Thomas Hughes (1866 - 1944)

Born 1866 in At Sea on the Corona, en route to Western Australia

Husband of Alice (McLevie) Hughes — married 16 Oct 1902 in John's Church of England, Pinjarra, Western Australia, Australia

Died 1944 at about age 78 in Claremont, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

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Australian Bushrangers

Biography

Tom Hughes was an Australian Bushranger

Thomas Tom Hughes was born on 25 October 1866 at sea in the Convict ship Corona, on the way to Western Australia, his father Thomas was an enrolled pensioner guard his mother was Catherine, née McEvoy. In 1880, after his father died Tom worked on the government railways. In 1884 he was indentured for two years to the Dempster family as a pastoral worker, but he broke his bond in 1885 and returned to Fremantle. Now with out work he was suspected of several petty thefts.

On 17 April 1887 two policemen went to investigate the theft of tools and a case of dynamite from a quarry at North Fremantle. They saw Hughes, they stopped him but he tried to escape and fired a gun which wounded Constable Joseph O'Connell before taking off . O'Connell died, and a warrant was issued with a reward of £200 for the capture of Hughes. Tom Hughes knew the bush so he remained free for eleven weeks until he was finally caught by three policemen. There was a gunfight, Hughes was wounded, he was captured. On the 5th October 1887, he was charged with manslaughter he was sentenced to penal servitude for life. Six weeks later he bashed a warder and escaped from Fremantle prison. He was caught not long after and given thirty six lashes for the assault and three years in irons for a burglary committed during the time he was on run.

The working class people of Fremantle had a lot of sympathy for Hughes. His charge was changed to manslaughter, which may have been because of the opinion of the people. He was released from prison on a ticket-of-leave in 1896, granted conditional release in April 1898 and was given permission to carry firearms later that month. He then moved to the Pinjarra district, where he remained for the rest of his life and stayed out of trouble. On 16 October 1902 Hughes married Alice McLevie at St John's Church of England, Pinjarra. In his old age Tom Hughes was admitted into the Hospital for the Insane at Claremont and died on 10 December 1944.

Sources

• Australia Births and Baptisms, 1792-1981," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XT67-39Z : 11 February 2018), Thomas Hughes, 18 Jan 1867; citing ; FHL microfilm 1,363,695. Christening date

• The Inquirer and Commercial News (Perth, WA : 1855 - 1901) p.5; 6th July,1887 Article OFFICIAL REPORTS CONCERNING THE CAPTURE OF THOMAS HUGHES.

• The Daily News (Perth, WA : 1882 - 1950) p.3; 16th July, 1887 Article TRIAL OF THOMAS HUGHES CHARGED WITH MURDER.

• The Daily News (Perth, WA : 1882 - 1950) p.3; 22nd July, 1887 Article Trial of Thomas Hughes

• The Inquirer and Commercial News (Perth, WA : 1855 - 1901) p.5; 16th November, 1887 Article ALARMING NEWS. MORE ESCAPES FROM TH FREMANTLE PRISON. THE NOTORIOUS THOMAS HUGHES AND ANOTHER CONVICT AT LARGE.

• The Daily News (Perth, WA : 1882 - 1950) p.3; 25th November, 1887 Article HUGHES AMD JARViS AT THE POLICE COURT,

• The Daily News (Perth, WA : 1882 - 1950) p.23; 16th December, 1944 Article WA's Most Desperate Bushranger Dies

• G. C. Bolton, 'Hughes, Thomas (Tom) (1866–1944)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, Biography published first in hardcopy 2005, accessed online 22 May 2019. This article was first published in hardcopy in Australian Dictionary of Biography, Supplementary Volume, (MUP), 2005