DAVIS, EDWARD

DAVIS, EDWARD ("Teddy the Jewboy," 1816–1841), Australian convict and one of a handful of Jewish bushrangers. Davis was born in England. In 1832, a London court convicted him of stealing a shopkeeper's till worth two shillings and five shillings worth of coins. His sentence was deportation to Australia for seven years. After a number of unsuccessful attempts at escape, as a result of which his sentence was increased by 48 months, he finally managed to escape in 1839 and organized a bushranger gang of ex-convicts like himself who, ranging on horseback over New South Wales, raided towns and settlements and robbed travelers on the desolate roads. Davis looked upon himself as a Robin Hood: he shared the spoils with the poor and would only countenance violence in self-defense. His downfall came in December 1840, when in the course of a raid on the township of Scone one of his gang, John Shea, killed a young shopkeeper. Shea, Davis, and four others were caught, convicted of murder, and sentenced to death. Davis' appeal was dismissed by the Executive Council and, accompanied by the ḥazzan of the Sydney synagogue, he went penitently to the gallows at the Old Sydney Gaol. A crowd of over a thousand gathered to see him hanged.

bibliography:

Australian Dictionary of Biography; J.H.M. Abbott, Newcastle Packets and the Hunter Valley (1943); idem, Castle Vane (1920). add. bibliography: J.S. Levi and G.F.J. Bergman, Australian Genesis: Jewish Convicts and Settlers, 1788–1860 (2002 edition), 242–59; H.L. Rubinstein, Australia, i, index.

[Morton Mayer Berman]