Edward "Ned" Kelly (December 1854 – 11 November 1880) was an
Australian bushranger of
Irish descent. He was born in the
British colony of
Victoria as the third of eight children to an Irish
convict from
County Tipperary and an Australian mother with Irish parentage. His father died after a six-month stint in prison, leaving Kelly, then aged 12, as the eldest male of the household. The Kellys were a poor
selector family who saw themselves as downtrodden by the
Squattocracy and as victims of police persecution. Arrested in 1870 for associating with bushranger
Harry Power, Kelly was eventually convicted of stealing horses and imprisoned for three years. He fled to the bush in 1878 after being indicted for the
attempted murder of a police officer at the Kelly family's home. After he, his brother
Dan, and two associates fatally shot three policemen, the
Government of Victoria proclaimed them
outlaws.