JANE

"DEAR, BRAVE LITTLE WOMAN": JANE JONES OF GLENROWAN

BY SHARON HOLLINGSWORTH

Jane Jones, affectionately known as Jenny, was the teenage daughter of
Mrs. Ann Jones, landlady of the Glenrowan Inn and (husband) Owen
Jones. Her date of birth seems to be in contention, one source says
she was born in Euroa on May, 28 1865. Supporting that date is the
report of a head teacher at Glenrowan who gave a list of the names and
ages of the Jones children as of 1st July 1880 according to the roll
sheets. Jane was listed as being 15 years 1 month old, which
corresponds with the birth date of May 28th. However, when Jane
testified at the Jones Inquiry for compensation in November of 1881,
she said that she was "16 on the 20th of last month," making October
20, 1865 as her birth date. She would therefore have been 14 at the
time of the siege if that is correct. However, at the time of her
death (in April of 1882) it was said that she was was 16 years 11
month old, which corresponds with a May 1865 birthdate. (however her
gravestone says she was 17...confused yet?)

Jane was the oldest child still living at home in June of 1880. Her
older brother, Thomas (in his early twenties) had lived at the
Glenrowan Inn until about three months prior to June of 1880, and was
at the time of the Siege shearing and sending money home to his
mother. Jane's father, Owen Jones, was working in Gippsland at the
time and also sending money home to help supplement the family income.
(It is interesting to note how many articles and books perpetuate the
mistaken notion that Ann Jones was a widow at the time of the Siege!)
Jane probably had her hands full in the time leading up to the siege
of Glenrowan as Mrs. Jones had been bedridden for two weeks. Jane took
care of the cooking and the cleaning, the serving in the bar, as well
as caring for her four younger brothers, Johnny, Owen George,
Jeremiah, and Headington during her mother's illness.
Jane had been described as a frail girl, but before the sun rose on
June 28, 1880, she would prove how strong she really was.

When her mother, Ann Jones talked to journalist B.W. Cookson in 1911,
she said of Jane:

"She was a brave girl...through all that dreadful night she never lost
her head. Sick with her wound, bleeding and sore, she showed courage
that should have shamed both the Kellys and the police...That is her
picture - that one on the wall near the dark frame...That is her.
Dear, brave little woman."

[Jane Jones, courtesy of Keith McMenomy]

Around 2 AM on Sunday, June 27, 1880, Ned Kelly and Steve Hart were in
Glenrowan bailing up the quarrymen at their tents. Ned wanted them to
help lift the rails to wreck the police special train they were
expecting to come speeding through once news of the death of Aaron
Sherritt by members of the Kelly gang was telegraphed to the
authorities. Ned then went over to the Glenrowan Inn and knocked on
the door demanding to be let in. Mrs. Jones still in her sick bed, had
a few exchanges with Ned who insisted that she and Jane accompany him
down to the railway gatehouse. He had Mrs. Jones leave her four young
sons under lock and key. Mrs. Jones begged Ned to lock her and Jane in
her room, but he refused. She said that Ned said he would shoot her if
she did not do all he said.

Ned and Steve took the two females plus the seven bailed up labourers
over to the station (gatehouse). Eventually, after bailing up two
experienced platelayers, they finally set about lifting the rails.
Steve was in charge of the men and turned to Jane and said "Come on,
Kate" and she went along with him. He had forgotten her name was Jane
when they had briefly met previously when one of his sisters, Julia,
stayed at the Inn for a few weeks during a holiday. Some of the men
pressed into service claimed that Steve had his arm around Jane's
neck, a charge that she later denied. However, she did admit that he
told her to sit down on the line and he then put his head on her knee
and told her he was sick. After the rails were lifted they rejoined
Mrs. Jones and the others. Dan Kelly and Joe Byrne arrived and Mrs.
Jones complained about still not feeling well and had Joe Byrne
accompany Jane to the Inn to fetch a bottle of brandy for her.

