Thursday, June 16, 2016

Trout and salmon ova for New Zealand 1873

STEPHEN BUDDEN New Zealand
ACCLIMATISATION SOCIETIES salmon trout ova
BUDDEN PHOTO COLLECTIONS

Here is a stereograph attributed to Tasmanian photographer Samuel Clifford ca. 1868 which was cleanly mounted in a binocular frame. The examples below, in relation to Stephen Budden's visit to Tasmania in 1873, were not so fortunate to survive in such original condition. They were printed first as slides from the glass plate negative, using black circular or rectangular masks, and were subsequently printed from the slide onto a stereographic mount, leaving the blackened edges of the mask visible.



Salmon Ponds, nr. New Norfolk
Author: Clifford, Samuel, 1827-1890.
Publication Information: 1868.
Physical description: 1 stereoscopic pair of photographs : sepia toned ; each 7 cm. in diam.
Notes:Circular imagess
Archives Office Tasmania
https://stors.tas.gov.au/AUTAS001136194172

Stephen Budden, commercial agent from Lyttleton, New Zealand for the Canterbury Acclimatisation Society arrived at New Wharf, Hobart, Tasmania, on 4th August 1873, the sole passenger aboard the brig Chanticleer under command of Capt. G. A. Phillips. His mission was to superintend a shipment of salmon and salmon trout ova back to New Zealand. With assistance from the Tasmanian Acclimatisation Society and naturalist and amateur photographer, Morton Allport, who was instrumental in the introduction of salmon ova and European fish to Tasmania in the 1860s, two shipments were sent: the first of salmon trout ova was accompanied by Stephen Budden on the Clematis, departing 29th August; and the second of 500 brown trout ova destined for the Auckland Climatisation Society left on the Bella Mary on the 23rd August 1873. As a result of Stephen Budden's successful mission, Morton Allport was made an honorary life member of the Otago Acclimatisation Society.

NEWSPAPER NOTICES
The first Mercury report of Stephen Budden's arrival in Hobart assumed he was an official of the New Zealand Government. On reading it, he penned a letter to the editor, requesting correction.



Stephen Budden arrives in Hobart, mistakenly reported as a NZ Gov't official
Source: The Mercury, 4th August 1873

TRANSCRIPT
The brig Chanticleer, Captain G. A. Phillips, from Lyttleton, New Zealand, in ballast, came into port on Saturday afternoon.... She has one passenger, a Mr Budden, who has come up on the part of the New Zealand Government to superintend the shipment of trout and salmon trout ova to New Zealand.
Stephen Budden may have taken this photograph of rocks, perhaps because the rocks were being unloaded as ballast from the brig Chanticleer at New Wharf, or because those rocks were destined for  Dr. Julius Haarst, NZ Government Geologist and Naturalist. The original photograph might have been taken by Stephen Budden's counterpart, Morton Allport. Although attributed to Samuel Clifford (at Douglas Stewart Fine Books), the reprint from the lantern slide showing the black circular mask in a square mount is unlikely to be the final commercial product offered to tourists by Samuel Clifford, or indeed his partner Thomas Nevin in the 1870s:







Douglas Stewart Fine Books
Hobart Town from the Wharf
CLIFFORD, Samuel (1827-1890) (attributed) # 12743
[Title from contemporary inscription verso]. 1861-1865. Stereoscopic albumen print photograph, each image approximately 80 x 80 mm, on pale yellow card mount; a 15 mm tear at upper edge, otherwise the albumen prints are in good condition.



Round and square black border masks used for producing magic lantern slides
Source: eBay and The Magic Lantern Society (UK)

Quite a few of these rather unappealing amateur reprints have appeared in the market place in recent times. Most were transcribed in a contemporary hand with general information about the place of capture, eg. a building or scenic view, but with the word "Tasmania" included, simply because the collector was an intercolonial visitor who needed a reminder of the photograph's subject. Some have a note written verso stating what the building or streetscape looked like "30 years ago", eg. St. David's Church in Macquarie Street, dating the print from its original photograph ca. 1870 to ca. 1890. Who was responsible for reprinting these stereographs from the slides with black masks onto a yellow square card, or why they were reprinted in this manner, is not known, but Stephen Budden's brother Frank Budden, was resident of London in the 1880s, and his son's name - T. F. Budden - stamped on the versos of some of these reprints, suggests that the Budden family may be the source of the reprints. Dr Tice Frank Budden became a renowned photographer of trains in Britain in the 1890s.



