Thomas Simmons Gidley (c. 1830 - 1874)

 Combining a recent free access weekend to Newspapers.com with the papers freely available on Trove, I was able to put together a reasonably complete picture of the once somewhat notorious Thomas Simmons Gidley.

It became apparent that the Ovens and Murray Advertiser, in particular, which was based in Beechworth, Victoria, Australia, had plenty of material on Thomas Gidley, who was born about 1830 in Cornwall and died in Victoria in 1874. He was almost certainly the child of Richard Gidley and Bridget Simmons of Little Killiow in Kea in 1841, whose son Nicholas in the census that year is an identical age to the later Thomas Gidley in Australia. His daughters named their father on their marriage records as Thos Nichs [sic] Gidley and as Nicholas Gidley. Nicholas began a criminal career early, with an appearance at the Cornish Quarter Sessions in 1844 for stealing a pair of fustian trousers from the changing house at Wheal Andrew Mine. After this he may well have decided to try his luck in another country, and perhaps to change his name.

Farmland near Kea, Cornwall
Copyright Andrew Smith, licensed for re-use under Creative Commons licence

By 1858 it was reported that Charles [sic] Gidley was granted the licence of the Gap Hotel in the Beechworth area of Victoria, on the Black Dog road. Very soon after this, three men were charged with robbing at gunpoint the Gidley family house there. At that time Thomas's day job was as a dairyman at the Wooolshed Gap milk station. Several people gave evidence against three men, whose faces had been concealed, about the robbery, including Winifred Gidley, Thomas's wife, who claimed she had sat on her money (about £44 - £48) to try and avoid avoid detection, but to no avail. The prisoners were committed for trial and sentenced to 6 years' penal servitude on the road. However, they were released somewhat later and one of those released wrote a letter to the Ovens and Murray Advertiser claiming that the whole robbery was a put-up job by Thomas Gidley and that the male witnesses at their trial were "ex-convict malefactors". Thomas's restaurant, known as the Gidley Gap Hotel, was situated on his premises at the milk station. The letter writer claimed that it was well known that milk was not the only beverage sold there, as the house was situated close to thirsty miners working at the local gold fields. A rival public house had applied to open up nearer the diggings, and it was claimed an opportunity presented itself for Thomas to dispose of this rival by accusing him of robbery, in order to keep his monopoly of what the letter writer called "the grog trade". At the trial Mrs Winifred Gidley swore she had never sold a drop of grog in her life, but the letter writer claimed her antecedents at the milk station were well known.

Image from Pimterest "Australian outback pubs"

Possibly not unconnected with the above incident, there was what the newspaper called "a diabolical act of incendiarism" in May 1860 at the hotel. Thomas Gidley was woken by the smell of burning pine and dicovered some of the wainscotting was on fire. On the wooden verandah outside a large pile of combustible material had been set on fire..With help from two of his men, he managed to douse the fire before the whole house went up, which would have meant the death of his whole family. A large reward was offered for conviction and a conditional pardon for anyone who turned Queen's evidence,

By 1863 Thomas Gidley had leased the Eldorado West sheep run in the Beechworth area. Other local settlers missed scores of cattle, taken in such a wholesale manner that they decided to club together to engage a detective from Melbourne, who would be employed as one of their stock keepers and keep a watch. Suspicion very soon fell on Thomas Gidley and one night the detective saw a calf killed at his premises branded with another's mark. The branding evidence was judged to be inconclusive and the jury gave Thomas the benefit of the doubt. The case was referred to Melbourne but Thomas was again acquitted. It was estimated that he must have spent no less than £1000 to fight both cases, but seemingly did not intend to claim compensation.

www.outbackpioneers.com.au

Animal welfare at that time was non-existent. A firebrand was used on sheep and cattle, employed even by children, and the animals' ears could be cut off to destroy any evidence. The Gidley children were expected to take their part in the farm work and to live at close quarters with men convicted of manslaughter and of indecent assault. However, Thomas had sufficient means to employ a teacher for the children and a housekeeper after the death of his wife Winifred in 1870. 

In 1864 a fire did destroy Thomas's first hotel. He then built a new, "neat, brick" Gap Hotel on the Chiltern Road at Gidley's Gap, a few hundred yards fiurther down the Chiltern road and on the opposite side of the road. The house was later described at auction in 1876 as containing 9 rooms with a detached kitchen and out offices. Outside there were 3 paddocks, yards and a garden, all securely fenced. 10 acres were under a crop of wheat and oats.

