Captain Thunderbolt - Early Years

Early Years

Frederick Ward was the son of convict Michael Ward ("Indefatigable" 1815) and his wife Sophia, and was born in 1833 around the time his parents moved from Wilberforce, New South Wales to nearby Windsor. Ward entered the paid workforce at an early age, and was employed at aged eleven by the owners of Aberbaldie station near Walcha as a "generally useful hand" although he remained with them for only a short time. He worked at many stations in northern NSW over the next 10 years, including the famed horse-stud Tocal, and his horsemanship skills soon became evident. Horsebreaking became one of his most important duties.

In 1856 Ward's nephew John Garbutt became the ringleader of a large horse and cattle stealing operation, and enticed other members of the extended Ward family to join him. Fred Ward helped drive some four dozen of the stolen horses from the Lambs Valley property of his brother William to Windsor where they were sold at auction. Ward and his nephews John and James Garbutt were all convicted, the Garbutts of horse-stealing and Ward of receiving stolen horses knowing them to be stolen. They each received a sentence of ten years with hard labour and were sent to the Cockatoo Island penal establishment.

Released on tickets of leave after serving only four years, Ward and his nephews settled in the Mudgee district where John Garbutt met and married a wealthy widow, Elizabeth Blackman, owner of Cooyal inn and station. They employed Fred to work for them at Cooyal. There Fred met Mary Ann Bugg, who was then living with ex-convict James McNally and her children at their Cooyal farm. Mary Ann fell pregnant with Fred's child a short time later. In breach of ticket-of-leave regulations, Ward left the Mudgee district to take Mary Ann back to her father's farm at Monkerai near Dungog for the baby's delivery. He returned late for his three-monthly muster and, consequently, the authorities revoked his ticket-of-leave. Ward compounded the problem by arriving in Mudgee on a "stolen" horse (although the owner admitted at Ward's trial that the horse had simply gone missing from his property, that he had "heard" that it had been seen near Cooyal but that he had not attempted to retrieve it). Ward was sent back to Cockatoo Island to serve the remaining six years of his original sentence plus an additional three years for being in possession of a stolen horse.