When Matthew Brady was hanged May 4, 1826, ladies wept and flowers were thrown. Governor Arthur was not among them. His troopers, police and bounty hunters had scoured the bush for two years, trying to capture him. Arthur had another axe to grind. Brady had nailed a proclamation to the door of Crossmarsh Inn: 'It has caused Matthew Brady much concerns that such a person known as George Arthur is at large. Twenty gallons of rum will be given to the persons that will deliver this person to me.'
Like many of the famous outlaws of the US, Brady had his own 'hole in the wall' place to hide, high in the mountains of Tasmania, surrounded by almost impenetrable bush. It took a small army to bring him to the hangman in 1826.
Matthew Brady was 21 when transported from England for forgery. Brady was assigned as a servant to Mrs. Ransom of the Crossmarsh Inn, who spoke of him being sober and industrious. Other ladies of the district also had high opinions of young Matthew, in which the word 'industrious' has other connotations. The truth is that Matty was in fact a gentleman of sorts, who stuck to his code of honour and decency. A contemporary described him as 'a leader of men, and a conqueror of women'.
For insubordination while at the Crossmarsh Inn, Brady was sent to the notorious Macquarie Harbour penal settlement, where soldiers laid into him with 350 lashes, in an attempt to break his spirit, but only succeeded in firing it up to escape and revenge.
On the night of June 9, 1824 Brady made his getaway with a group of selected convicts who seized a boat and headed for the open sea. Brady knew that he had little chance of crossing the straight to the mainland, and so sailed into the mouth of the Derwent River and struck inland. Brady was declared an outlaw.
He must have felt as free as a bird in those early few months after escape. Away into the almost trackless bush, with a stolen horse under him, and plenty of rich plunder around him. 'Great personnel violence' was used in the first of many Brady raids, and its first victim was a servant of William Gunn, ex-officer and farmer. Gunn was no ordinary man, and was to become Brady's most implacable enemy.
