Did you know that a Warburton family was involved in one of Ned Kelly’s most significant moments – the Jerilderie Letter?
It turns out that the Gill family, who ran a printing business which had just closed down earlier this year, has ties back to the publication of the infamous letter.
The Jerilderie Letter was a 56 page manifesto dictated by Mr Kelly, which attempted to justify his actions. He described cases of alleged police corruption and called for justice for poor rural families.
The letter is named after the town of Jerilderie in New South Wales, which Mr Kelly and his gang had carried out an armed robbery on in February 1879.
Owner of printing company L. S. Gill and Son, Jeff Gill told the Star Mail about the story of when Ned Kelly personally hunted down Samuel Gill, the editor of the Jerilderie Herald and Urana Gazette, to have his letter published.
Mr Gill said he was riding his motorbike through the town of Jerliderie when he dropped by the museum and entered his name as he signed in.
“A couple of cars pulled up… and about four people came out. They said, ‘You’re a Gill’, and I said ‘Yeah.’”
“Then one thing led to another, they worked it back and figured out I was a direct descendant of Samuel Gill,” Mr Gill said.
When Mr Kelly had taken over the town of Jerliderie, he prepared his letter and then attempted to track down the editor, Samuel Gill.
But, Samuel had gone into hiding after he witnessed the takeover, which left Samuel’s wife to deal with the bushranger.
Interestingly, Mr Gill was told by his father Len Gill that Samuel had left to go get help from the next town over.
“But I think the official version is he did a runner to get out and save himself. So there’s two sides to that story,” Mr Gill said.
“Mrs Gill slammed the door and said, ‘you can take your manuscript and whatever, we’re having nothing to do with it.’”
Edwin Living, a bank accountant who was present at the time, convinced Mr Kelly to give him the letter in order to save Samuel’s wife from having to deal with the bushranger any further.
A synopsis of the letter was given to Samuel once Mr Kelly had left the town, and Samuel then published the synopsis in the Jerilderie Herald and Urana Gazette on 22 February 1879.
When the people from Jerliderie found out that Mr Gill was a direct descendant of Samuel Gill, they were ecstatic.
“They were just over the moon,” Mr Gill said.
“I was feted like a bit of a celebrity. I’m not used to it, I’m just an average Joe.”
