Obituaries Australia

Martin Cash, n.d.

State Library of Tasmania, AB713-1-11419

The celebrated bushranger, Martin Cash, died at his residence, Glenorchy, on Sunday, 29th ultimo. We learn that Cash went to the Lord Rodney Hotel, New Wharf, on the evening of the 10th instant, and informed the landlord, Mr. Samuel Weir, that in consequence of severe illness, he had applied for admission into the General Hospital, but had been refused. Mr. Weir allowed him to remain at the hotel until the following Monday, when he returned to his home at Glenorchy. It will be remembered that Cash, in the year 1870, published in book form an account of adventures, from which we glean the following particulars: He was born in the year 1819, in the town of Enniscorth, Wexford, Ireland. Cash's career, as a young man, was according to his own account a series of events calculated to develop into the more serious phases of crime, and he was subsequently convicted of shooting a love rival named Jessop, for which offence he was sentenced to seven years' penal servitude. After a brief incarceration in the Cork gaol, Cash was sent with 170 other convicts by the ship Marquis of Huntly to Botany Bay, New South Wales. The ship arrived at Sydney on February 10, 1828, subsequent to the assignment or hiring-out system had come into operation. Cash was "assigned" to Mr. G. Bowman, of Richmond. He subsequently made his escape, and in 1837 he came to Hobart Town. He was not long out of the hands of the authorities of the law, and for the next few years he led a prison life which was ultimately broken by his escape from Port Arthur in company with Jones and Kavanagh in December, 1842. After remaining at large nearly twelve months, during which period he was at the head of a band of bushrangers, and was the terror of the whole colony, Cash was again captured, but not till after the most strenuous exertions were made to again lay hands on him, and a reward of 200 guineas (with a free pardon and a free passage from the colony, if required) was offered to any person who would give information that would lead to his capture, In September, 1843, he was tried and convicted of murder and sentenced to death. He was, however, afterwards reprieved and sent to Norfolk Island, where he remained till that establishment was broken up, when he had the satisfaction of bidding adieu to what he terms that "island of despair," and returning to Tasmania, where he was appointed by the late Hon. W. E. Nairn to take charge of the Government Gardens. On resigning that situation, he went to New Zealand for four years, after which he returned to Tasmania, "and, having saved a little money, purchased a farm at Glenorchy, where I resolved to pass the remainder of my days in the calm and tranquil enjoyment of rural retirement." Cash continued to devote himself to farming pursuits up till the time of his death.