Ben Hall’s great (x4) niece Cindy Chawner (left) and Biddy Hall descendant Donna Hill. Photos: Marion Williams.
The legend of bushranger Ben Hall was very much alive in 20th-century Cobargo.
His wife, Bridget (”Biddy”), moved to the area in 1920 to live with her granddaughter, Bridget Carr, and her husband, Victor Carr, who taught at Fox Hill School near Coolagolite. Biddy would accompany her granddaughter to the school to teach sewing.
When Biddy died in 1923, she was buried at Cobargo Cemetery, with a simple wooden cross marking her grave. According to local accounts, the cross was later stolen and since the 1950s, Biddy has lain in an unmarked grave.
Some 70 years on and after 35 years of effort by Biddy’s descendant Donna Hill, Biddy’s grave now has a headstone. It was unveiled at a well-attended dedication ceremony in Cobargo Cemetery on Saturday (18 July).
Brian Ayliffe, who has lived in Cobargo for more than 80 years, spoke at the ceremony about the huge influence Biddy and Ben Hall had in the area.
“Growing up, one of the legends was the existence of the grave of Ben Hall’s wife in Cobargo,” Mr Ayliffe said. “There were people who believed it, but couldn’t prove it, and others who didn’t believe it.”
Ms Hill’s neighbour Jean Jessop was one of the people who knew the grave’s exact location. Ms Jessop had been taught sewing by Biddy. Since learning about the grave, Ms Hill, helped by Sandy Reed, has been piecing together Biddy’s story.
Mr Ayliffe grew up thinking Ben Hall organised his raids from Cobargo. In reality, Hall had never been to Cobargo before he was shot dead by police on 5 May, 1865.
“We used to play bushrangers and we all wanted to be Ben Hall,” Mr Ayliffe said. “We glorified it and fantasised about it. That was growing up with the legend of Ben Hall and Biddy Hall.”
Long-time Cobargo resident Brian Ayliffe speaking at the headstone’s dedication ceremony.
Also at the dedication was Cindy Chawner, a descendant of Ben Hall’s sister, Catherine.
“I grew up in Cobargo, behind the cemetery, and we were looking for Biddy’s grave and never found it,” Ms Chawner said.
“The stories were phenomenal. I was told that Ben Hall came here in a rage, pulling down the signs in the town.
”It was said Biddy’s headstone was stolen or removed because of the unwanted attention.”
Ms Hill said Biddy had a hard life, as was often the case for women of that time. Biddy was born in 1837 and lost her mother in 1844.
Biddy’s father, John Walsh, prospered on a remote pastoral property in the Lachlan region near Grenfell. In 1855, he hired a young stockman, Ben Hall, already known locally as an exceptional horseman with a deep knowledge of the bush.
After a year of courting, Ben and Biddy married in Bathurst in 1856 and moved to Ben’s leased 10,000-acre (4046-hectare) property Sandy Creek, where they lived in a primitive dab-timber house.
Their first child was stillborn and Biddy almost lost her life. In 1859, she gave birth to their son, Henry.
Ben was away for long periods of time on muster, trying to carve out their new life. Biddy’s days were filled with long, arduous chores, carting water and wood, tending to stock and looking after Henry.
Peter Howarth and his niece Donna Reid are descendants of Biddy Hall.
Early in 1862, Ben returned from a muster to discover that Biddy and Henry had left and were living with a stockman named James Taylor.
James and Biddy had three children, Catherine, John and James. They married when James’s estranged wife, Emma, died. They married in June 1876 and James died in July 1877.
Biddy’s daughter Catherine died from typhoid in 1900 and Biddy played a big part in raising Catherine’s four children. Two of Biddy’s sons, Henry and James, also died before Biddy passed.
Mr Ayliffe said Biddy’s story stood as a testament to the strength of early colonial women.
“In small communities and small cemeteries there are many unmarked graves, many belonging to women,” he said.
”They passed on with no recognition, yet these are the people who set the standards that we all claim as Australian and who gave so unselfishly for the betterment of the community. This grave will no longer be unmarked.”
Ms Hill thanked Cobargo’s Bowerbird Community Op Shop for a grant, Brown Mountain Power Station for donating the granite headstone and Robert Jennings for collecting the stone and attaching the plaque.
“There is a huge following of bushrangers in tourism, so I thought after the bushfires it was a good way to help Cobargo,” she said.
For Biddy’s full story, visit Cobargo District Museum‘s website.