Soon it was suggested that they retire to the Inn for breakfast and
some say it was Mrs. Jones who made the offer, but she claimed she was
ordered to do so and only complied out of fear. She sent Jane ahead to
light the fire and start the meal. On her way inside Jane picked up a
concertina that one of her brothers had left outside on the verandah
and began to play it.

While the gang was at the Inn, it seemed to onlookers that Jane was
having a wonderful time. According to eyewitness Tom Cameron (one of
the bailed up labourers, who was also a schoolmate of Jane's):

"Jenny Jones was making very free with them, getting on their knees,
and dancing with them and kissing them. I think that six months in
gaol would do her no harm."

[ Ned and Jane at the dance at the Inn, courtesy of Keith McMenomy]

Tom Cameron went on to collaborate Mrs. Reardon's statement that Jane
had a revolver in her hand and was helping to guard prisoners. Tom and
other men heard her threaten to tell Ned if anyone spoke about
escaping or leaving.

Jane later testified:

"Dan Kelly gave me a revolver and told me to take charge of the room
for a short time. I said I would rather not do it. He said 'take this
revolver..do it at once'..then I did.."

She claimed that she only stood there a short while and did not count
heads with the revolver as Mrs. Reardon claimed.

Mrs. Jones said she did not see her daughter with the revolver
standing guard, but she added that "I know I would have done it if I
would have been told by those men."

Late on Sunday night when Ned wanted to go and get Constable Bracken
to bring him to the Inn, he wanted to have Jane go along to call out
to him so he would open the door. Mrs. Jones did not want her to go,
so Mr. Curnow suggested that Ned should take his (Curnow's)
brother-in-law David Mortimer along to do it. Ned agreed and let Jane
stay with her mother.

Once the siege began in earnest, Jane's brother, Johnny, was struck by
a police bullet. Jane helped to get him into the kitchen and tried to
make him as comfortable as possible. Mrs. Jones was naturally frantic
and distraught. While in the kitchen Jane was struck in the head by a
bullet, grazing her temple.

According to stationmaster John Stanistreet:

"She exclaimed 'I am shot,' and as she turned to me I saw her head
bleeding, and told her it was nothing serious."

The bullet entered deep enough to make her bleed, but she was able to
pull it out herself. Mrs. McDonnell said that it was a half-spent
bullet.

Soon after, during a lull in the firing, labourer Neil McHugh carried
Johnny Jones out of the Inn. Jane took up a candle and told all the
women and children to come with her as she followed McHugh out. As
they exited the Inn the police began firing at them. Some ran back
inside but Jane, along with her mother, pressed on and reached the
railway gates.

According to constable Charles Gascoigne:

"“A woman came out of the hotel at the back, and a girl was with her
holding a candle. A man then came out and, putting his hand on the
woman's shoulder, tried to pacify her. I heard her say something about
her son being shot. Two men were firing from a position above me in
the direction of the woman and girl; I called on them to stop firing,
but they kept on. I then said, 'You are cowardly black wretches
(believing at the time they were trackers) to be firing on women.' I
also called upon the police to stop firing into the hotel...."

Civilian volunteer C. C. Rawlins said that he heard Sub-Inspector
Stanhope O'Connor challenge McHugh and that "Mrs. Jones was standing
at the railway gates at the time, and the daughter was with me there.
She had bleeding from the head."

Johnny Jones was taken to the stationmaster's house (stationmaster
Stanistreet had escaped from the Inn just prior to McHugh and the
others leaving) and was taken to the Wangaratta hospital by the 11 AM
train on June 28th. (I wonder about the delay in getting there!)
Unfortunately the boy died at a quarter to one on the following
morning of June 29th. Jane and her mother would later both testify at
the Magisterial Inquiry into his death.

While at the hospital Dr. Healy treated Jane's wound. The doctor
claimed that the wound was very slight and only needed two dressings
over time. However, later on Mrs. Jones said that someone else had
also dressed the wound on several occasions.

