Jimmy Governor (1875–1901)
This article was published:
- in theAustralian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 9 , 1983
- online in 2006
Jimmy Governor (1875-1901), outlaw, was born on the Talbragar River, New South Wales, one of eight children of Sam (later Thomas) Governor (or Grosvenor), bullock-driver of Aboriginal descent, originally from the Namoi River region of New South Wales, and his wife Annie, née Fitzgerald, from Mendooran, whose mother was of the Wanarruwa people. He received his schooling at a mission school and at Gulgong. Short and good-looking with reddish hair, Jimmy worked at Wollar before becoming a police tracker at Cassilis from 15 July 1896 to 18 December 1897. He returned to Wollar and, after woodcutting at Gulgong and wool-rolling at Digilbar, on 10 December 1898 married New South Wales-born Ethel Mary Jane Page, a sixteen-year-old woman of English heritage, at the Church of England rectory, Gulgong.
In April 1900, after a variety of jobs, Jimmy got a contract for fencing (splitting and erecting posts earning 10s. and 12s. a hundred respectively) from John Thomas Mawbey at Breelong, near Gilgandra. Conscientious and anxious to prove himself in white society, Jimmy was on good terms with his employer, obtaining his rations from him and playing cricket with his small sons. Jimmy and Ethel were joined by his brother Joe and other Aboriginal men Jacky Underwood (alias Charlie Brown), who both helped in the work, and later by Jacky Porter, and Jimmy's nephew Peter Governor. All claimed rations from Jimmy Governor.
Strains emerged in the marriage. Ethel, who did housework for the Mawbeys, grew unhappy; after a dispute with Mawbey, Jimmy and his friends talked of taking up bushranging. Jimmy was stung by reports that Mrs Mawbey and Helen Josephine Kerz, a schoolteacher who lived with the Mawbeys, had taunted his wife for marrying a ‘blackfellow’ (Singleton Argus 1900, 4). With Underwood he confronted the women, who were alone in the house with seven children and Mrs Mawbey's eighteen-year-old sister Elsie Clarke, on the night of 20 July 1900. Jimmy alleged that the women laughed at him and Helen Kerz said: 'Pooh, you black rubbish, you want shooting for marrying a white woman' (Singleton Argus 1900, 4). The two, with nulla-nullas and tomahawk, killed Mrs Grace Mawbey, Helen Kerz, and Grace (16), Percival (14) and Hilda Mawbey (11); Elsie Clarke was seriously injured.
Underwood was quickly caught but Jimmy and Joe Governor, calling themselves 'bushrangers', went on a fourteen-week, 2000-mile (3219 km) rampage, terrorizing a wide area of north-central New South Wales. Seeking revenge on persons who had wronged them, they killed Alexander McKay near Ulan on 23 July, Elizabeth O'Brien and her baby son at Poggie, near Merriwa, on 24 July, and Keiran Fitzpatrick near Wollar, on 26 July. After committing numerous robberies as far north as Narrabri, and in the Quirindi district, they moved into the rugged headwater country of the Manning and Hastings rivers, pursued by Queensland Aboriginal trackers, bloodhounds and hundreds of police and civilians. Exulting in outwitting their pursuers, the Governors blatantly broadcast their whereabouts and wrote derisive notes to the police. On 8 October the government offered a reward of £1000 each for their capture.
After several close escapes Jimmy was shot in the mouth by Herbert Byers, a hunter, on 13 October; in a weakened condition he was captured by a party of settlers at Bobin, near Wingham, on 27 October. Joe was shot dead by John Wilkinson north of Singleton on 31 October. They had been outlawed on 23 October.
Jimmy stood trial on 22-23 November in Sydney for the murder of Helen Kerz. He was defended byFrancis Stewart Boyce who raised the defence ofautrefois aquit andautrefois attaint, arguing that as a result of outlawry Governor had already been attainted and could not be tried for the same crimes. These pleas in bar of trial were rejected and Governor was convicted. An appeal was dismissed, and he spent his last days reading the Bible, singing, and blaming his wife. He was hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol on 18 January 1901 and buried in an unmarked grave in the Anglican section of Rookwood cemetery; Underwood had been hanged in the Dubbo gaol four days before. Governor was survived by his wife and son; on 23 November Ethel Governor married Francis Joseph Brown by whom she had nine more children. She died in Sydney on 31 December 1945.
Jimmy Governor's ravages, in the context of Aboriginal dispossession and white racism, were the subject of Thomas Keneally's novelThe Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith (1972), which was made into a film in 1978.
♦♦ This article was revised on 11 July 2025
Select Bibliography
- P. Clune,Jimmy Governor (Syd, 1959)
- C. Rolls,A Million Wild Acres (Melb, 1981), and for bibliography
- Moore, Laurie and Stephen Williams.The True Story of Jimmy Governor. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin, 2001.New South Wales Law Reports, 21 (1900), p 278
- Singleton Argus. ‘Jimmy Governor. Trial At Darlinghurst. The Sentence of Death Passed.’ 24 November 1900, 4.Sydney Mail, 28 July, 4 Aug, 3 Nov 1900
- Sydney Morning Herald, 23 July, 23 Aug, 3 Oct, 23, 24 Nov 1900, 19 Jan 1901
- Quirindi Advocate, 28 July, 4, 11 Aug 1944
- Sunday Telegraph (Sydney), 20 Apr 1980
- 6/1029 (State Records New South Wales)
Related Thematic Essay
Related Entries in NCB Sites
- Blackman, Thomas Henry (related entry)
Citation details
G. P. Walsh, 'Governor, Jimmy (1875–1901)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/governor-jimmy-6439/text11017, published first in hardcopy 1983, accessed online 26 November 2025.
This article was published in hardcopy inAustralian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 9, (Melbourne University Press), 1983
View thefront pages for Volume 9
© Copyright Australian Dictionary of Biography, 2006-2025
Life Summary[details]
Birth
1875
Talbragar River,New South Wales,Australia
Death
18 January,1901(aged ~ 26)
Darlinghurst, Sydney,New South Wales,Australia
Cultural Heritage
Includes subject's nationality; their parents' nationality; the countries in which they spent a significant part of their childhood, and their self-identity.
Religious Influence
Includes the religion in which subjects were raised, have chosen themselves, attendance at religious schools and/or religious funeral rites; Atheism and Agnosticism have been included.