Nephew of Stephen Budden, T. F. Budden blue stamp and 
Budden also pencilled along right-hand side
Verso of a stereograph taken at Fern Tree Gully Tasmania (eBay item 2016)
Several of these stamped verso taken at the Chudleigh Caves, Tasmania were also on eBay2010



Stephen Budden's letter to the editor requesting correction
Source: The Mercury 5th August 1873

TRANSCRIPT
AN EXPLANATION
TO THE EDITOR OF THE MERCURY
SIR, - I shall feel obliged if you will correct an inaccuracy which occurs in the shipping report of this morning's issue of your paper, with reference to my name It is stated that I have come on behalf of the New Zealand Government, for the salmon trout ova. This is not the case. It is on behalf of the Canterbury Acclimatisation Society that I have come. Your insertion of the above will
Oblige yours, &c.,
STEPHEN BUDDEN.
Hobart Town
4th August, 1873
Two shipments were sent: one of salmon trout ova was accompanied by Stephen Budden on the Clematis, departing 29th August; and the second of 500 brown trout ova destined for the Auckland Climatisation Society left on the Bella Mary the 23rd August 1873.



Stephen Budden returns to NZ with salmon trout ova
Source: The Mercury 29th August 1873

TRANSCRIPT
The brig Clematis, Capt. Johnson, entered and cleared out yesterday for Lyttleton with a full cargo of timber, hops, and bark. She also takes down some Salmon Trout Ova under the charge of S. Budden Esq., for the Canterbury Acclimatisation Society. The Clematis will sail early this morning.
Trout Hatching at the Museum
Stephen Budden spent 25 days in Tasmania. He travelled around and across the island with a group attached to public institutions, whom he thanked in this article. published in the Mercury, 6th September 1873. His collection of photographs, probably sourced from Morton Allport, included scenes taken at Port Arthur, at Grass Tree Hill, Richmond, at Cascades, South Hobart, at Cora Linn in Launceston, on the summit of Mount Wellington, and at Government House, Hobart.



TRANSCRIPT  Sat 6 Sep 1873 Page 1
ACCLIMATISATION.
By the barque Bella Mary, for Auckland, on the 23rd ult., a further shipment of brown trout ova was made by the Salmon Commissioners to the Acclimatisation Society of Auckland, Now Zealand. The ova was packed, under the superintendence of Mr. Buckland, in ice and snow, and it is to be hoped that it will arrive all safe. The shipment now made is 500 brown trout ova.
For some weeks, Mr. Stephen Budden was in Hobart Town, engaged in obtaining salmon trout ova for the Canterbury (New Zealand) Acclimatisation Society. Mr. Budden left a few days ago, and the following, which he sent to us just before leaving, will show the result of his mission :
" Before leaving Tasmania, after a brief sojourn in Hobart Town, I think it is my duty to acknowledge the courtesy and willingness of gentlemen connected with some of the public institutions of this place, who have forwarded my views and assisted me in my endeavour on behalf of the Canterbury Acclimatisation Society of New Zealand. I have adopted this means of acknowledgment and thanks, because the object of my mission possesses a public interest. I do not think the gentlemen alluded to would thank me for inserting their names, neither would I presume to do so without their leave ; but 1 hope they will attribute to me a proper motive, and accept the acknowledgment and thanks on behalf of the above named Society. To these gentlemen who are entrusting to my care specimens for Dr. Julius Haarst (Government Geologist and Naturalist) I have only to say that I will not presume to take upon myself to rob that gentleman of the right and pleasure of acknowledging and returning thanks for himself, which I am very well assured he will do. I have only in conclusion to say, that I came here expecting to find all sorts of difficulties and obstacles in the way of my salmon trout ova mission, but I have found them all removed, and my path cleared before me, by the kindness of the gentlemen referred to,"
On the 19th October, 1870, a resident of Oatlands received from Mr. Morton Allport of Hobart Town, a small bottle of perch ova, with which he, Mr. R. Robinson, at once rowed out into the Lake and deposited in about eighteen inches of water in a sedgy secluded spot. The lake is about 800 acres in extent, or considerably larger than the Government Domain at Hobart Town, and a remarkably fine sheet of water of the average depth of about 10 foot, and swarms with fish food. Nothing was heard of the little jumping things in the eggs, in the bottle, till last January, when a small shoal of fish were seen floating to and fro in the waters on the shores of the lake, and one being caught was forwarded to Mr. Allport in an envelope, for his decision as to its genus, and pronounced a perch by that gentleman. The recent heavy rains, and those of last year, raised the waters of the lake till they flowed out of the outlet at the northern extremity, forming a tributary to the Jordan, and, as a result, a dozen or more perch of various sizes have been washed through the outlet, thus proving satisfactorily that one of Tasmania's lakes, with the thoroughly English name of " Dulverton " has been well stocked with that fine fish. One may fairly predicate, that not the least attractive portion, in days to come, of the enticements, held out by Tasmania to visitors, will be a day's perch fishing, with no licence to pay, in this water, with a summer temperature perhaps the breeziest and most pleasant in Australia, and not bad shooting thrown in.

