Clarke gang
The membership of the gang fluctuated over time, the two core members being brothers Thomas and John Clarke, from the Braidwood district.
The Clarke brothers, along with several relatives and associates, were responsible for a reported 71 robberies and hold-ups, as well as the death of at least one policeman; they are also the primary suspects in the killing of a squad of four policemen sent to capture them.
"[3] The Clarkes' father Jack, a shoemaker transported to Sydney in 1828 for seven years aboard the Morley, arrived in the Braidwood district as a convict assigned to a pastoralist.
By then an ex-convict, he married Mary Connell—at 'Mount Elrington', where he was working and her parents were free immigrant servants—and took up a leasehold in the Jingeras, which proved too small to support his family of five children.
After holding up some passers by at Guelph Creek — wounding one, John Emmott, by gunshot and beating up another — they attacked the store and tavern, taking 40 captives and robbing them.
[7] On 9 January 1867, a party of special constables—John Carroll, Patrick Kennagh, Eneas McDonnell and John Phegan—were ambushed and killed near Jinden Station.
The bushrangers and police engaged in a shoot-out that Saturday morning, during which John was shot in the right shoulder, and a plain clothes policeman received a gunshot graze.
After their surrender, the brothers shook hands with the police, and were arraigned in Braidwood before being taken by coach to the port of Nelligen, where they were shackled to the prison tree.
Chief Justice of New South Wales Sir Alfred Stephen was known to be especially concerned about bushranging, in particular Frank Gardiner, and had most to do with the drafting of the "Felons' Apprehension Act".
[8] The prosecutor was the Solicitor General Robert Isaacs and the brothers were defended by William Dalley instructed by Joseph Leary.
Before passing sentence, Stephen pointed out that the Clarkes were to be hanged, not as retribution, but because their deaths were necessary for the peace, good order, safety and welfare of society.
[9] On 13 March 1865, the Araluen Gold Escort was attacked by the gang on the Majors Creek Mountain Road, where two troopers were wounded.
They were visited by their two sisters, their brother Jack (brought in from Cockatoo Island Prison), and their uncle Mick Connell (in gaol in Sydney awaiting his trial as one of their harbourers under the "Felons’ Apprehension Act" for supplying food, gin and ammunition to the bushrangers in October 1866 as evidenced by his brother's 20-year-old pregnant lover, Lucy Hurley).
They grew up creatures of a warm, passionate nature, without knowledge and respect for the law of the land and without any bonds to bind them to the rest of society.
