The Lady Bushranger With Convict Father and Aboriginal Mother

Born 7 May 1834, Mary Ann Bugg would grow up to become a notorious bushranger along with her significant other, Frederick Ward, otherwise known as Captain Thunderbolt.

Born at the Berrico outstation of the Australian Agricultural Company near Gloucester, NSW, to father, James Bugg, who had been transported from England for stealing two lambs, a wether sheep and two pigs. And an Aboriginal mother named Charlotte, Mary Ann received education in Sydney, but just after her fourteenth birthday, she married a man named Edmund Baker.

Mary Ann may have had a child during her marriage, but this is uncertain.

The marriage didn't last long, and soon, Mary Ann was in a relationship with another man, John Burrows. With him, she gave birth to two sons.

In 1855 Mary Ann was in a relationship with ex-soldier James McNally, with whom she had another three children. At This time, she was living near Mudgee.

in 1860, Bugg met ticket-of-leave convict Frederick Ward, who would later to become the bushranger Captain Thunderbolt.

Soon after meeting Frederick Ward (Captain Thunderbolt), Mary Ann was pregnant, and so, Ward took her back to her father's farm near Dungog.

Leaving Mudgee caused Ward to be in breach of the ticket-of-leave regulations. But he was also late for the convict muster and, he had returned to Mudgee on a horse that the owner claimed had been "stolen".

With his ticket-of-leave revoked, Ward was sent back to Cockatoo Island to serve the remaining six years of his previous ten-year sentence, along with an additional three years for the stolen horse.

Cockatoo Island - Old Sydney - 1819, Kaye

Meanwhile, Mary Ann gave birth to their daughter Marina Emily in 1861.

On 11 September 1863, Ward and, Frederick Britten, managed to escape Cockatoo Island, after hiding for two days, then swimming from the north side of the island, possibly to Woolwich.

Ward and Britten made their way to the New England district and robbed a shepherd's hut at Gostwyck, near Uralla on 24 October 1863.

A few days later, whilst concealing themselves near Big Rock and waiting to ambush the mail, the pair were spotted by troopers and Ward was shot in the back of the left knee.

Ward's crime spree had begun. However, it was during the Rutherford toll-bar robbery on 21 December 1863, when Ward woke the customs officer by banging loudly on the door, that he adopted his name Captain Thunderbolt. Delaney, the customs officer is said to have exclaimed, "By God, I thought it must have been a thunderbolt."

Returning to collect Mary Ann at Dungog, Ward, Mary Ann and two of the children travelled to north-west of Walgett and lived quietly for a time. 

Mary Ann was on the run with Ward as he committed robberies from the Hunter Region north to Queensland and from Tamworth nearly as far west as Bourke. She was the lookout, the scout and the food provider. 

Mary Ann Bugg (7 May 1834 – 22 April 1905) 

Mary Ann also had her own brushes with the law, such as being convicted of stealing 12 yards of fabric. But after a public outcry, it was found that Mary Ann was "wrongfully convicted", and she was released.

The relationship between Ward and Mary Ann Bugg came to an end in 1867. She would, however, marry another man and give birth to at least five more children.

Frederick “Captain Thunderbolt” Ward was eventually shot by Constable Walker in 1870, after he first shot Thunderbolt’s horse, in swampland near Uralla.

Australian Town and Country Journal (Sydney, NSW : 1870 - 1907), Saturday 4 June 1870, 

Photo of Fred Ward (Captain Thunderbolt) after autopsy, having been shot in 1870.