Notes:

Evening News (Sydney) Wed 8 Dec 1875 p. 3Text: The Lawson's Creek Tragedy.
Execution of Rope.
Mudgee, December 7.
George Rope, the perpetrator of the cruel murder at Lawson's Creek suffered the extreme penalty of the law this morning (Tuesday 7th December) within the precincts of Mudgee Gaol. Rope was a medium size, thick set man, about 52 years of age, a native of Penrith, having been born in that town in 1823. His grandfather Anthony Rope, was one of the early pioneers of this colony, and came out with Governor Philip in the 'first fleet' in 1788 and either his father or uncle was the first child of white parents born in new South Wales. George Rope's father became bedridden soon after the former's birth, and his sons were consequently compelled to work at an early age. George Rope was apprenticed to a wheelwright, from whom he learned his trade and with whom he remained for many years. He is said to have been a thoroughly good workman, but it is only a repetition of the old story - the evil influence of intemperance. When quite a young man he imbibed a taste for liquor which ---- him gradually and almost imperceptibly till in time he became a confirmed drunkard. He married about the age of 30 or 32 and had at one time a wheelwright's establishment of his own. About six years after his marriage, one of his children died, and shortly afterwards he lost his wife and another child from slow fever. Rope is said to have taken his wife's loss bitterly to heart. For three months subsequent to her death, he was never a day sober. His drink was always rum, and that of the strongest kind. He had during his life undergone many viscissitudes and troubles. When he was about thirty six years old he received a violent blow on the back of the head from his brother Thomas in a quarrel. At various other times, too, he is said to have received severe injuries. The bridge of his nose was broken and his head marked with several scars. On occasions his constant indulgence in liquor resulted in fits of partial aberration, during which his friends had to look after him. At the time of the murder a younger brother was under committal for illegally using a horse, and this is said to have preyed much upon George Rope's mind. The murderer was an illiterate man and of a most violent temperament, presenting quite a contrast to his victim, who was a middle aged and respectable female. Hannah Jane Rope, the unfortunate woman who met her death at the hands of her brother-in-law, is described as a woman of very amiable but resolute disposition. He was of medium height and rather prepossessing appearance, and was a native of Parramatta. She left behind her to mourn her unfortunate fate a husband, two sons and one daughter. One of her sons was killed from a blow with the barrel of a gun about eighteen months since.
The incidents connected with the murder of the unfortunate woman may be...
At the trial, the plea set up was "not guilty on the ground of insanity" and all possible means that could be adopted to ensure an acquittal were resorted to in vain. After his conviction, for some little time the prisoner remained sullen and obdurate to the ministrations of the reverend gentlemen who attended him, apparently quite indifferent to his awful fate. On the night of October 22 he attempted to commit suicide. The prisoner was locked up in his cell as usual, but the next morning the blankets on which he was lying during the night were found covered with blood, and inspection revealed the fact that he had attempted to open a vein in his arm. Mr. Lester, the nearest chemist, was immediately sent for, and found that the arm was cut at the bend of the elbow, the would not penetrating further than the muscle. On looking about he found a small piece of rusty steel, which had formed part of ta neckerchief or cravat, and it was with this that Rope had inflicted the wound, having contrived to conceal it in the sole of his boot.
For some time after the attempt at suicide, Rope remained in much the same sullen humour, but, thanks to the repeated attentions of the C=Venerable Archdeacon Gunther and the Rev. F.W. Stretton, he gradually was brought to a better state of mind. These clergymen were unremitting in their exertions for the spiritual welfare of the unfortunate man entrusted to their care, and both regarded him as being truly penitent. To their ministrations he was very attentive, and appeared comforted by their teachings. There is no doubt that the --- of the clergymen on his behalf alone kept in check his violent and hitherto uncontrollable temper. His relatives made great exertions to save him from undergoing the extreme penalty of the law. Money was subscribed for his defence, and a petition on his behalf forwarded by them to the Executive. All effort was in vain, however, and on Monday evening his relatives took a last farewell of him, and found him in very low and depressed spirits. He bade them each goodbye amidst considerable weeping. He then assured them that he remembered nothing of the murder, or the circumstances connected with it. He stated that the day the murder took place he went to Kerr's public house at Lawson's Creek, which is situated about a mile from his hut. He bought a gill of rum there and he states that last thing he remembered was falling over a lof on his return and groping about for the bottle of rum. All the rest was oblivious to him. He knew nothing, he said, about the murder.
The gallows was erected at the rear of the females' yard. The structure was a bout sixteen feet hight, being two feet above the gaol wall, while at the foot a pit about five feet in depth had been dug, lined with bricks and cemented. Twelve steps led to the platform, or trap door, to which was attached a fifty six pound weight, so that when the bolt was drawn the door would be kept from swinging about. The top of the gallows was enclosed with canvas, to conceal the execution from the eyes of the general public outside. The official entrusted with the duty of seeing the dread sentence of the law carried into effect eas the Under Sheriff (J.G. Thurlow Esq). The hangman was accompanied by a warder from Darlinghurst Gaol.
There were not so many present at the execution as were expected. The various gaol officials, the representatives of the Press, the members of the various professions and a few labourers and tradesmen composed the limited --- of visitors present to witness to awe-inspiring ceremony. Although the condemned man was said to have slept well the night previously, he did not appear to have much appetite for his breakfast. The bell tolled at 8.30. The prisoner was attended on the scaffold by the Venerable Archdeacon Gunther, and the Rev. Mr. Stretton. After prayers had been read, the clergymen and the executioner shook hands with the condemned man who quivered in every limb while the preliminaries were being arranged. He merely said "Lord have mercy on my soul!" The white cap was then put on, the rope adjusted, the bolt drawn, and the body fell. Death was almost instantaneous, life being extinct in about two minutes. The friends of the murdered obtained permission to have the body buried in consecrated found, and it was interred in the evening of the same day alongside Hannah Jane Rope in the Church of England Cemetery, the murderer and his victim lying beneath the same green turf. The execution was the first that ever took place in Mudgee, and as a consequence caused great local excitement.

