Black Bunny's Bushrangers (T) - Edward Davis. Lade Vale, New South Wales, Australia
By Just a cacher on 23-Apr-19. Waypoint GA10817

Bushranger Series - Edward Davis

Edward Davis

November 10, 1840 saw a new recruit, Edward Davis, a Jew, join them. Edward was the second son of Michael John Davies, a formers solicitors clerk in England, who had been transported in 1830 for obtaining goods under false pretences. He was now a free settler, having served his sentence and was living and working as a journalist in the Newcastle area. There is speculation of his and another dubious emancipated convict, Henry Dennys' connection to the Jewboy Gang prior to Edward joining them. It was after Edward Davis, sometimes referred to as 'Jew Davis' or 'Teddy the Jewboy' that the gang became known.

In 1833, under the name of George Wilkinson, Edward was transported for attempted theft, for seven years. He was sixteen, of dark and very freckled complexion, tattooed, with black hair, hazel eyes and a large nose. Arriving on the Camden, Davis absconded many times from Hyde Park Barracks and assigned settlers. As a result a year was added to his sentence, and at one time he served on an iron gang. His last service was to Phillip Wright of Aberdeen in the Upper Hunter district. After escaping from a party moving sheep to Wrights' property in Aberdeen, he then joined forces with Jack Marshall, James Everett and John Shea, who were said to be expecting him.

He is the only known Jewish bushranger.

Bushrangers.

Over 2,000 bushrangers are estimated to have roamed the Australian countryside, beginning with the convict bolters and drawing to a close after Ned Kelly's last stand at Glenrowan.

Bushrangers were originally escaped convicts who had the survival skills necessary to use the Australian bush as a refuge to hide from the authorities. By the 1820s, the term "bushranger" had evolved to refer to those who abandoned social rights and privileges to take up "robbery under arms" as a way of life, using the bush as their base.

Bushranging thrived during the gold rush years of the 1850s and 1860s when the likes of Ben Hall, Frank Gardiner and John Gilbert led notorious gangs in the country districts of New South Wales. These Wild Colonial Boys typically robbed small-town banks and coach services.

In other infamous cases, such as that of Dan Morgan, the Clarke brothers, and Australia's best-known bushranger, Ned Kelly, numerous policemen were murdered.

The number of bushrangers declined due to better policing and improvements in rail transport and communication technology, such as telegraphy. Kelly's capture and execution in 1880 effectively represented the end of the bushranging era.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushranger

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