Thomas Jeffries was a convict in Van Diemen's Land, now Tasmania, who escaped from custody in northern Tasmania in December 1825 and was executed at Hobart on May 4, 1826. The Australian National University's People Australia database states that the group he led killed seven people, an infant among them, during the few months it was at large. The Supreme Court record for 1826 lists a murder conviction against him. The dates and places of the killings and the words of the verdict are not on record.
Jeffries was born about 1791 in Bristol, England, according to People Australia. He was found guilty of burglary at Nottingham on July 29, 1819, and was sentenced to transportation for life. He reached Sydney aboard the Prince Regent in January 1820. In January 1822 he arrived in Van Diemen's Land aboard the Hawies. His family, his trade and his life before the burglary conviction are not on record.
His conduct in the colony was entered in the convict records. On June 21, 1824 he was in trouble for threatening the chief constable, George Lawson, and was sentenced to twelve months at Macquarie Harbour, the remote penal station on the west coast. The sentence was not carried out as given: he was put to public works at George Town instead.
On February 1, 1825 he absconded from George Town. He was sentenced to 50 lashes and hard labor in the gaol gang. By April 1825 he held a post as flagellator at the Launceston gaol, a job given to a prisoner who carried out floggings on the order of the magistrates. In the months that followed he was punished or fined several more times: on August 3, 1825 for drunkenness and disorderly conduct, on August 25, 1825 for falsely imprisoning and assaulting a woman, and in October 1825 for taking a female convict out of the watch house.
None of these entries is a killing. They show a man who spent his first years in the colony in and around the northern towns of Launceston and George Town, moving between the gaol gang, minor office and repeated fines.
On December 14, 1825, Jeffries escaped into the bush with three other men: John Perry, James Hopkins and Edward Russell. People Australia records that Perry, a convict transported for life from Surrey, had been ordered removed to Macquarie Harbour on November 28, 1825 and escaped from the Launceston watch house that December before joining the group led by Jeffries.
People Australia states that during a few months on the run the group killed seven people, including an infant. The names of five of the seven are not on record.
Two victims are named in the account of Perry's conviction: an infant and Constable Magnus Blakie of George Town. The entry says Perry was found guilty of aiding and abetting the murders of both and that he had been with Jeffries when they occurred. The Examiner of Launceston, in a history of Tasmanian bushrangers, says Jeffries was convicted of killing a child. The charge is murder, with other charges. The dates and districts of the killings are not on record, and it is not on record whether they happened on one day or across the weeks the group was at large.
The date and place of Jeffries's capture are not on record. He was tried before the Supreme Court at Hobart Town in 1826, and the court's records list the offence against Thomas Jeffrey (Jeffries) as "Murder." Robyn Everist's 2026 Hobart History account of the year's executions notes that only two of the eleven men executed on May 4 and 5, 1826 were convicted of murder, and that Jeffries was one of them; the other was John Thompson. The wording of the verdict and sentence and the date of the trial are not on record.
Jeffries was executed at Hobart on May 4, 1826. People Australia gives the date of his death as May 4, 1826 and his age as about 35. He died on the same day as Matthew Brady, the best-known bushranger of the colony, and the Examiner's history reports that Brady complained bitterly about being executed beside him. The same account lists Brady, Patrick Bryan, Thomas Jeffrey (Jeffries), John Perry and John Thompson among those executed on May 4, with six more on May 5.
Several points remain in conflict. People Australia records that Perry was found guilty of aiding and abetting the murders of an infant and a constable; the Supreme Court list gives his offence as burglary. The figure of seven killings credited to the group rests on People Australia's account alone.
The conviction is the only legal outcome tied to Jeffries in the record. The other deaths attributed to the group are stated as the group's, not as separate convictions of Jeffries.
Jeffries's execution, on the same day as Brady's, formed part of a year in which the Supreme Court at Hobart sat and cleared its list of prisoners, and the executions fell in clusters. Everist counts fifty-three executions in the year, only seven of them for killings. Jeffries is one of the seven.
July 29, 1819: found guilty of burglary at Nottingham; sentenced to transportation for life.
January 1820: arrived at Sydney aboard the Prince Regent.
January 1822: arrived in Van Diemen's Land aboard the Hawies.
June 21, 1824: sentenced to twelve months at Macquarie Harbour for threatening a chief constable; put to public works at George Town instead.
February 1, 1825: absconded from George Town; 50 lashes and gaol gang.
April 1825: appointed flagellator at Launceston gaol.
August to October 1825: fined three times for drunkenness, a false imprisonment and assault, and removing a female convict from the watch house.
December 14, 1825: escaped into the bush with John Perry, James Hopkins and Edward Russell.
December 1825 to early 1826: the group is credited with seven killings, an infant among them; dates and districts not on record.
1826: tried at the Supreme Court, Hobart Town; the offence is recorded as murder.
May 4, 1826: executed at Hobart.