Many persons have during the past few days had an opportunity of witnessing what, in this colony, is the interesting process of trout-hatching, at the Museum. A hundred ova of the brown trout or salmo fario were obtained from the River Plenty, and placed in a box, containing a large number of pebbles at the bottom, and fresh water. The water is continually being changed, and is kept at a great temperature, The ova were put in on the 11th August, and the first fish was hatched on the 27th of that month. There are now a number of them hatched, and very curious little things they look. The fish are kept in the box till they are about an inch and a half in length, and then they are placed in a fresh water stream to provide their own living. In the box they are fed with insects, and, judging by the ravenous manner in which they seize them, they show their partiality for that description of food.
Source: The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954) Sat 6 Sep 1873 Page 1 SUMMARY FOR EUROPE

Thomas Nevin at the Salmon Ponds and River Plenty
Samuel Clifford and Thomas Nevin were close friends and colleagues who travelled around Tasmania on photographic excursions in the 1870s and supported each other's business and family interests.

See these related articles:



At the Salmon Ponds, Tasmania
Stereograph by T. Nevin ca. 1873
Blindstamp impress on side of left image
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Collection 
Ref: Q1994.56.7



Verso: At the Salmon Ponds, Tasmania
Stereograph by T. Nevin ca. 1873
Blindstamp impress on side of left image
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Collection 
Ref: Q1994.56.7



River Derwent in Flood
Stereograph by T. Nevin ca. 1873
Blindstamp impress on side of left image
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Collection 
TMAG Ref: Q1994.56.21



Above: Photographs of the River Derwent near the Salmon Ponds taken and printed conjointly by Thomas J. Nevin and Samuel Clifford, published in an album titled "Tasmanian Views" 1873. Photos copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2012. State Library of Tasmania Collections.

The Budden Photograph Collections
These are some of the reprints of stereographs which have surfaced in the market place (fine arts dealers, eBay etc), taken in Tasmania. They were mounted originally on binocular cardboard mounts, then reprinted on yellow square mounts, transcribed on versos with the words "Hobart Town" or "Tasmania" in every instance. The handwriting is uniformly similar on all the versos of these examples.





Verso: Two men and a third who took the photograph
Grass Tree Hill Richmond, Tasmania 1873





Government House Drawing Room, Hobart 1873





Mount Wellington from Mr James Milne Wilson's verandah 1873.

The inscription reads:
Mount Wellington from the "Cascades". Residence of the Hon'ble J. M. Wilson (on the verandah). Member of the Legislative Council Hobart Town. Major of Tasmanian Volunteers. Tasmania



Detail: Mr. J. M. Wilson on his verandah, Cascades..
See notes above on verso of the yellow card

The connection to railways, between this photograph of James Milne Wilson (1812–1880) and its passing down to Stephen Budden's nephew, T. F. Budden whose passion was photographing trains, is Wilson's successful legislation of the Hobart-Launceston main line Railway Act and the 1871 contract for its construction with a 3 ft 6 ins (107 cm) gauge. Read more about (Sir) James Milne Wilson here at Australian Dictionary of Biography.

