Ellen Kelly

Ellen Time Line 

Mrs Kelly, as she was known, was a small woman hardened by a harsh life, a devoted, hardworking mother who raised her own 12 children and several grandchildren. She was generous to her friends, rode out to help others in trouble, and was well liked and respected by those who knew her.

Ellen Quinn emigrated as a child with her family from Ireland. Born in County Antrim in she lived through the days of the Victorian goldrushes, and was alive when the first steam trains puffed their way north to the Murray River at Echuca. She lived through times when everyone depended on the horse and buggy, yet witnessed the first motor cars spluttering along dirt roads, and the first multiple-winged planes in the sky. Ellen lived from the time of candles and kerosene-lamps to the new electricity and the wireless radio. She lived a humble life content to live with her family till her death in 1923.

"People blame my boys for all that happened," she recalled. "They should blame the police. They were at the bottom of it all ... We were not getting too rich but were doing all right. It was a lonely life but we were all together and we all loved each other so dearly. The trouble began over a young constable named Fitzpatrick ... He tried to kiss my daughter, Kate, and the boys tried to stop him. They were only trying to protect their sister but his story was believed ... After that, nothing but misery. And it has been nothing but misery ever since."

Early Years

Ellen's story, and hence the Kelly story, is one of endurance and hardship. Born in Ireland, she emigrated, as a nine year old with her family, as free settlers to Australia, in 1841. A headstrong and spirited girl she ran off in 1850 to marry John (Red) Kelly, a ticket of leave Irish convict deported for stealing two pigs.

By 1866, Ellen was a widow supporting 7 children between the ages of 13 years and 18 months: Annie, Edward (Ned), Margaret, James, Daniel, Kate and Grace, and her life had already been plagued by times of harsh poverty, family altercations with the police, and unsettling moves around the countryside.  Red had died of 'dropsy', probably a form of heart failure.

She left Avenel taking her family to join her own family at Eleven Mile Creek area near Greta near the Warby ranges. 1868 Uncle James Kelly burned to the ground the hotel the sisters and family were living in. Ellen, left with nothing moved to Wangaratta to earn money. Ned stayed at Greta, collecting a flock of sheep and some horses.

Greta-land

Ellen selected 88 acres on Eleven Mile Creek near Bald Hill in 1868, during a tiny period of history (the Duffy Land Act) when it was possible for women to own land.

Ellen's relationship with William Frost ended unhappily, with her successfully taking him to court for maintenance of his daughter, Ellen Frost. Her celebratory rides, whooping and howling through Benalla, when she won the case, resulted in another arrest and charges for Furious Riding in a Public Place.

Hardship and family life

The struggle to survive continued. Ellen's entire family, (the Quinns and the Kellys) were well known to the police, and many were jailed at various times, mostly for stock theft. At one stage five of Ellen's household and three close relatives were all behind bars. Ned had many brushes with the law, but was first jailed at the age of fifteen, for three months for Indecent Behaviour and Violent Assault, over an incident involving the delivery of calves' testicles to a woman. It was a tasteless act of disdain by Ben Gould the hawker, toward a rival and wife. Ned served three months in Beechworth Gaol.

In the next years Ellen's family experienced further hardship and tragedies. Ned's sister Annie married and had a child, which later died. Ned was jailed for three years, (somewhat unfairly it would seem) for Receiving a Stolen Horse. With her husband Alex Gunn also in jail, Annie entered a doomed relationship with a policeman, Ernest Flood, and subsequently died after giving birth to his child, thus cementing the Kelly family's dislike for the police.

Maggie married Bill Skillion, and gave birth to two children. While Ned was serving on the Prison Hulk Sacramento anchored just off Williamstown, a young American, George King, became involved with Ellen. After Ned's release from gaol, he witnessed their marriage, then set off to find honest work using his stone masonry and timber working skills.

It was a time of relative calm. Ellen had three children with George King: Ellen, John and Alice, and during the summer of 1877 and 1878 Ned, Dan and George built a new bigger house for Ellen Kelly. It featured glazed windows and timber partitioned rooms. The 88 acre property was poor land, and the Kelly family never managed to make it productive.

Around this time, Ned and his step father, George King, began thieving horses on a grand scale. Both were superb horsemen and organisers, having accomplices scattered across the north east. Horses from Victoria were stolen and sold in NSW, and vice versa. By 1878 the Police Force and judiciary were infuriated at the ease with which Ned Kelly could steal horses and avoid apprehension.

For some time the Kelly family had been subjected to continual police scrutiny. Exploitation of Kelly womenfolk was considered 'acceptable police conduct' which might lead to the arrest of the horse thieves.

The Fitzpatrick incident

On the 15th April, a ne'er do well policeman, Constable Alexander Fitzpatrick rode out to the Kelly homestead to apprehend Dan Kelly. The events that took place in the hut will never be known exactly, but a fight ensued,and Fitzpatrick later claimed Ellen Kelly attacked him with a shovel and Ned Kelly shot him. The Kelly family claim they were protecting the young girl Kate from the lecherous Fitzpatrick.

Ellen gaoled

Despite his poor reputation and drinking habits the police acted on Fitzpatrick's report and arrested Ellen Kelly with her two day old baby, Alice King, her son in law Bill Skillion and neighbour Brickie Williamson. Dan and Ned had already fled to the hills. The policeman Fitzpatrick was a liar, perjurer and drunkard and soon after was sacked, however Ellen was sentenced to three years hard labour by Judge Redmond Barry, who, legend has it, famously uttered, "If your son Ned were here I would make an example of him for the whole of Australia - I would give him fifteen years".  The men received six years each.