George married Margaret Behan on 05 Apr 1853 in Saint Mary's Church Of England, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia. Margaret was born in 1834 in Saint Mary's, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia; died on 2 Sep 1855 in Penrith, New South Wales, Australia. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. Thomas Rope was born on 11 Jan 1854 in Penrith, New South Wales, Australia; died on 22 Nov 1855 in New South Wales, Australia.

John married Maria Field on 17 Feb 1817 in Christ Church, Castlereagh, New South Wales, Australia. Maria was born on 1 Sep 1801 in Parramatta Nsw Australia; died on 28 Aug 1842 in Castlereagh, New South Wales, Australia. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Anthony was baptised on 1st August 1755, at St Marys, Norton Subcourse, Norfolk, England.
He was illiterate and a labourer. Anthony came from a family of Carpenters and Brickmakers, handy skills which he brought with him to Sydney Cove. He was tried at Chelmsford on 10th March 1785 he was found guilty of stealing clothing and coin to the value of 35 shillings from Robert Gosling and Robert Bradley; he was sentenced to transportation for 7 years.
Left England on 13th May 1787.
Ship:- the ‘Alexander’, before she left Portsmouth, a fever broke out on board that killed 16 convicts. She left carrying 195 male convicts, 15 more convicts died on the journey, the most for any ship in the first fleet.
Arrived on 26th January 1788.
Upon the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove, all the convicts were put to work in various jobs necessary to build shelter and feed all the people. Anthony Rope was sent to work in the brickfields, which were located near what is now Central Station in Sydney. In Anthony’s small amount of spare time he built a hut there for himself and this was finished by May 1788. Elizabeth, along with other women, would have been put to work sewing, cleaning, washing and cooking.
Anthony and Elizabeth met on the first night that the women of the Fleet were set down at Sydney Cove on 6th February 1788. They were married on 19th May 1788 by the Reverend Richard Johnson, celebrating with meat from a goat that one naval officer reported as missing. They had 8 children between 1788-1808, their son Robert Rope was possibly one of the first children conceived and born in the settlement.
Anthony was given a grant of land at The Ponds which is now part of the Sydney suburb of Dundas, but this later had to be sold to repay debt. Farming was very harsh and the settlers were constantly deluged by floods and ravaged by fires and droughts.
The family moved to various farms out in the west of Sydney as they looked for land that would safely grow crops. It should be noted that although the farms were granted to the owners, Anthony was the first settler at all of the farms he moved to, so he first had to clear the land before he could put crops in. He also had to build the family home every time they moved.
Anthony did extra jobs to make money along the way. At one stage he was employed to build a dwelling for the workers on Elizabeth King’s farm Dunheved in 1807.
Recent research by Rope family historians has identified at least five sites where the family lived as they moved from leasehold to leasehold: Rope’s Farm at The Ponds, now Dundas; a farm at Toongabbie; Tumbledown Barn at Mulgrave Place, now Riverstone, near Windsor; Badgery’s Farm on the Nepean River near Richmond; and Jordan Hill in what is now Llandilo, on the west bank of South Creek. The stretch of land leading to this leasehold was known as Rope’s Paddock for many years. The new suburb, Ropes Crossing, has been named after him as it lies near where the family farmed at Jordan Hill.

Anthony married Elizabeth Pulley (maid. name (Convict first fleet to Australia)) in 19 May1788 in Port Jackson, Sydney, New Suoth Wales. Elizabeth was born on 27 Mar 1763 in Hethersett, Norfolk, England; died on 9 Aug 1837 in Evan, Castlereagh, New South Wales, Australia. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Elizabeth was born in Felthorpe, Norfolk, a village just thirty kilometres north-west of Anthony Rope’s birthplace at Norton Subcourse. Her baptism took place on 21 Feb 1762 at St Margarets in Felthorpe with her parents listed as Tobias and Alice Pully. She and her three brothers were orphaned by the time she was 6 and all four may have been then sent to the workhouse.
During her teenage years Elizabeth ran wild. In July 1779 she was acquitted of stealing clothes and just a year later she was sentenced to three weeks in Wymondham Bridewell prison for stealing clothes from a house near Drayton. Her punishment included a public whipping in the market place.
Things were getting worse by 1781 when again she was in court for stealing clothing and money belonging to a Mr Pightling of Heatherset. This crime earned her a year’s hard labour at Aylsham Bridewell. Not long after her release she was in trouble again and in March 1783 she was tried at Thetford Assizes and convicted of stealing a large quantity of food and material (worsted) from the shop of a Mrs Elizabeth Minns of Hethersett. This time she was sentenced to death by hanging but was reprieved by the judge as he left for London and she then spent three years languishing in gaol at Norwich castle while awaiting transportation. A short time in the ‘Dunkirk’ hulk at Plymouth preceded her voyage to New South Wales on the transport ‘Friendship’.
Along with 20 other female convicts Elizabeth suffered dreadfully, as she herself was in irons for 72 days of the 93 days from 13 May till 13 August 1787. Lt Ralph Clark’s diary pinpoints five fighting women which he at one stage labelled as damned whores. Elizabeth Pulley was listed as one of the five. The ship travelled in extremely hot weather and it was lice-ridden, so her conditions were very uncomfortable. Thankfully, when the Fleet reached Cape Town (South Africa), she was transferred to the Prince of Wales ship with other female convicts. This was to make room for animals and other supplies to be taken on board the Friendship.