Jonathan Roberts: The Timaru Gaol-Breaker

Jonathan Roberts, according to an old document, built a hut here in the Kaituna Valley. My granddad and great-uncle used to bring him food. He was on the run after breaking out of the Rīpapa Island gaol.

The police said Roberts was a horse stealer. He was arrested for stealing a horse, but the story goes that he sold his horse, the buyer didn't pay, so Roberts stole it back. He escaped from the police on Rīpapa Island, got to Purau, and walked to the top of Port Levy. Then he crossed the hills to this spot, Tui Glen, which years ago had a lot of bush. He built his hut out of supplejack and stayed here for a long time. Eventually, he crossed to Teddington and then to Lyttelton, where he got on a boat to America.

Roberts was born in Cornwall in 1861. His parents moved to Canterbury, New Zealand, to farm. His father was a well-respected farmer in Timaru. At 17, in December 1877, Jonathan started a banking career as a clerk at the Bank of New Zealand in Temuka. He worked in banking for eight years, in Timaru, Christchurch, Akaroa, and Wellington, before resigning in April 1885 when he was 25. By late 1886, he was in Christchurch, between jobs.

He then used his technical writing skills to forge a Ballantyne and Co. cheque for £76 17s 6d. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 12 months hard labor in September 1886. Some think he was innocent, covering for his brother, James Henry Roberts, who later got four years for forging cheques.

After his sentence, Jonathan went back to Timaru but was charged with horse stealing in January 1888 and got five years hard labor. There were stories that he sold a neighbor's horse, thinking it was his father’s, and the neighbor pressed charges. But the Timaru Herald account of the trial from April 25, 1888, says he stole a horse from Hood’s Hotel in Peel Forest, rode it to Timaru, and had a young man present the horse and a forged letter of ownership to auctioneers. He was convicted because his handwriting matched the letter. He bolted from the Timaru gaol on April 28, 1888, and was free for a month.

He was seen at a threshing mill in Waimate and frequenting shops. Police were busy, and newspapers reported that women in Timaru prayed for his escape. A doctor in Temuka gave him refuge, and well-wishers helped him. He was caught in Killinchy, working as a farm laborer for a Mrs. Crowe. He was taken to Christchurch gaol and on June 6 was sentenced to another year for the escape. He was sent to the work gang at Fort Jervois on Rīpapa Island.

Rīpapa Island had been a Ngāi Tahu Pā, a quarantine station, and a gaol for Māori war prisoners. Roberts escaped again just two days after his sentencing, on June 8, 1888. He broke through a tin wall and crossed the narrow channel at high tide while other prisoners were eating. He made his way up the Purau valley to the heights overlooking Koukourarata Port Levy, then over the slopes of Te Ahu Patiki Mount Herbert, and down into the Kaituna Valley.