Former home of infamous Australian Bushranger
Andrew George Scott, bushranger, self-styled Captain Moonlite’ was born at Streamvale, Loughbrickland Road, Tullyquilly townland, Rathfriland, on 5 July 1842, son of Thomas Scott, who according to the Australian Dictionary of Biography was an Anglican clergyman but the Newry Telegraph of 1935 states he was “County Squire and magistrate.” Research by Rathfriland Historical Society shows that he was a magistrate and seneschal of Rathfriland Manor of the Meade estate in 1853.
The family moved from Streamvale to Castle Hill, now the residence of the Malcolmson family.
The Australian Dictionary of Biography states: “Young Scott was described as ‘dark, handsome, active and full of high spirits’ but was known for impulsive acts of mischievous violence. He may have studied engineering in London, and legend has it that he served with Garibaldi in Italy in 1860”.
On 22 November 1861 Scott, his parents and brother Thomas arrived in Auckland, New Zealand, in the Black Eagle. A fellow passenger remembered him as ‘very gentlemanly and high-spirited.’ His father took charge of Christchurch, Coromandel, and his brother was ordained as a priest: Andrew taught school for a while but in February 1864 was commissioned in the Waikato Militia. Later he transferred to the Auckland Volunteer Engineer Corps. On 6 November 1867 he was refused a post of inspector or sub-inspector in the armed constabulary, although he had been endorsed by prominent members of the community as ‘a gentleman well suited for an office in command.’
Within a few months he had arrived in Australia and was appointed stipendiary lay reader of the Church of Holy Trinity, Bacchus Marsh. In March he was sent as a lay reader to Egerton near Ballarat. Here he attacked and robbed the agent for the town’s branch of the London Chartered Bank with whom he had previously been on friendly terms. He made Bruun, the agent, write a note and Scott signed it deliberately misspelling ‘Captain Moonlite.’
He lived off the proceeds in Sydney but then began to pass valueless cheques. In November 1870 he fraudulently bought a yacht called ‘Why-Not’ but was arrested as he tried to leave for Fiji. He was given 12 months gaol but spent some of his sentence in Parramatta Lunatic Asylum, feigning madness.
On release he was now charged with the Egerton robbery but on remand he escaped from Ballarat gaol but was soon recaptured and given 10 years hard labour and one year for escaping.
He was released in March 1879 and on 18 November, with a small band, he held up Wantabadgery sheep station near Wagga Wagga for two days, using the two children of the nearby hotelkeeper as hostages. Two of the gang and one trooper were killed when police attacked the homestead. Scott and three others were found guilty of the murder and he and one of his accomplices were hanged on 20 January 1880.
POEM
Andrew George Scott
Captain Moonlite – Bush Ranger
Written by Mrs Maude Harbinson to mark the 50th anniversary of Rathfriland Historical Society. 2023.