Robert Dulhunty - Marriage

Marriage

Dulhunty's marriage took place at the Anglican Church of St James, central Sydney, on 29 April 1837. His bride — Eliza Julia Gibbes (1811-1892) — was the English-born eldest daughter of Major (later Colonel) John George Nathaniel Gibbes. Colonel Gibbes (1787-1873) was a Member of the NSW Legislative Council and the Collector of Customs for NSW — a vital revenue-raising task that he would perform for the colonial government from 1834 until 1859. (The Colonel was also reputed to be the bastard son of Frederick, Duke of York, the second son of King George III.)

Dulhunty and his wife held their wedding party on Sydney's Point Piper, where the Gibbes family lived. They honeymooned, however, near Penrith, at a Georgian mansion known as Regentville House. The mansion belonged to Sir John Jamison and stood at the heart of the knight's showpiece agricultural estate on the Nepean River. It was fated to play a role in the nuptial celebrations because Dulhunty and Sir John knew each other well and, more importantly, Mrs Dulhunty's younger brother, William John Gibbes, was about to marry Sir John's eldest daughter.

Not long after Dulhunty's wedding, he and Colonel Gibbes narrowly escaped being murdered by a pair of armed robbers while they were travelling in a carriage from the Sydney Customs House to a private engagement. Dulhunty was driving the carriage and their route took them along Parramatta Road. According to contemporary newspaper reports, when they reached a toll gate located near what is now the site of Sydney University they were ambushed by the two thugs, each of whom was brandishing a single-shot pistol. The thugs got angry when their victims refused to hand over their valuables and they made ready to shoot them. Luckily, however, it had been raining that afternoon, and the damp gunpowder in the thugs' pistols fizzled when the triggers were pulled. Dulhunty then slashed at the thugs with his horsewhip, and he and Colonel Gibbes were able to speed away to safety in their carriage. The police subsequently searched the area and interviewed informants but the perpetrators of the crime were never caught. Their appearance and distinctive way of speaking, as described by Dulhunty and Colonel Gibbes, led the investigating officers to conclude that they were English sailors who had probably come ashore from a ship moored in Blackwattle Bay.