THE STORY THEY NEARLY BURIED
Australian colonial history with the dirt, blood and family grief still on it.
IMMINENT RELEASE - BRIAN & JAMES PEISLEY, 2026
The true story of John "Jack" Peisley (1834-1862)
A condemned bushranger. A Bathurst gaol cell. A minister who agreed to listen. A family story that refused to stay buried.
About 480 pages
Historical Information, Notes & References
A companion volume for those who want the evidence, the places, the records and the historical trail behind Jack Peisley's life and death.
About 480 pages
Book One gives the story its heart. Book Two gives it its bones.
The sentence was passed at Bathurst on 13 March 1862. John Peisley was hanged at Bathurst Gaol on 25 April 1862, aged 28. Scroll through the days between.
Bathurst, 13 March 1862.
Justice Wise has finished speaking. The sentence is death. Jack is taken back through the gaol door and the countdown begins.
Forty-four days.
Not long enough to mend life. Long enough to remember one.
Inside Old Bathurst Gaol, Reverend Thomas Sharpe sits with a condemned man and listens. What comes out is not a neat confession.
It is rough, angry, painful and human.
A mother he loved and resented. A father broke by gaol. A family pushed aside. A colony where class could decide whose word mattered and whose did not.
The question Jack carried to the end: for him was it –
Heaven or Hell?
Read it if you are prepared to be unsettled.
We have each researched our relative John (Jack) Peisley for about 45 years, more than 90 years between us. After retirement we combined the work into two books.
About the authorsJames concentrated mainly on the bushranging history.
Brian concentrated on the Peisley family, the people surrounding John, and the family circumstances behind his story.
If you have information, family stories, historical documents, photographs or research relating to John Peisley and the people associated with him, we would like to hear from you.
Submissions are held privately. Nothing you send is published without your permission.
Send us what you haveTHE STORY. THE RECORD. THE CHALLENGE.
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