In 1872 Thomas Gidley sued the lessee of Eldorado East, Mr Reid, for stealing about 3000 sheep over the past three years. The verdict went in favour of the defendant, despite Thomas's older children, Mary Jane and Michael, giving evidence.

The following year, 1873, Thomas was back in court twice; this time he himself was accused of rebranding and cutting off the ears of Mr Reid's sheep, 400 or 500 of which were "seen being driven by two of Gidley's men towards Gidley's house". The same year Thomas was sued by a commission agent, after Thomas had not paid the agent's bill from the sale of his station and run to Mr Reid for £5750. Thomas claimed he was too illl to attend to this matter. This could well have been true, as he died in controversial circumstances in a Melbourne street the following year. In October 1873 Thomas had been jailed for two years with hard labour for perjury. He refused to pay his just debts, despite being reportedly worth about £20,000 and an order for sequestration was sought. He was released from the prison hospital when it was clear that he was dying of heart disease and that confinement would hasten his death. Correspondents to the Ovens and Murray Advertiser wrote either deploring that a man should die in the street, or deploring that he had been released from jail in the first place and wondering if money played a part in his release.Despite his very public death, there were even rumours that he had not died, but had left the area. It was also reported that his considerable fortune had been left to just one member of the family, leaving the rest destitute.

Beechworth History Timeline website

In 1872 a verse had been published in the paper, entitlrd "Old Tom Gidley, Oh!" It ran "In the bush at El Dorado/ curious ganes were lately played, oh!/ By a squatter known to fame/ which Old Tom Gidley is his name/ Gidley, which there's no concealing/ twice was tried for cattle stealing/ twice not guilty verdicts meant/ the accused was innocent...." and so on. 

His name has been associated with Ned Kelly, the notorious bushranger. Certainly they both spent time in Beechworth Gaol. The Beechworth History Timeline website reports that he and Ned Kelly were well acquainted and that locals nicknamed the hotel "the Inn of the 40 Thieves". The area is still known as Gidley's or Gidley Gap and a newspaper article in the Ovens and Murray Advertiser in 1950 on former hotels in the area attributed the Gidley's Gap Hotel to Samuel [sic] Gidley. A Google search records: Because of its isolated position along a major transit route, Gidley's Gap frequently appeared in 19th-century court depositions. It was a known waypoint where heavily loaded dray carts carrying supplies, flour, and bank property from Rutherglen and Chiltern were waylaid or tailed by thieves and bushrangers heading into town.

A link between two branches

I was recently contacted through the Gidley One Name website with the news that not only was my contact a Gidley himself, but his wife's great grandfather was also a Gidley, and they were not related, being from different branches: South Devon and Winkleigh. His son has therefore merged the two.

There is some evidence that members of another branch used the services in the 19th century of Gidley and Co., the solicitors in Plymouth of the Winkleigh branch, but, barring inhabitants of large towns and cities, I've only seen one census entry where the occupants may have wondered about a possible relationship.  For, in 1871, in numbers 3 and 5 New Street in Withycombe Raleigh, near Exmouth, Devon, there are two unrelated Gidley families. Their wives may possibly have been related, but the males were not.

In number 3 lived John Gidley, a mariner aged 30, born in Dean Prior, with his wife Elizabeth nee Teed, a lace maker. Livng with them was Elizabeth's illegitimate daughter born before her marriage, Mary Jane Teed, then aged 12. I hadn't researched Mary Jane as her father was evidently not John Gidley. I have now discovered that she met a tragic end, only in her twenties, as one of the victims of the terrrible fire at the Theatre Royal in Exeter in 1887, the worst ever UK theatre disaster. 186 people perished in the theatre, only opened the previous year, but beset with design faults that led to people suffocating or crushed in the panic to get to far too few exits, particularly from the gallery. Mary Jane Teed, then living in Summerland Street in Exeter, was buried with other victims in a mass grave in Exeter.

John Gidley had vounteered for the Royal Navy in 1859 aged 19 (although he added a year to his age). He signed on for 10 years and was presumably at sea in the 1861 census when he couldn't be found. His naval record only records that he was a 2nd Class Ordinary Seaman on HMS Impregnable (from 1862 a training ship). He possibly suffered with poor health, as he died in 1874, aged only 34, leaving no descendants. 

