Andrew George Scott
History
Known as Captain Moonlite.
Scott was born in Rathfriland, County Down, Ireland on 08 January 1845, the son of Anglican clergyman Thomas Scott and Bessie Jeffares. Andrew trained to be an engineer in London.[1] On 22 November 1861 Scott, his parents and brother Thomas arrived at Auckland, New Zealand, on board the the Black Eagle.[2]
In 1868, he was appointed lay reader at Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, with the intention of entering the Anglican priesthood on the completion of his service. He was then sent to the gold mining town of Mount Egerton.[3]
On 08 May 1869 Scott was accused of disguising himself and forcing bank agent Ludwig J. Bruun, a young man whom he had befriended, to open the safe. In March 1872, he was arrested on the charge of robbing the Egerton Bank and was transported to Ballarat for trial. He was sentanced to the Ballarat Gaol escaping by cutting a hole through the wall of his cell entering an adjoining cell occupied by another prisoner who planned to escape. Together they seized the warder when he came on his rounds, gagged him and tied him up. Using his keys, they liberated four other prisoners, and the six men escaped over the wall by using blankets cut into strips as a rope. He was captured and tried before judge Sir Redmond Barry in July at the Ballarat Circuit Court. Protesting his innocence unti lhis dying days Andrew Scott was convicted, and sentenced to 10 years' hard labour.[4]
After a career in bushranging Andrew Scott was hanged in New South Wales on 20 January 1880.
Legacy
Family
Obituary
See also
Ludwig J. Bruun, Friend
James Simpson, friend
Notes
- AUSTRALIANA
- UNIQUE BUSHRANGER UNIQUE among Australian bushrangers was Andrew George Scott, better known as Captain Moonlight. The son of a squire at Rathfarnham, Ireland, Scott had a varied career. He was in turn a Maori War serviceman, lay preacher, bank robber, forger, gaol breaker, lecturer, bushranger and mur-derer. On May 8, 1869, Scott robbed the bank at Mt. Egerton, Victoria. He then made a dash to Sydney. There he presented several valueless cheques for the purchase of a yacht, in which he intended to leave Australia. He had actually reached the open sea outside Port Jackson when he was overtaken by the water police. Brought back, he was tried and sen-tenced to a gaol term. After serving that sentence he was taken back to Ballarat, under escort, in connection with the Mt. Egerton affair. Three days later Scott escaped from Ballarat gaol. Weeks later he was re-captured near Bendigo, Victoria.
- After he had served his sentence for the Mt. Egerton bank robbery Scott formed a gang of bushrangers, con-sisting of Williams, Nesbitt, Bennett, Rogan and Wernecke. After several small robberies they made an attack on Macdonald's Wantagadgery home-stead, 20 miles from Wagga, NSW, on November 15, 1879. At the homestead. Moonlight and his gang fought a pitched battle with the police killing Constable Bowen. Two of the bushrangers, Nesbitt and Wernecke, were shot dead. The other four bushrangers were taken prisoners by the police. Tried, found guilty, the four were sentenced to death. The Crown, however, commutted Bennett's and Williams' sentence to imprisonment for life. Scott and Rogan were hanged at Darlinghurst on January 20. 1880.[5]
References
- ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Moonlite, accessed 15 may 2023.
- ↑ https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/scott-andrew-george-4546, accessed 15 May 2023.
- ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Moonlite, accessed 15 may 2023.
- ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Moonlite, accessed 15 may 2023.
- ↑ World News, 28 September 1946.
Further Reading
External links
Captain Moonlite- Queer Bushranger https://www.onlymelbourne.com.au/captain-moonlite
--Clare K.Gervasoni 13:13, 15 May 2023 (AEST)