Dan Morgan (bushranger) - Early Life and Education

Early Life and Education

John Fuller was born in Appin, New South Wales, Australia around 1830 to George Fuller and Mary Owen.

At one time there was a press controversy as to Morgan's proper name, some holding that it was Moran, while others maintained that it was Owen. All are agreed that Morgan was not his real name. Official records show that he was the illegitimate son of a woman named Mary Owen, but known as "The Gipsy." His father was George Fuller, well known about the Haymarket in Sydney, where he plied a vegetable and fruit barrow.

As a child, John Fuller was adopted by a man known as "Jack the Welshman". In 1847 the youth left his foster parent at Campbelltown, and found employment on a station on the Murrumbidgee as a stock-rider. Proving efficient, he worked at the station for seven years. Although suspected of stock theft from the late 1840s, Fuller's known criminal record began on 10 June 1854 when, under the name "John Smith" (occupation: jockey), he was sentenced to twelve years' hard labour for highway robbery at Castlemaine, Victoria.

Released in June 1860 from the prison ship Success on a ticket-of-leave for good behaviour, Fuller failed to report to the police in the Ovens police district. In August that year, he stole a prized horse belonging to the Evans family, who held the Whitfield run in the upper King River valley. Evan Evans, with fellow squatter Edmond Bond, tracked Fuller to his camp. Jack was badly wounded but escaped into the eastern Riverina and western slopes of New South Wales. His mother, in the meantime, had married, and was living at Bathurst, so young Owen decided to visit her, and stole two horses to make the trip. Along the road, he had an one encounter with a party of police who were after him for stealing tho horses, but he managed to evade arrest.

He was not heard of again till 1863, when he came forth as Dan Morgan, the bushranger, using aliases such as "John Smith", "Sydney Native", "Dan the Breaker", "Down the River Jack", "Jack Morgan" and, most famously, "Dan Morgan". He rarely operated in company, but on 22 August 1863, he had a companion, known as "German Bill," when the pair were surprised by a party of police. A desperate shootout ensued. Mr Baylis, a police magistrate, was assisting tho attacking party, when Morgan shot him, but he recovered from his wound. Finding the police persisting in their attack, Morgan turned on his mate and shot him so that the police would devote their attention to the German, and thus he escaped.

Morgan operated in the Henty, Culcairn, Morven, Gerogery and Tumbarumba area over several years.