In number 5 New Street in 1871 lived Jane Maria Gidley nee Star, with her three daughters, Isabella, Eliza and Alice. Her husband Richard was absent from the household and I found him boarding in Okehampton, working as a labourer, They were back together from at least 1881 onwards, so I wondered if he couldn't find work in 1871 (his previous census entries recorded him as a spring maker and a coachsmith) as a metal worker of some sort in the Exmouth area and had moved to where there was more work. Unfortunately, I have now discovered that in 1864 he was charged with deserting his wife and family, leaving them to be relieved by the parish, as proved by the assistant parish overseer. Richard was sentenced to a month's imprisonment. He was born in Ipplepen in 1830, the son of Richard Gidley and Susanna nee Clinnick. According to my family history program he was my 1st cousin 3 times removed. His death was announced in the local paper in Exmouth 1890, aged 60. His two older daughters moved away to the Bristol area. but the youngest, Alice, married and remained in the Exmouth area.

Henry Gidley in the Goldminers' Database, New Zealand, 1861-1886

 Kae Lewis in New Zealand has produced a useful database of gold miners in the Thames goldrush on North Island, New Zealand:  the Goldminers' Database.

Henry Gidley has three mentions: 3 Nov 1868 in Karaka, Thames; 6 May 1869 in Karaka Creek, Thames Claim Register; and 9 Dec 1869 in Karaka.

On p.697 of Kae Lewis's book Goldrush to the Thames, N.Z. 1867-69 quoted on her website, she details conditions in the mines there: 

A specimen rock (from Kae Lewis' website) 

"It took grit and determination to decide to dig the shaft down 100 feet... using only the flickering light of a candle the digger chipped away at the rock with his pick, examining each chunk of quartz.... lost beneath the earth with tons of rock over his head and knowing it could all come down on him any moment."

Could Henry have struck lucky? In 1875 he is recorded as a miner owning 1200 shares (one of the largest shareholders) in the Effort Gold Mine and that same year as a hotelkeeper who owned 275 shares in the Ajax Mining Company. He held licences for three hotels in the Thames district at various times - the Melbourne, the Criterion and the Wynyard Arms.

Henry was a veteran of the 65th Foot Regiment, awarded the New Zealand Medal and granted land there in 1870 by the Crown Lands Office.  His funeral notice in the Auckland Star on 10th May 1921 mentioned his former regiment and he was invited to an At Home of veterans at Government House in 1900.

In 1874 he married Hannah Green but I haven't traced any children. I have provisionally allocated him as the son of William Gidley of Dartington, Devon, and Lucy Partridge but there is one problem: Henry's funeral notice descibed him as "of Devon" and William's son Henry was born in Chelsea, London in 1833 and moved with his whole family to Liverpool by 1846. However, the 65th Foot was a North Country regiment.

The Gidley coat of arms

 I know many of you are interested in the Gidley coat of arms and some have requested permission to use it. This is usually denied, as conditions of its inheritance are strictly applied by the College of Arms. But I thought you may be interested in how it was re-registered in the 19th century, as reported by Bartholomew Courtenay Gidley [1835-1918, born in Ilminster, Somerset, sometime wine merchant in London], and reproduced in the Gidley Record Notebook which was kindly transcribed by Chris Lassam when it was put up for auction in 2023.

Following the story of re-registering there is a very long description of the arms, using heraldic terms, attempting to work out the reasons for what was included on the device.

"But for a curious incident which happened about the year 1876, the grant of arms would never have been registered, nor the pedigree constructed. My cousin Bartholomew Charles Gidley [1839-1888] of Exeter, solicitor and Town Clerk of Exeter, had, when at Oxford University, had a friend called Harrison, who after they left college, became the Windsor Herald. Bartholomew Charles Gidley, being on business in London and having a little time on his hands, went to the College of Arms and asked Harrison if he would allow him to see the entries of the Gidley family. He said certainly and he would go and look them up. After a short time he returned and said that the name of Gidley was not in the index. Bartholomew Charles Gidley said that this was very strange, as he had seen the grant itself: it was in the possession of Mr Gustavus Gidley [1821-1910] of Plymouth, the oldest living representative of the senior branch of the family. Harrison asked if he could tell him who signed it and he said Bysshe Clarenceaux. At which Harrison said that, no doubt owing to the troubles of that year (1666 when the house occupied by the Heralds was burnt in the Fire of London), many of Bysshe's grants were unregistered.My cousin asked what could be done to remedy the defect and Harrison said that if we could produce a reliable pedigree from the time of the grant up to date he would register it. My cousin Bartholomew Charles Gidley therefore wrote to me say he would look after the Devon part of the pedigree. After some months we both accomplished our respective shares of the work to the satisfaction of the College and the grant and pedigree were officially registered."