While Dan and Ned mined for gold and distilled whisky in the Wombat Ranges to raise money for a new trial for their mother, Maggie and Kate were left to run two farms and care for all the young children. In his Jerilderie letter, Ned wrote bitterly of Fitzpatrick and the other police who persecuted the family: "They kept them six months awaiting trial and then convicted them on the evidence of the meanest article that ever the sun shone on ... [Fitzpatrick] has the wrong appearance of a manly heart the deceit and cowardice is too plain to be seen in that puny cabbage hearted looking face ..."

Only a few weeks after Ellen Kelly was sentenced, the Police force sent groups to apprehend the Kelly boys, and on October 26th 1878 the Stringybark Creek shootings took place, with policemen Lonigan, Scanlon and Kennedy losing their lives. The Kelly Gang was outlawed with a reward which grew to £8000 posted for their capture, but they thumbed their noses at the lawmakers by precociously bailing up Euroa then Jerilderie banks.

Maggie and Kate 

In the meantime Maggie and Kate and the young children were at the mercy of police desperate to capture the gang, which was now known to include Steve Hart and Joe Byrne. The police harassed the young women and children, destroying foodstuff and making the children stand outside at night in their night clothes, as well as leaving poisoned baits for the dogs.

Both Maggie and Kate were superb horsewomen and supported the gang in every possible way: providing food, passing information, setting decoys for the police. Animosity toward the police grew rapidly in the district when they began jailing anyone considered a Kelly sympathiser.  In June 1879 Maggie and Kate travelled to Melbourne with Tom Lloyd to obtain ammunition.

Ned Kelly was furious his mother and baby sister were jailed for such treacherous falsehoods, stating later: "My mother has seen better days; she struggled up with a large family and I feel more keenly than I can express the unjust treatment meted out to her, arrested babe at her breast and convicted of a crime of which she was innocent"

Survival in the bush was becoming very hard for the gang, and the plan to use armour and create havoc was formed. There was serious talk of rebellion and a republic.

On June 27th and 28th 1880 the Kelly Gang held over 62 people hostage at the Glenrowan Inn. Aaron Sherritt was shot by Joe Byrne, and railway lines were lifted in the hope of derailing the Police train. The famous last stand of Ned Kelly ensued, during which the gang wore their armour, and Joe, Dan and Steve perished along with two civilians. Ned Kelly was severely wounded, captured, and sent to Melbourne by train for trial.

The women were fully informed and involved in the disastrous day. They had quilted a tartan silk skull cap padded with cotton wool to protect Ned's head from the heavy helmet, and both Maggie and Kate, dressed in their best clothes, were present during part of the dreadful gun battle and torching of the Glenrowan Inn.

Maggie and Kate fought tirelessly to have their brother, Ned, given a fair trial and legal representation. Maggie still managed the two farms and became involved with Tom Lloyd, the closest ally of the Kelly Gang. Held in the same jail as his mother, the Old Melbourne Gaol, Ned was found guilty of murdering Constable Lonigan, and the death sentence pronounced on the 29th October, by Judge Redmond Barry.

Execution of Ned Kelly 

7000 people gathered at the Hippodrome to ask for a reprieve of the death sentence and 32,000 signatures were collected on a petition. The family said their last farewells and Ellen is reputed to have told her son," Mind you die like a Kelly, son". On the 11th November a crowd of 5000 gathered outside the Old Melbourne Gaol to protest, but Ned Kelly was hung at 10am. Ned's last requests included that his mother be released from gaol and that his friends be allowed to bury his body in consecrated ground. Neither request was granted.

Not only the Kellys grieved. The tragedies associated with the Kelly outbreak left the Byrne, Hart, Sherritt, Jones, Lonigan, Kennedy, Scanlon and Cherry families bereft.

That night Jim and Kate Kelly appeared on stage at Apollo Hall above the Bourke Street Eastern Arcade hoping to thank supporters. They found themselves a spectacle ogled at by hundreds of people. Later that year Kate and Jim left Melbourne for Sydney, to give a Kelly Show with their horses, but the police soon closed them down.  

In February 1881 Ellen was released from prison where she had worked in the laundry for three years, and returned to her family. Kate returned from her travels as a showgirl in Adelaide, and Maggie was living with Tom Lloyd.

Police force investigated 

In March 1881, A Royal Commission of Enquiry into the Circumstances of the Kelly Outbreak, the Present State and Organisation of the Police Force took place at the request of the Governor and Graeme Berry. The reports were scathing of some of the leadership and tactics of the police, and led to reforms and the revitalisation of the Victorian Police Force.

Peace

In the aftermath of the tragic events, amid rumblings of anger and revenge, Ellen's extraordinary contribution to peace in the district, by making appearances in public with a remarkable new policeman, Constable Robert Graham, should not be overlooked. Sympathisers were to be treated reasonably and Ellen made it known she was prepared to live peacefully, but her heart must have been breaking as she rode with her son Jim, next to a member of the Victorian Police force, which had been for so long the sworn enemy of the Kelly family.

Ellen lived on till the age of 92, with her son Jim, and other family, looking after her. He built a new house on a 640 acre selection, near Kelly's Gap where Ellen loved to sit by the fire. She outlived so many of her children: Annie, Edward, Margaret, Dan, Kate, and infants Mary- Jane, Ellen Frost, and Annie's daughter Anna.

Ellen Kelly's life reflects the hardship of most of the pioneering bush women on small parcels of land. Perhaps none as confrontingly dramatic or tragic as the Kellys, the bush women raised large families in primitive conditions and lost many children in infancy. They often lived isolated, lonely lives, and the survival of their families relied on their homemaking , their thrift, and their ability to improvise.  They endured all in the hope of better lives and opportunities for their children. May they rest in peace with a sense of achievement for they shaped this country with their vision, their courage and their endurance.

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