Matthew Brady

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This article is about the Australian bushranger. For other people with similar names, see Matthew Brady (disambiguation).

Matthew Brady (1799 – May 4, 1826) was a notorious bushranger in Van Diemen's Land (now known as Tasmania) in the early 1800s. He was sometimes known as the "Gentleman Bushranger" due to his good treatment and fine manners when robbing his victims.

Brady was born in Manchester, England. Originally a corporal in a British regiment, he was a cultured and educated man. Sentenced to death for forgery, his sentence was commuted to transportation to the Penal Colony of New South Wales. He rebelled against the conditions in Sydney and was sent to the notorious penal settlement at Sarah Island in Macquarie Harbor called "Hell's Gates".

Although classified as an incorrigible and dangerous criminal, in 1824 he escaped from Sarah Island with 13 others, and went on a crime spree at various homesteads and villages throughout Tasmania.

Brady considered himself a gentleman, who never robbed or insulted women. The military considered him a dangerous bushranger. After Brady's gang held up Sorrell Town and captured the local garrison (in which the garrison commander, Lieut. William Gunn was shot in the arm, which was subsequently amputated) Lieut. Governor Arthur posted rewards for the capture of Brady and his gang.

In return, Brady posted a reward of "Twenty gallons of rum" to any person who would deliver Governor Arthur to him.

After 21 months free in Van Diemen's Land, Brady and his gang captured a boat, intending to sail it to the Australian mainland. Due to bad weather crossing Bass Strait, they were forced to turn back.

Eventually, one of his gang members, an ex-convict name Cowan, betrayed him for a pardon. Brady escaped the ensuing gun battle with serious injuries, but was captured soon after by the famous bounty hunter John Batman.

Brady was hanged on May 4th, 1826, at the old Hobart jail. Four other bushrangers were hanged with him, including Mark Jefferies the cannibal. Brady complained bitterly at being hanged alongside Jefferies, who was, as Brady pointed out, an informer as well as a cannibal and mass murderer. Brady's cell had been filled with flowers from the ladies of Hobart Town, which tends to support his claim to be a "Gentleman Bushranger".