From that time on, Jane was always complaining of pain in the head and
Mrs. Jones said that "Every change of weather she suffers." Someone
else said that "the daughter has never been the same since the
occurrence."

Mrs. Jones and her children lived for a short while in a hastily built
shack put up on the site of the burned Inn. In late 1881 Jane
mentioned she had been living part of the time in Gippsland, part of
the time in Wangaratta and a short time in Barnawatha.

[Mrs. Jones's shack built over the site of the destroyed Glenrowan Inn, courtesy of
Ned Kelly The Last Stand Ian Jones.]

Mrs. Jones said that they stayed several months with her husband in
Gippsland but returned due to Jane's (and her own) health. "We were
in a hut surrounded by water" and it "caused her to get cold on her
lungs.."

In the aftermath of the Kelly siege Mrs. Jones had been arrested as a
sympathiser. The police wanted to charge both her and Jane as being
accessories to a felony but after some behind the scenes
correspondence between A.W. Chomley and others, it seems she was not
included.

Some of the exchanges:

"There is a case against the girl Jane Jones but considering her youth
and her being under her mother's control I think to include her..would
be apt to prejudice the case with the jury."

"She acted in a marked sympathetic manner with the outlaws and that
she was as well as her mother perfectly free to do whatever she
pleased."

"It is however suggested that if there is any possibility of it being
shown that the girl was not a free agent, or is too young to have
acted of her own mature will, it would be better not to include her."

Mrs. Jones went to trial in Beechworth and was acquitted of the charge
of harbouring an outlaw.

With that behind her, she was able to proceed with her compensation
claim for loss of her goods and property at Glenrowan. She also wished
to get compensation for her children, especially the loss of her son
Johnny. A board was set up and testimony was taken in November of
1881.

The board decided not to go into anything other than the loss of the
home and business. They refused to bring the subject of loss of life
and injury into it.

During the course of testimony it was said that she and her children
were living off the charity of the people in Wangaratta and that she
had no way to make a living.

After hearing all the testimony, the board gave her compensation in
the amount of 305 pounds, eventually reducing it to 265 pounds for her
property losses.

In the ensuing months Jane Jones continued to weaken. Her mother told
Cookson in 1911:

"My boy died. Died miserably and without help. And my brave little
girl, who was wounded herself, never got over it...She died not long
after...And it was her brother's awful death that killed her!"

Even though Joseph Ashmead erroneously stated in his manuscript that
Jane Jones died 3 months after the siege, it was not until just under
2 years later that it actually happened.

Newspapers reported that Jane Jones died at home on Saturday, April
16, 1882. Dr. McFarlane of Wangaratta hospital said her death was
caused from inflammation of the lungs.

Her tombstone in the Wangaratta Cemetery says she died April 17, 1882, aged 17.
I am not sure what year the grave markers for Jane and Johnny (and
their sister Ann, the namesake of her mother) was installed, but it
was not during Mrs. Jones's lifetime. Mrs. Jones had bemoaned the fact
that she was not able to even afford a fence to put around the graves
of her children.
In the book "In Search of Ned" author Kevin J. Passey was photographed
in 1973 (93 years after Johnny Jones's death) at Johnny Jones's
unmarked grave.

[Jane Jones R.I.P. (photo courtesy of Michael Ball)]

From 1882 until 1886, Mrs. Jones tried tirelessly to get compensation
for the loss of both Johnny and Jane. She wrote impassioned letters to
the newspapers, police and politicians. She said "I went to Parliament
about it. I stood at the door there for an hour..they wouldn't listen
to me at all."

Finally, after four years she was given 100 pounds as compensation for
the loss of her children.

In a brochure called "An Easy Self-Guided Walk Around The Glenrowan
Siege Site" there is a synopsis of "The Twelve Hour Siege At
Glenrowan" in which it lists the death of Johnny Jones and Martin
Cherry. Under injuries we have Jane Jones listed as "Jan Jones." Such
is life!

