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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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