Teenage bushranger, William Brookman was born at Tumut, New South Wales, in 1851. Brookman was not a prolific bushranger, nor is he particularly noted in most history books. He was a member of the gang of Jerry Duce, real name Williams, former lieutenant of Robert Cottrell aka Bluecap.

Duce had formed his own gang after Bluecap was captured and they were high end bushrangers worthy of being counted alongside the Ben Hall Gang – at least for a while.

Brookman is believed to have come from a respective family but on November 24, 1867, he in the company of John Payne, John Williams (Jerry Duce) and Edward Kelly (no relation to Ned), held up a race meeting at William Whittacker's store, Mossgiel Station, near Willandra. They took a considerable amount from about fifty spectators and while Payne and Kelly left, Brookman and Williams went over to the store. Constable McNamara, who was stationed at Booligal, was on the verandah and when the two men bailed him up he made a rush at Brookman. As they struggled Brookman's revolver went off, shat tering the constable’s wrist while another shot hit him in the back of the head. But two men, Peerman, the Mossgiel overseer, and Edward Crombie came to the constable's assis tance and helped overpower the two bushrangers. Placing them in a hut under guard, the police went into pursuit of Kelly and Payne. Payne was soon located and he led the police to Kelly's camp where he lay wounded from an earlier encounter with the law. Brookman was only seventeen years of age when he was charged on January 6, 1868, with wounding with intent to murder. He was convicted and sen tenced to death, but his sentence was commuted to fifteen years' penal servitude. It was said to have been his first and only attempt at highway robbery, and he had never previously been arrested or charged with any offence against the law. On January 16, 1868, the four men were tried at Deniliquin Court, whereupon Payne received twenty years gaol, Kelly thirty years, and Brookman and Williams were sentenced to death. The death penalty was later remitted to fifteen years on the road. Brookman served his prison sentence in Darlinghusrt Gaol, working alongside more notori ous Bushranger Frank Gardiner in the mat-making factory. On July 3, 1874, the Legislative Assembly of New South Wales carried out a lengthy debate on bushrangers, and it was recommended that Brookman be released on July 8, 1874. But his prison record shows that he received remittance of sentence on March 8, 1875.