Moondyne Joe
| Moondyne Joe | |
|---|---|
Moondyne Joe
|
|
| Born |
Joseph Bolitho Johns c.1826 Cornwall, England |
| Died | 13 August 1900 Fremantle, Western Australia, British Empire |
| Cause of death | Senile dementia |
| Resting place | Fremantle Cemetery, Fremantle, Western Australia, British Empire |
| Occupation | miner, bushranger |
Joseph Bolitho Johns (c. 1826 – 13 August 1900), better known as Moondyne Joe, was Western Australia's best known bushranger. Born into poor and relatively difficult circumstances, he became something of a petty criminal robber with a strong sense of self-determination. He is well remembered as a person who had escaped multiple times from prison.
Little is known of Joseph Johns' early life. Born in Cornwall, England, around 1826 and raised as a Roman Catholic, he was the third of six children of blacksmith Thomas Johns and his wife Mary Bolitho. Joe was a tall man with black hair and hazel coloured eyes and it is likely, that he contracted smallpox in his youth, as later, records describe him as "pockmarked". His father died some time between 1832 and 1841, and Johns and his three brothers took work as copper miners. In 1841 the family was living at Illogan, Cornwall, but by 1848 Johns had migrated to Wales, taking work as an iron ore miner, probably at the Clydach Iron Works.
On 15 November 1848, Johns and an associate using the name William Cross, the pseudonym for the convict John Williams, were arrested near Chepstow for "... stealing from the house of Richard Price, three loaves of bread, one piece of bacon, several cheeses, and other goods".Arraigned at the Brecon Assizes on charges of burglary and stealing, the pair pleaded not guilty. On 23 March they were tried at the Lent Assizes before Sir William Erle. Newspaper reports of the trial suggest that the pair gave an unexpectedly spirited defence, but Johns was abrasive and "contravened the conventions of court procedure". The men were convicted and sentenced to ten years' penal servitude. Edgar (1990) observes that in several other cases brought before the same judge that day, guilty pleas to very similar charges resulted in sentences ranging from three weeks to three months.
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