Dr Tice F Budden Train Collection
Brief biographical notes, example, and references.
Dr Tice F Budden was educated in Bath and at Cambridge University, where he took up photography in 1889. He is considered to be one of the pioneers of railway photography alongside P W Pilcher, E J Bedford, and R H Bleasdale who are also represented in the NRM collections. He initially concentrated on stationary locomotives but soon experimented, taking some of the first photographs of engines in motion. His career as a railway photographer lasted over fifty years - he captured the final years of the GWR broad gauge lines at Ealing in 1892 and took his last pictures near his home in Dorking just after the Second World War.
The 'Budden collection' is composed of twenty-three 4¼ x 3¼ ins glass negatives featuring static views of Southern, Southern Eastern & Chatham, Great Eastern and North British Railway locomotives. There is also an album of prints showing locomotives in Britain, Belgium, Austria and Ireland. The bulk of Budden's work, however, appears in the LGRP collection (qv) which contains about 1,145 of his original negatives and about 200 copies.  Number: 23 negatives with reference contact prints240 prints in an album Date: c 1890 – 1923 Finding aids: The 23 negatives are listed and there are simple captions in the albums. LGRP negatives are listed and can be identified by reference to the registers in sequences 21100 to 22247. Bibliography R Bucknall & Dr T F Budden, Railway Memories (Published by the authors, 1947) John Minnis, 'Dr T F Budden in Cambridge, 1889', British Railway Journal 32, Summer 1990



From the Colonel Stephens Railway Museum
http://www.hfstephens-museum.org.uk/locomotives/gazelle
On her arrival back at Lynn, Gazelle was again photographed, this time in the yard of the GER locomotive shed. The cameraman was Dr Tice F. Budden, who had taken up railway photography as an undergraduate at Cambridge in 1889, and had evidently been tipped off that there would be a chance to record an unusual event. In one of the photographs "Gazelle" is posed alongside No. 0706 of the Great Eastern, a rebuild of a Sinclair compound 4-4-0 and a regular performer on the Cambridge main line at that period.



Family notes on Stephen and Frank Budden
Source: Canterbury Museum, New Zealand

Friday, June 03, 2016

A glaring fraud: Joseph James COOPER aka the "Artful Dodger" 1875-1889

PRISON CLOTHING Hobart Gaol 1870s-1880s
JOSEPH JAMES COOPER prisoner

Fashions in prison uniforms at the Hobart Gaol in the 1870's varied according to the class of criminal, his trade or job, and the season. Thomas J. Nevin photographed prisoners William Smith and James Mullins at the Hobart Gaol in July 1875 wearing the grey uniform and leathern caps for police records. A visitor to the gaol in July 1882 noted the grey jacket and leather caps of the old hands, and the yellow and black uniforms worn by prisoners working in gangs at large in the community. The prisoner in these three photographs, Joseph James Cooper, wore three different uniforms on the three different occasions while under sentence: in 1875 for burglary; in 1879 for forgery and uttering; and in 1889 for arson.



Above: three mugshots of prisoner Joseph James Cooper 1875-1889.

Extreme left: photographed by T. J. Nevin at the Hobart Gaol on 5th August 1875 on Cooper's assignment to the work gang at the Royal Botanical Gardens, wearing the distinct uniform of yellow and grey which easily identified prisoners under sentence working in the community.

Middle: photographed by T. J. Nevin on Cooper's arrest, unshaven, in the grey uniform he wore when brought up from the gaol for his arraignment at the Supreme Court on 4th March 1879, on the charge of forgery.

Extreme right: photographed by Constable John Nevin at the Hobart Gaol on 13th June 1889-1890 when Cooper was sentenced to life imprisonment for arson at Launceston, and returned to the Hobart Gaol.



Front and verso of Joseph James Cooper's prisoner rap sheet with three mugshots 1875-1889
Source: KLW NFC Group 2015 and the Port Arthur Historic Site Resource Centre.

