Teachers Priests and Clergy

Overview

A number of teachers played a significant role in the story of the KellyGang. There are not only those that taught the members of the KellyGang but others who acted as sympathizers or stood on the dividing line between the community and authority.

It was often said that people come into the World and go out of it in the arms of the Church. For Catholics like the KellyGang this was particularly so. Mrs Kelly took her first child Mary Jane to be baptized in Kilmore just before she died.

But this story has many other aspects, Aaron Sherritt was a Protestant.

The story also has people like the Rev Gibney who was the first person to enter the burning inn at Glenrowan, and Rev John Gribble, the Congregational minister who preached in Jerilderie and many others

Many of the Christain chuches we know today were represented in the major towns in the kelly country.

The Anglican Church was known as the Church of England (Ensign29/10/1872)

The Catholic Church had a network of schools (Ensign5/11/1872)

Almost every town of any size had a masonic lodge and a Mechanics Institute. The Institutes had libraries and provided many training opportunites for members of the community.