In the year 1832, at the age of 25, poacher Elisha Sinkler was finally captured by police, following several run-ins with the law. At York Assizes the following spring, he found himself up before a notorious “hanging judge” and was sentenced to death. Reprieved on the eve of his execution, thanks to a local petition, Elisha was instead transported to Australia for life. That should have been the last his wife and children ever saw of him, but Elisha beat the odds to escape and make his way back home to Pateley Bridge, not once but twice.
Jack And Elisha Sinkler
The Sinkler Story – A (Very) Brief Potted History
His younger brother Jack Sinkler evaded capture in Nidderdale for over a decade, despite having a 100-guinea price on his head (around £10,000 in today’s money). Narrowly avoiding the noose himself, he too was sent to Australia as punishment for 15 years. Jack came home to Pateley Bridge, where he continued to flout the law and spent a couple of short spells in Ripon House of Correction. Something of a raconteur and local celebrity, his legendary exploits were immortalised in fiction.
The brothers spent their final years at home in Pateley. Elisha Sinkler died in 1874, aged 67, and Jack Sinkler died in 1898, at 87 years old.
There’s a lot more to tell you about their incredible life stories, which I’ll be detailing in my upcoming book. As one contemporary interviewer said of Jack: “[his] reminiscences would fill a large volume with startling adventures, which happened to him both at home and abroad.“
The Sinkler Family
Jack and Elisha were the illegitimate sons of Jane Hebden and John Sinkler. The wider Sinkler family were not poor. Their grandfather owned property and had a successful hatting business, which he passed down to their uncle Henry. The Sinklers had deep roots in Pateley Bridge, and were related to many other longstanding local families.
Jack and Elisha’s father, John Sinkler, worked as a gamekeeper for John Yorke Esquire at Ramsgill. John was married to a woman 12 years his senior from a well off family in Pateley Bridge; however, his lover, Jane Hebden, was the mother of all of his children, rather colourfully described in the parish register as “the spurious” children of Jane Hebden. In addition to Jack and Elisha the couple had two other sons who died as children, and two daughters who survived into adulthood. After his first wife died, John Sinkler married Jane Hebden in 1828.
Sinkler or Sinclair?
Sinkler is the local dialect pronunciation of Sinclair, and both spellings are used in official documents. Both Jack and Elisha also used the surname “Hebden”, their mother’s name.
Who’s Who?
There are a lot of John Sinklers in this family, so please bear with me! For clarity I will always refer to Elisha’s brother as Jack. Although he was baptised John, and this is often used in official documents, he was known as Jack. Their father was called John, their grandfather was another John, Elisha named his son John, and they had a cousin John too. To add to the confusion, John Sinkler and Jane Hebden’s first son was named John, but died in childhood. It was not uncommon at the time to “reuse” a name, giving a later child the same name as a child who had died.
Some people have mixed up details of these various John Sinklers with Jack. Even during Jack Sinkler’s lifetime, his cousin John’s family wrote to the newspaper to complain that their wholly innocent relative was being mistaken for the notorious poacher.
I’ll be covering each of these family members in the book, with particular focus on what happened to those left behind; how did their wives and children cope without Jack & Elisha during their time in Australia?