NB: Although the Port Arthur Historic Site holds this record,and even displayed it online as a banner on their Resource Centre page at one point (2015), this prisoner Joseph James Cooper spent less than four months at Port Arthur from May to August 1875. He was never photographed at Port Arthur at any time from his first conviction in 1875. The same can be said of the many prisoners whose photographs were recently mounted on a lightbox wall there, and with the doubly misleading photographic attribution to their former Commandant at the prison, A. H. Boyd (1871-1873) who was not a photographer by any definition of the term. As a closed, insulated and fictive narrative of Tasmanian criminal history presented to tourists, this sort of deliberate falsification only serves to magnify the several deceptions of dark tourism played out at the Port Arthur penal heritage theme park, and at the expense of ordinary facts: that most if not all the photographs of those prisoners displayed on the wall were taken at the Hobart Gaol in Campbell St. Hobart and not at Port Arthur in the 1870s, and they were taken by the government contractor, commercial photographer and civil servant Thomas J. Nevin.

1875: Burglary & feloniously receiving
Joseph James Cooper was working as a porter at Mr Bidencope's shop and clothing factory when he was arrested for burglary at the factory in 1875. He was born to carpenter Elijah Cooper and wife Susannah in Hobart on 6th November 1853 and had no prior convictions, He was arraigned at the Supreme Court, Hobart, on 11th May, sentenced to five years, imprisoned at the Hobart Gaol until the 29th May 1875 when he was sent to the Port Arthur prison, 60 kms south of Hobart. Within four months, he was sent back to the Hobart Gaol, on 5th August 1875,  and photographed in the parti-coloured prison uniform of yellow and grey by Thomas J. Nevin prior to assignment in a work gang at the Royal Botanical Gardens on the Queen's Domain.




Above: police gazette notice of Joseph James Cooper's arraignment, 11th May 1875.
Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime Information for Police, J. Barnard, Gov't printer

Below: Cooper's record of earnings May -August 1875 and transfer from Port Arthur to the Hobart Gaol on 5th August 1875.
Source: Archives Office Tasmania NAME_INDEXES:1383204



Name: Cooper, James Joseph
Record Type: Convicts
Remarks: Born Tasmania. Tried Hobart
Index number: 14757
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1383204
http://search.archives.tas.gov.au/ImageViewer/image_viewer.htm?CON94-1-2,133,101,F,60



Convict uniform and two caps 1830–1849
leather cap 15.0 x 10.8 x 27.5cm
knitted woollen cap 19.0 x 20.5 x 20.5cm
woollen trousers 107.0 x 51.0cm
woollen jacket 76.0cm (length)
Pictures Collection, nla.pic-an6393471
National Library of Australia

1879: Absconding and forgery



James Joseph Cooper, absconded, and arrested by Constable Mitchell
Police gazette notice of 21 January 1879.

TRANSCRIPT
ABSCONDED: -
On the 29th instant, from the Gang employed at the Royal Society's Gardens, Queen's Domain, whilst undergoing a sentence of 5 years passed on him at Hobart Town on 11th May, 1875, for feloniously receiving.
James Joseph Cooper, native of Tasmania, 25 years of age, 5 feet 5 inches high, fresh complexion, medium head, brown hair, no whiskers, round visage, low forehead, light brown eyebrows, light hazel eyes (small), long thin nose, medium mouth, small chin, a labourer.
Since arrested by Constable Mitchell, Government House, and charged with uttering a forged order for £58 16s 8d., with intent to defraud James Robb of Hobart Town.

When Cooper was arrested, he had grown a beard. He was photographed by Thomas J. Nevin at the watch house on arrest, still unshaven, dressed now in the plain summer prison uniform.

FORGERY and UTTERING: 20th February 1879
Joseph James Cooper and his accomplice, compositor Charles Fyshe whose handwriting was identified on the forged cheques presented by Cooper at Messrs Sadler's and Walch's shops, were brought into the court from the Hobart Gaol wearing prison grey.



