plainly branded”. Elizabeth concludes by imploring that the public make up their minds “whether justice has been done or not”.

In September 1851 the father of the family, Thomas Peisley, was granted a ticket of leave for the Yass district.NSW State Archives; Ticket-of-leave, No. 51/43 Thos. Peisley alias Peasland; Series: NRS 12207 (per Ancestry.com).There is no evidence that Thomas Peisley died in prison, as some web-sites and other sources claim; the assertion that Thomas Peisley died “a few months after sentence” can be found here: Peisley the Bushranger, Wellington Times, 9 March 1936, page 4; the error is repeated in web-sites such as:

Horse-stealing

In February 1852 John Peisley was indicted on two charges of horse-stealing carried out the previous year when he was aged seventeen. On Thursday 19 February 1852, at the Bathurst Assizes, he was charged with stealing a horse belonging to Thomas McKell of Grubbingbong, 14 miles from Carcoar, for which he pleaded not guilty. The horse was found to be missing in March 1851 and had been sold through an auctioneer in Goulburn. Peisley’s solicitor "made a very able defence for the prisoner" by showing there was "considerable doubt as to whether the prisoner at the bar was the man who commissioned" the auctioneer to sell the horse.Local Intelligence: Bathurst Assizes, Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal, 21 February 1852, page 2. The jury were divided and ended up being locked up for the night, but next morning they told the judge they could not come to a decision and were unlikely to do so.Friday, 20th February, 1852, Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal, 21 February 1852, page 2. Nevertheless, Peisley was remanded in custody to face a further charge, which he did later that day.

On the second charge Peisley was indicted for stealing two horses in April 1851 from Thomas Weavers’ ‘Mount Macquarie’ station near Carcoar, for which he also pleaded not guilty. Several witnesses for the prosecution, in describing the brands on the horses, gave conflicting accounts and in the end the jury acquitted the prisoner of the charge “without leaving the box”.Local Intelligence: Bathurst Assizes, Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal, 25 February 1852, page 2. After that Peisley was again brought forward, and discharged “upon his own recognizances” to appear when called upon, to answer the charge for which the jury were unable to make a decision about his guilt or innocence.Saturday, 21st February, Bathurst Free Press and Mining Journal, 25 February 1852, page 2.