On 24 September 1814 – Notorious Bushranger Patrick Collins Apprehended at Devil’s Back present day Cecil Hills hideout. It will shorty be the 200 year Anniversary on 24th September 2014
24 September 1814 – Notorious Bushranger Patrick Collins Apprehended at Devil’s Back present day Cecil Hills hideout.
Notorious Bushranger Apprehended 24 September 1814 Patrick Collins, the notorious bushranger implicated in the murder of Alder, White, and the woman at Hawkesbury, in company with the late Donovan, and, suspected also of many subsequent robberies, was apprehended on Thursday evening by a party of soldiers quartered at Liverpool, conducted by Mr. John Warby, and several natives, by whom his place of concealment near the Devil’s Back, had been discovered. In an effort to escape he was speared by one of the natives in the leg and arm, when finding himself immediately overpowered, he was forced to yield, and was brought in yesterday.
The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser
http://www.tumuthistory.com/Notorious_Bushranger_Apprehended_24_September_1814.pdf
Sydney Gazette Saturday 24th September, 1814 Page 2
September
John Warby and Cow Pastures trackers guide soldiers to the hideout of bushranger Patrick Collins, who has been robbing settlers in the Hawkesbury area. Cogy (Kogi/Koggie) spears Collins in the leg when he tries to escape. ‘All the natives of the Cow Pastures came in a body to claim the reward,’ writes Surgeon Joseph Arnold.
Source: Joseph Arnold, Journal, 1810-15, MS C720, 19 June – 13 July 1815, ML.
30 September: Warby ‘and others’ are paid £40.5.0 (forty pounds and five shillings) for capturing Collins.
Source: Police Fund, 30th September 1814, Colonial Secretary, Reel 60381/ S2758:554, SRNSW.
Gapps 2010, Cabrogal to Fairfield City – Collins, an escaped convict, and his accomplice Donovan were wanted for the murder of three people and ‘for many subsequent robberies’.
In journal – 8 March – 17 December 1815 by Joseph Arnold (1782-1818), naturalist and naval surgeon who arrived in Port Jackson (Sydney) 18 June 1815 on female convict transport Northampton, as the first surgeon-superintendent. Arnold was largely ignored by Govt Macquarie and was basically told find his own lodging and passage back to England writes an interesting view of the feeling and scene of Sydney in 1815. He later departed on the Indefatigable departed Port Jackson bound for Java on 14th July 1815 and was later destroyed by fire. Arnold dined regularly with Sir John Jamison and other free important persons, so his account of the capture of bushranger Patrick Collins is second/third hand told to him over conversation during a meal I assume as the event occurred some 9 months earlier. He is fairly scurrilous in his comments of Govt Macquarie and Aboriginals of Sydney.
Pages 402 -403 he states that ” the natives of Cow pastures discovered him and gave information. The place a small concealed hut in the thickest part of the country which could not be discovered until very entrance was found. The soldiers went to the place and Collins was not within. The soldiers and natives concealed themselves in and about the hut. When he (Collins) arrived they went to seize him but he endeavoured to escape. The chief of the Cow pastures gave chase after him and at length wounded him with a spear in the leg, which stopped him. He then withdrew the spear and hurled it at the savage, when a young native son of the chief fired a pistol at him, and wounded him so that he was taken, bound and brought to Sydney, tried condemned and executed. All the natives of the Cow pastures came in a body to Sydney to claim the reward, which they equally divided.”
Page 389 dated 13 July, 1815, pages between undated to 14 July Page 406 Leaving for Coal River.
Joseph Arnold journal, 8 March-17 December 1815 C 720/4 Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW
Three months later, in September 1814, Warby and several native trackers assisted a party of soldiers sent in pursuit of the bushranger Patrick Collins, who had been robbing and murdering settlers in the Hawkesbury area. They led the soldiers to Collins’ hiding place and when Collins tried to escape the Aboriginal trackers speared him in the leg and arm – he was overpowered and brought to trial in Sydney.
Journeys in Time: John Warby http://www.lib.mq.edu.au/all/journeys/people/profiles/warby.html
Kogi
Kogi was a Dharawal elder, who assisted Ensign Francis Barrallier in his exploration of Nattai and Burragorang Valley 1800s. Kogi also met Governor Macquarie in 1810 at Cowpastures. In 1818 Governor Macquarie recognised Kogi as ‘King of the Georges River’ and present him with a breastplate.
http://www.historyofaboriginalsydney.edu.au/south-west/1810s
Cecil Hills
Cecil Hills – Sixth Maps
Background on Collins
Patrick Collins arrived in 1810 on convict transport Providence – Life sentence for stealing pistols. He was 23 years old. He became a runaway or escaped convicted and turned to bushranging. A notorious bushranger, in the company of Dennis Donovan as they murder three people shortly after escaping together. The two escaped from Newcastle together within a short time of their arrival in late February 1814. The newspaper reports noted that travellers by land to/from the Hunter’s River area were forced to cross the Hawkesbury River at “Croppy’s” Beach.
William Alder lived at the Upper Branch of the Hawkesbury, and part owned a boat. On the 15th March 1814 he and his boat Assistant, Thomas White, together with Hannah Sculler who lived with White, had arrived at Mahar Creek (also Mother Mahar’s Creek) near the First Branch of the Hawkesbury and about 15 miles from Croppys beach. Collins and Donovan murdered the three people on the boat, probably on 16th March 1814. The mens’ bodies were found on the boat 17th March by a limeburner named Stokes; Alder had his head beaten to pieces with an axe, White’s throat had been cut, and Hannah’s body was on the shore at the low water mark having been killed with blows to the back of the head.
On 16th March Collins & Donovan stayed in the hut of a stock-keeper at Lane Cove named Magrath (probably known to Donovan from his time there) and sold and gave him some items (watch, compass, canvas bag and clothing) that had belonged to the three murdered people. This was critical evidence in linking them to the murder. Donovan was captured, found guilty on 1st July and executed, confessing only at the very end. Patrick Collins was indicted on Monday 5th December 1814 when he “Stood mute” and refused to plead. But he thought better of it and pleaded “not guilty” the next day. His trial went ahead the following Monday 12th December, lasting all day and he was found guilty and executed a short time later.
John Warby 