It's a small community when you're friends with bushrangers

After he received his Ticket of Leave in 1825 he became a Constable at Penrith. In 1825, at Parramatta he married Sophia Elizabeth Newham.

He resigned as a Constable on May 7, 1829 and applied for a grant of land in 1830. 

In 1834 he was granted a Publican’s Licence for “The Kings Head” hotel at Evan/Prospect.  He settled in the Wheeo district and applied to lease two portions of land at Grabben Gullen in 1838.  

One portion had been previously leased to William Brotherton and the other to Captain Alexander Turner, who was the Commissioner of Crown Lands for that district.

Turner complained to the Colonial Secretary, that Adam was selling spirits to the shepherds, was cattle stealing, and had been fined £5 for assaulting an aged servant of his (Turner) over an old debt.

He added that Adam and his two brothers-in-law, one being William Newham, were squatting on Crown Land at Native Dog Flat, in the vicinity of Wheeo.

Turner then removed them from his land. While at Wheeo Adam was assigned at least two convicts. In June 1839 Adam opened an inn at Wheeo called the “Ashfield Tavern”.

The inn was visited quite often by Frank Gardiner and his gang as well as other well-known bushrangers.  

He did not stay at the “Ashfield Tavern” long as by 1845, he had applied to lease 640 acres on the Bramah Creek, in the area now known as Taylors flat.

In 1853 he purchased a 30 acre block of land known as “The Springs”, on Meadow Flat, this was in the parish of Wyangla.

It was here that he built a substantial stone house close to the natural spring. Frank Gardiner and his gang were frequently harboured by Adam and also by William Fogg, Adam Taylor’s son-in-law.

Ruins of both Taylor’s house and “Fogg’s Shanty” remain standing.

Adam and Sophia had a large family consisting of eight children, five of which had ties to bushrangers. 

Mary Annetta Taylor (1826 - 1907) married 1842 William Fogg of “Fogg’s Shanty” at Eurangarra Springs a well-known harbourer of bushrangers. This shanty was situated on the opposite side of the river to Adam Taylor’s property.

Richard Barnabas Taylor (1837 - 1911) married 1857 Mary Nowlan. He later formed a relationship with Catherine (Kitty Brown) who had been (the bushranger) Frank Gardiner’s defacto wife. 

After Gardiner had been caught and  sentenced to a total of 32 years in jal for the gold escort robbery at Coonbong Rock near Eugowra, a broken hearted Kitty having no way of making a living went with Richard Taylor to New Zealand to the gold fields of Waipatikahu.  

Their relationship was abusive, and despair led Kitty to shooting herself in the mouth – dying 12 days later on January 26, 1867.