JANE JONES IN POPULAR CULTURE

I began to wonder how Jane Jones has been portrayed in popular
culture, i.e. films and (fictional) books. I decided to skim through a
few Kelly related movies and novels and found her well represented.
However, I found no evidence of her in Peter Carey's "True History of
the Kelly Gang" nor in A. Bertram Chandler's "Kelly Country" nor in
Carole Wilkinson's "Black Snake."
Paul Stafford's "Ned Kelly's Helmet" only mentions that she was shot
in the head. Robert Drewe's "Our Sunshine" (upon which the 2003 Ned
Kelly film was based) says that Jane died at the siege!

"Kelly" by Eric Lambert has the 16 year old daughter (called "Helen
Jones") of landlady Mrs. Jones playing a major role.

Here are some of the quotes from the book:

"She had a daughter, Helen, who, so the rumour went, lost her
virginity to Steve Hart at the age of fourteen."

"Helen was a smaller version of her mother, and had eyes for Steve
alone, despite of what 'happened before.'"

In the book Helen Jones dies and her body is taken upstairs at the
Inn! Also the book has Joe Byrne as Mrs. Jones's paramour!

I don't have other novels to check, but perhaps she fared better in those?

Regarding the films, I have not seen any of the early Kelly films to
ascertain Jane's role in them, but I have seen a few of the modern day
ones.

In the 1970 film "Ned Kelly" starring Mick Jagger, Jane is played by
Karin Altmann. She is seen in the film serving at the bar and dancing
but is never called by name.

In 1980's "The Last Outlaw" mini-series, Ann Henderson is Jane. Mrs.
Jones is seen introducing her daughter to Ned and Steve and you can
see that sparks begin to fly between Jane and Steve. She is always
making eyes at him and making time with him, a doomed romance nipped
in the bud, to be sure! When the gang comes out of the back room of
the Inn dressed in armour and wearing helmets, Jane screams in terror!
Later we see her during the siege with her forehead in a makeshift
bandage as she kisses Steve goodbye. She and the women then emerge
from the Inn only to be fired upon by the thoroughly odious Sgt.
Steele.

The 2003 "Ned Kelly" film starring Heath Ledger had Saskia Burmeister
as Jane. We first see her as a young teen riding pillion with Ned
Kelly in 1871 on the postmaster's stolen horse (one which Wild Wright
had stolen, neglecting to tell Ned that). In reality, Ned had given
rides on the horse to the daughters of Peter Martin (publican of
Wangaratta's Star Hotel) not Jane Jones. Jane would only have been
around 7 years old at the time and not the pretty young woman we see
with him.
Fast forward to 1880 and Ned sees Jane again at Glenrowan. She takes a
tray of food to him as he is resting in one of the bedrooms of the
Inn. She casually picks up his revolver and plays with it. She reminds
him of the time they met years before. Later on during the siege she
cradles her injured brother. At the end of the siege at Ned's capture
she pushes past police to silently and mournfully gaze at him. She
appears to be uninjured.

Another place in popular culture that Jane is mentioned is in a very
catchy song by the Australian band Jet called "Jane Jones" and was
said to be inspired by Ned Kelly (not to be confused with a song
called "Janie Jones" by the Clash about an unrelated person).

"Sunny days, funny days, all my milk and honey days, oh, but I was
just thinking of you...."

SOURCES:

Public Records Office of Victoria (PROV)

Minutes of Evidence Taken Before Royal Commission on the Police Force
of Victoria (RC)

Ned Kelly: A Short Life - Ian Jones

The Kelly Gang From Within (series of newspaper articles) - B. W. Cookson

The Ned Kelly Encylopaedia - Justin Corfield

The Argus

Various internet sources including Glenrowan1880.com

SPECIAL THANKS to Dave White, Greg Young, Brian Stevenson and (last
but not least!) Michael Ball for their encouragement and helpful
suggestions.

First published: January 30, 2010