Joseph James Cooper in court in grey uniform (see the report of 30th January 1879)
The Mercury 20th February 1879

TRANSCRIPT
FORGING AND UTTERING. - Joseph James Cooper and Charles Fyshe, were brought from the gaol in the Government clothing, the former charged with having on the 29th day of January, uttered a forged order for £58 16s, with intent to defraud, and the latter with having forged an order for £65 10s 6d with a similar intent. The facts of this case have already been made public, the prisoner Cooper, who was employed in the Botanical Gardens, having taken an expedition to town in the afternoon of the day mentioned, and passed the forged order on Mr. Robb, the sadler, of Elizabeth-street. He also endeavoured to pass the other order at Mr. Walch's shop. The greater part of the evidence against the prisoners was taken on Friday last. Cooper yesterday again cross-examined the witnesses as to matters of detail, and incautiously evinced a knowledge of the interior of Colonel St. Hill's house, that was startling.
The following additional evidence was taken. Thomas Harper, a fellow prisoner of Cooper's who lent him the pair of spectacles, on the day he went to town; Constable Waller of the Rural Police, who found the spectacles in the same place as the clothes, but on the next day, and Richard Long, a servant of Colonel St. Hill's, from whom the clothes were stolen on 22nd January, and who identified them as his property in Court.
Mr. Superintendent Propsting was sworn, and deposed that a message had been sent to him from the gaol that morning that Fyshe wanted to speak to him. Fyshe was brought to the watch-house, and there owned to having filled up the bodies of the cheques at the suggestion of Cooper, who told him that Mr. George Guest was his uncle and had monies belonging to him, more than would cover the amounts of the cheques. This statement was not made in the hearing or presence of Cooper. Fyshe further stated that he did not know he was doing wrong, and only wrote the cheques to oblige Cooper. No inducement or threat was held out to Fyshe to elicit this statement.
The prisoners were then committed to take their trial at the next Criminal Sessions.

A GLARING FRAUD 30th January 1879
The Mercury reporters had a field day with this case. In this article of 30th January 1879, every detail of the the case was recounted, mostly of the events from accounts by Cooper's victims. Praise was given to Detective John Connor's mental agility in unravelling the clues which led to Cooper's eventual arrest by Constable Mitchell at Government House.



etc etc etc. finishing with this accolade to Det. John Connor:
The greatest credit is due to Detective Connor and Constable Anderson for their exertions in endeavouring to arrest the man, and for their sakes it is to be regretted that they were not successful. It is very probable that Cooper will be brought up at the Police Court this morning.


Source: A Glaring Fraud. (1879, January 30).
Tribune (Hobart, Tas. : 1876 - 1879), p. 2.
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article201728444

THE ARTFUL DODGER 31st January 1879
For reason best known to the writer of this short notice, Joseph James Cooper was likened to Charles Dickens' character, the Artful Dodger, from his greatly loved novel, Oliver Twist, although Cooper was no juvenile pickpocket. The press persisted with the nickname "the Artful Dodger" until March when the excitement finally abated on Cooper's sentence of a further ten years.



Joseph James Cooper was brought from the Hobart Gaol to court wearing the grey prison uniform.
The Mercury, 31st January 1879

TRANSCRIPT
THE ARTFUL DODGER. - James Joseph Cooper, who said he was a native of the colony, was brought up in prison grey, charge pro forma, with having on the 29th instant, feloniously uttered a forged order for payment of £58 16s 8d., with intent to defraud, and remanded till February 7.



These later photographs of Joseph James Cooper, one pictured with a beard, and the third, pictured completely shaved of hair and whiskers, were reprinted several times from the original negatives produced at the Hobart Gaol by the Nevin brothers per police regulations. The portable fold-up rap sheet with copies currently held at the Port Arthur Historic Site Resource Centre was acquired there most probably as an historic artefact from Ratcliffe's convictaria shop and museum at Port Arthur in the 1920s-30s, where it was displayed purely in the interests of tourism. The other two copies of the same photographs on the black and white rap sheet were pasted onto the document and bound into book-form at the Sheriff's Office, Hobart Gaol, now held at the Archives Office, Tasmania. The central police records registry, the Municipal Police Office at the Hobart Town Hall also kept additional compilations of numbered prisoner mugshots in PHOTO BOOKS, referenced sometimes as such on the prisoner's rap sheet. The first of these three mugshots of Joseph James Cooper wearing the yellow and grey prison uniform, which is attached with a rusty pin to the Port Arthur document, was sourced as an estray from the Municipal Police Office, Town Hall. It was taken in 1875 by Thomas J. Nevin on commission and mounted as a carte-de-visite within the conventions of commercial studio portraiture. It too was probably sourced from Ratcliffe who bought such items at auctions, eg. see Beattie's catalogue 1916.

