Family stories - William and Hepzebah HULME - Ned Kelly country.

In many families, a story will often be passed down over the years that may never have been proven one way or another.  

My great great great grandparents were William Cluff  HULME and Hepzebah nee LAND who emigrated to Australia from Putney, England in 1862.  

They came out to join other family members.  Their son, my great great grandfather, Joseph HULME, who had arrived with his maternal uncle Arthur LAND, two years earlier and William's brother, Edward HULME who was married to Hepzebah's sister, Jemima nee LAND.

They had all settled in the Oxley/King Valley area of North East Victoria,  which is where the Kelly Gang was based.  Many of the people of the district were sympathisers as they saw first hand the police harassment and persecution of the Kelly family.  

Some years ago a fellow HULME family member was extremely generous in sharing with me, his research, and that given to him by an earlier HULME family historian.  Thank you Peter!

I hadn't heard it before but the family story passed down his line was that William and Hepzebah HULME had paid the fine for Ellen Kelly, mother of Australian bushranger, Ned Kelly, after the Fitzpatrick incident.

I am assuming the word 'fine' would mean bail but am open to correction.

A book I have just finished reading about Ellen Kelly, written by Noelene Allen, Ellen- A woman of spirit (pg 114), states that Greta farmers William Dinning and his brother in law Robert Graham paid Ellen Kelly's bail in Winter of 1878.

This detail was also stated in the book Ned Kelly written by Peter FitzSimons,   These authors had done their research so I thought I would try to find some evidence.  

The Public Records Office of Victoria came up trumps with the following document.

If  'fine' means 'bail' then this document appears to disprove the family story.

PROV, VPRS 4966 Consignment P0 Unit 1 Item 4 Document: Ellen Kelly – Recognizance of bail 21/05/1878
Reproduced with the permission of the Keeper of Public Records, Public Record Office Victoria, Australia. 

RECOGNIZANCE OF BAIL.BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the thirty first day of May in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy eight Ellen Kelly Of Greta, in the Colony of Victoria, and William Dinning Farmer of Greta, in the said Colony and Robert Graham Farmer of Greta, in the said Colony personally came before the undersigned, one of Her Majesty’s Justices of the Peace for the Northern Bailiwick, of the said Colony, and severally acknowledged themselves to owe to our Lady the Queen the several sums following:the said Ellen Kelly the sum of Fifty pounds, and the said William Dinning and Robert Graham the sum of Fifty pounds each of good and lawful money of Great Britain, to be made and levied of their several goods and chattels, lands and tenements, respectively, to the use of our said Lady the Queen, Her Heirs and Successors, if she, the said Ellen Kelly fail in the condition endorsed.Taken and acknowledged the day and year first above mentioned, at Beechworth in the said Colony, beforeW. Foster P.M. J.P.

PROV, VPRS 4966 Consignment P0 Unit 1 Item 4 Document: Ellen Kelly – Recognizance of bail 21/05/1878
Reproduced with the permission of the Keeper of Public Records, Public Record Office Victoria, Australia. 

The condition of the within-written Recognizance is such,That whereas the said Ellen Kelly was on the 17th day of May instant charged before R. McBean and W. Little Justices within mentioned, for that she, the said Ellen Kelly on the Fifteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy eight, at Greta in the colony aforesaid, did aid and abett one Edward Kelly in an attempt to murder one Alexander Fitzpatrick at Greta in the Colony aforesaid.if therefore the said Ellen Kelly will appear at the next Court of Assize to be helded at Beechworth, in and for the Northern Bailiwick of the Colony of Victoria, on the Ninth day of October, and there surrender herself into the custody of the keeper of the common gaol there, and plead to such information as may be filed against her for and in respect of the charge aforesaid, and take her trial upon the same, and not depart the said Court without leave, then the said Recognizance to be void, or else to stand in full force and virtue.

I would love to know what my fellow HULME family researchers think.