Elizabeth Jessie Hunt was born in Burraga, New South Wales, on 6th September, 1890. Her parents were James Hunt and Susan Ann McIntyre. At an early age, she was given to a travelling bush circus where she learned many skills involved in circus life, particularly that of rough riding and is reputed to have been the Australian Female Roughriding Champion in 1906. This actual claim, which gained wide acceptance when it was published in The Lady Bushranger by Pat Studdy-Clift, probably arises from a newspaper article published in the Mercury newspaper, Mackay, Queensland, in 1906, which says that Jessie was a "champion roughrider".
Jssie became ring mistress of the show. It was during this time that Jessie met Benjamin Walter Hickman and had a son with him in 1913. This son was given to a friend of Jessie's to raise as her own child. Ben Hickman enlisted in the Australian Imperial Forces during World War 1 where he was seriously injured, taking two bullets in the chest. After the birth of her son, Jessie, who was using the name of Jessie McIntyre, turned to a life of crime in Sydney and served two gaol terms in Long Bay Goal, one 1913-1914 and the other 1915-1916, the charges being for theft of a variety of items ranging from cattle to clothing in 1918. She was again before the Courts on the charge of cattle stealing but the case against her collapsed and she was acquitted.
When Ben Hickman returned to Australia after the war, he and Jessie married in 1920. They finally separated in 1924. By this time Jessie had established herself near Kandos, starting her career as a cattle and horse thief. She really gave the police a hard time and due to her excellent bush skills and suburb horsemanship she was able to give the police the slip on many occasions. Another story is that one of her gang spread the story that someone was poisoning possums in the mountains. This was highly illegal and the police went to investigate. While the police were gone from town, Jessie and a few of her gang rode in and stole the cattle from the police holding yard.
In 1928 the police finally caught up with her and charged her with cattle stealing once again. She was facing gaol time. However, despite positive identification of the cattle by their owners Jessie was able to convince the jury that the cattle had strayed into her herd without her knowledge. She was duly acquitted. During this same year, Ben Hickman divorced her. Jessie settled down in Widden Valley where she still continued to steal cattle and horses, but on a much smaller scale. Her own health was failing and she died of a brain tumour in 1936. She is buried in an unmarked paupers grave at Sandgate Cemetery, Newcastle, NSW.