POLICE GAZETTE: 4th March 1879



Police gazette notice: James Joseph Cooper was arraigned in the Supreme Court Hobart on 4th March 1879. Described as 25 years old, native (locally born), under sentence for forgery and uttering, sentenced to ten years.



Page 73, Supreme Court Rough Calendar, 5 March 1879:
First entry: John James Cooper, under sentence for 5 yrs, sentenced to 10 yrs.
Archives Office Tasmania Supreme Court GD70-1-1 1870-82

ATTORNEY-GENERAL GIBLIN prevaricates 6th March 1879
Attorney-General W. R. GIBLIN acted for Cooper's defence, attempting to shift blame to the overseer of the gang in charge of Cooper and the other prisoners under sentence, for which His Honor admonished him to confine the defence to the facts.



Joseph James Cooper and Chas Fyshe plead in court.
The Mercury 6th March 1879

TRANSCRIPT
FORGERY. Joseph Jno. Cooper and Chas. Fyshe were charged with having forged, on the 29th January, a cheque for the payment of money. In a second count Cooper was charged with uttering. Plea, not guilty.
Jury-Messrs. G. Morgan (foreman), E. Ramberg, B. W. Barber, W. A. Weymouth, Chas. Harris, the younger, Jas, Genge, Thos. Goldsmith, J. M. Hammett, J. W. Reynolds, A. Nicholls, Jno. Keogh, W. Webster.
C. H. T. Marzetti, and A. Pearse, were challenged by the Crown, and H. J. Marsh, and Lewis Luckman were challenged by the prisoners.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL detailed the circumstances of the case, and spoke of it as a cunningly devised scheme for fraud. The learned gentleman was proceeding to refer to the question of blame of the authorities for permitting the state of things revealed by this case, but said, on enquiry into the circumstances, it was found that no blame could be attached except to the overseer, who had charge of the prisoners who were under sentence at the gaol and were employed in a gang at the Royal Society's Gardens, Queen's Domain.
His Honor said that was not the question here, and the learned counsel had better confine himself to the facts of the information.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL then proceeded with the evidence, the principal part of which has already been published in The Mercury.
James Robb proved that on the day in question, the prisoner Cooper (dressed as a civilian and wearing spectacles) made some purchases of saddlery at his shop in Elizabeth streeet, in the name of Joseph St. James, of Sorell, and paid him a cheque on the Bank of Van Diemen's Land for £58 16s. 8d., purporting to be drawn by George Guest, on which Mr. Robb gave him in change the difference of £19. Charles Wood, cabdriver, proved that Cooper hired his cab, and told him to drive him out to the further end of the Royal Society's Gardens .... [etc]



1889: Arson & life imprisonment
Joseph James Cooper committed numerous offences and misdemeanours while in prison. He was released to freedom in 1886 and thereafter used aliases, whether as James Cooper rather than Joseph Cooper, as Keith Cooper and as Keith Roydon until arrested as Roydon on charges of arson. He was sentenced to life imprisonment at the Supreme Court, Launceston on 13th June 1889. Returned once more to the Hobart Gaol in 1890, he was shaved and photographed by Thomas Nevin's brother Constable John Nevin. His trade was listed as "tailor". Cooper committed further offences every year until sent to the Hospital for the Insane at New Norfolk on 19th February 1898 where he most likely died.



Source: "Australia, Tasmania, Miscellaneous Records, 1829-1961," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVBD-SFKS , James Joseph Or Keith Cooper Or Roydon, 13 Jun 1889; citing Imprisonment, Tasmania, Australia, p. 3, Tasmanian Archives and Heritage Office, Hobart.



Hospital of the Insane New Norfolk
W. Little Photo ca. 1900
Archives Office Tasmania Ref: PH30-1-5093

This sad progression from a young man with a future to degradation of a life in the prison system and eventual hospitalisation in the New Norfolk asylum began here for Joseph James Cooper as a porter at Bidencope's hat factory in 1875:



"WHERE THE GOOD HATS ARE"
J. Bidencope & Son, Murray St Hobart
Post card 1911
Copyright Aussie Mobs at Flickr


On board the "City of Hobart" 31st January 1872