Thunderbolt bushranger biography of michaels

Frederick Wordsworth Ward was the youngest of a large family of children born to Michael Ward convict to New South Wales per Indefatigable and his wife Sophia [1].

Why did captain thunderbolt became a bushranger

Fred was born in , around the time his family moved from Wilberforce, north of the Hawkesbury River, to Windsor on the south [2]. He spent his first decade at Windsor, where his parents probably paid for him to attend St Matthew's Church of England school as they had previously paid for his elder siblings to attend Wilberforce's church school [3] ; however, similarly to some of his elder siblings, he later reported that he could read but not write [4].

Like most rural workers of the time, Fred was functionally illiterate. In the mids, Fred's parents relocated to Maitland, west of Newcastle, where Michael died in [5] and Sophia in [6]. Fred had evidently spent time learning bush skills from his elder brothers as he was employed, at the age of eleven, as a "generally useful hand" by the owners of Aberbaldie station in the New England district.

His first duty was to guide his new employers from Morpeth along the Great North Road to Aberbaldie station itself, an astonishing responsibility for a boy aged only eleven. His many employers included Tocal station near Paterson in the Hunter Valley, the pre-eminent horse stud owned by Charles Reynolds. In April , some 45 horses were stolen from Tocal and neighbouring Bellevue stations; Bellevue, owned by William Zuill, suffered the largest loss.

Soon afterwards, Fred was seen with two companions driving the stolen horses to Windsor. When asked about the horses, he directed the inquirers to his companion, his "master Mr Ross". His "master" was in fact his blackguard nephew, John Garbutt, who was responsible for stealing at least five mobs of horses and cattle in the northern districts in early