John Gilbert

Words:  Unknown
Tune:  Unknown (Four and Twenty Blackbirds Baked in a Pie)



John Gilbert was a bushranger of terrible renown,
For sticking lots of people up and shooting others down.
John Gilbert said unto his pals, “Although they make a bobbery
About our tricks we have never done a tip-top thing in robbery.

“We have all of us a fancy for experiments in pillage,
Yet never have we seized a town, or even sacked a village.”
John Gilbert said unto his mates—“Though partners we have been
In all rascality, yet we no festal day have seen.”

John Gilbert said he thought he saw no obstacle to hinder a
Piratical descent upon the town of Canowindra.
So into Canowindra town rode Gilbert and his men,
And all the Canowindra folk subsided there and then.

The Canowindra populace cried, “Here’s a lot of strangers!!!”
But immediately recovered when they found they were bushrangers.
And Johnny Gilbert said to them, “You need not be afraid.
We are only old companions whom bushrangers you have made.”

And Johnny Gilbert said, said he, “We’ll never hurt a hair
Of men who bravely recognise that we are just all there.”
The New South Welshmen said at once, not making any fuss,
That Johnny Gilbert, after all, was “Just but one of us.”

So Johnny Gilbert took the town (including public houses),
And treated all the “cockatoos” and shouted for their spouses.
And Miss O’Flanagan performed in manner quite gintailly
Upon the grand planner for the bushranger O’Meally.

And every stranger passing by they took, and when they got him
They robbed him of his money and occasionally shot him.
And Johnny’s enigmatic feat admits of this solution,
That bushranging in New South Wales is a favoured institution.

So Johnny Gilbert ne’er allows an anxious thought to fetch him,
For well he knows the Government don’t really want to ketch him.
And if such practices should be to New South Welshmen dear,
With not the least demurring word ought we to interfere.


Another from Paterson's Old Bush Songs.  A strange song with some spectacular rhymes (I apologise for the butchering of "Canowindra" that this song requires).

Strangely this song focusses on the occupation of Canowindra by Ben Hall's gang but places John Gilbert at the centre of the action.

Bushranger Gilbert's Song

Words: Unknown
Tune:  Traditional (Bonnie Dundee)



To his comrades in council thus Gilbert outspoke:
"Ere rangers go down there are crowns tobe broke;
Then each gallant youth that will plunder with me
Let him follow the banners of Gilbert the free."

CHORUS:
Come fill up my cup, come fill up my can,
Come saddle my horses and call out my men;
Come load your revolvers and let us go free,
For you've not heard the last of O'Meally and me."

Brave Gilbert is mounted, he rides to the West,
In all that wild country his steed is the best,
From Cooma's fair stables he took him by force,
And Cooma'a gay lords may lament for his loss.

Tho Weddin' has mountains, th'Aberorcmbie has caves,
While they have traps in tho East, in the West they have Braves;
And cockatoo settlers three thousand times three
Cry shares in the booty of Gilbert the free.

"We'll pillage your banks and we'll rob all your stores,
We'll rout your gold escorts and laugh at your laws;
We'll laugh at you all in the midst of our glee,
For you've not heard the last of O'Meally and me."



In the late 19th Century, the Queenslander's Flotsam and Jetsam column published old songs sent in by readers.  This song from the Queenslander, Saturday, 2 February 1895, with the note:

Supplied by GWEH, Moonee Ponds, Victoria.

John O'Meally was one of John Gilbert's gang and was involved in the robbery at Eugowra Rocks.

The illustration to this post is a sketch of Johnny Gilbert from the 1860s.