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

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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

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Captain Edward Goldsmith at Secheron Bay 1839

GEORGE FRANKLAND surveyor and cartographer
SECHERON estate and patent slip
CAPTAIN EDWARD GOLDSMITH master mariner

1825
Artist Joseph Lycett chose Mt Nelson near Hobart as the perspectival point of this aquatint he executed from Mulgrave Battery ca. 1825. The deep inlet just beyond the couple in the foreground is Secheron Bay, devoid as yet of foreshore activity or development.



National Library of Australia
Creator Lycett, Joseph, approximately 1775-1828
Title Mount Nelson, near Hobart Town from near Mulgrave Battery, Van Diemens Land [picture] / J. Lycett delt. et execut
Call Number PIC Volume 1103 #S446
Created/Published London (73 St. Paul's Church Yard) : Published by J. Souter, Feb.1, 1825
Extent1 print : aquatint, hand col. ; plate mark 23 x 33 cm.

1832
Surveyor-General, George Frankland acquired seven acres of land at Secheron Bay on the south side of Hobart's harbour from Robert Kermode in 1831, part of an original grant of 90 acres passed to Robert Kermode in 1824 from land held by Lieutenant-Governor Sorell. George Frankland built a large residence on the estate, Secheron House, which is still standing today, and offered parcels along his river frontage for sale to merchants and ship builders wanting direct access to private warehouses and wharves. He was accused of using the government resources of his office to personal advantage through these sorts of land deals (Colonial Times,  29 November 1836),



Detail of map (below) by George Frankland dated 9th July 1832, amended 12th July 1841, showing, from extreme left, his property of Secheron (in the present suburb of Battery Point), bordering a large strip of private land which in turn bordered on Crown Land where the Mulgrave Battery on the point and the Port Officer's house were located. The strip of private land was offered for sale in 1836 with allotments for warehouse, wharf and patent slip development.



Map of Hobart by Surveyor-General George Frankland dated 9th July 1832, amended 12th July 1841
Archives Office of Tasmania
Ref: AF394_1_112

1836
Despite the large number of ships docking at the port of Hobart Town, Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) from the beginning of the 1800s to the 1850s, whether bringing convicted criminals under sentence of transportation, or merchandise for the settler population, there was no patent slip at Hobart where ships via South America and South Africa could be repaired safely after voyages of four months or longer. George Frankland clearly opined that the river frontage directly beneath his estate would suit the purpose. He drew up a map of his estate and marked the spot where the proposed patent slip could be laid down. The site is at the end of what is now Finlay St. Battery Point, adjacent to the A. J. White Park.



Detail of Secheron, estate of the late George Frankland, Surveyor-General, showing the suggested site for a patent slip.



Map of Secheron, estate of the late George Frankland, Sureveyor-General, showing the site of a proposed patent slip at right, and inset of allotments for warehouse and wharf development.
Archives Office of Tasmania, Estate and Allotments Plans, 1846-1851 Ref: NS596_1

George Frankland advertised the Public Auction of the wharf allotments to take place opposite his residence at Secheron, stressing their "peculiar advantages" to private mercantile interests.



Colonial Times (Hobart, Tas. : 1828 - 1857) Tue 12 Jan 1836 Page 2 Advertising

TRANSCRIPT
IMPORTANT
Sale of very valuable Wharf Allotments
MR. W. T. MACMICHAEL
Has the pleasure to announce, that on Friday the 29th instant, he will offer for sale by Public Auction on the premises, opposite the residence of G. Frankland, Esq.
FOUR Allotments of Ground, fronting on the "Derwent", near Mulgrave Battery. These parcels of ground have been apportioned with a view to the construction of private Wharfs, and Warehouses on the edge of the water, and being the first allotments possessing such advantages that have ever been offered to the public, in any part of the Harbour, their value far exceeds that of any heretofore sold.
By the peculiar advantages of the situation, merchants building warehouses on this ground, will be enabled to lay vessels of large burthen alongside their Jetties to load and discharge, and will be secured from the great inconvenience and risk attendant on Public Wharfs.
Adjoining lot 1, of these allotments, is the only place in the Harbour calculated for laying down a Patent Slip.
TERMS. - A deposit of ten percent on the amount of the purchase money, to be paid at the time of Sale, and for the remainder a credit of ten years, bearing interest at ten percent, per annum, with the usual security on the property.
A ground plan of the lots, together with vertical sections of the soundings along the anchorage, may be seen at the Auctioneers.
N.B. - The title to the property is a grant from the Crown, free of Quit Rent.

1837
The allotments at Secheron Bay were advertised again, this time for lease, as suitable for patent slips, ship-building, and careening (tidal) wharfs. In this advertisement the importance of the warehouse, also on offer, was stressed as shelter for oil casks during the "hot season".



Source: The Hobart Town Courier (Tas. : 1827 - 1839) Fri 29 Sep 1837 Page 1 Classified Advertising

TRANSCRIPT
Valuable Wharf Allotments
Fronting on the Harbour
To be Let, for a term of years, several Wharf Allotments, in the Bay of Secheron, calculated either for ship-building, oil wharfs. warehouses, careening wharfs, or patent slips.
Also, -
A Warehouse, measuring 80 feet by 25, adapted for oil or other colonial produce.
The great loss annually sustained by the exposure of oil casks on the public wharfs, during the hot season, renders this opportunity of securing commodious shelter and safety for that valuable staple, peculiarly deserving of the attention of merchants engaged in the oil trade.
For the purposes of ship-building, these grounds present a combination of facilities not to be found in any other part of the Derwent, as they have the united advantages of deep water frontage. shelter, gradual slope of bank, and centrical situation. Apply at the Courier office.
Aug. 15.

1838
Surveyor-general George Frankland (1800-1838) wanted to leave the colony of Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) by September 1838, feeling he had done his duty as map maker to settlers and administrators alike, somewhat tired of accusations that he was using the resources of his office for private gain. He advertised his house Secheron at Battery Point for sale in January 1838 but it did not sell, so in September he tendered it to the government for five years. He died within months, on 30 December 1838 from illness.
Frankland never seems to have thought of himself as a colonist, and soon after his appointment referred to it only as one 'likely to detain me many years in this Colony'. He took a maximum land grant, but at the end of 1835 sought two years leave to visit Europe. It was postponed until 1838, when he appeared intent on leaving for good: in January he was advertising for sale his beloved house, Secheron, designed by himself on Battery Point. It did not sell and in September he tendered it to the government for five years. Read more at ADB here...
By 1840, the point at Secheron was offered to the local government for a new battery (Colonial Times, 6 October 1840), and by July 1845, the whole seven acres of the property known as Secheron, including the house and Mulgrave Signal Station were for sale (Courier 30 July 1845).



Secheron House, Battery Point, Hobart 1920s
Photographer: Frank Heyward (1876-1942)
Early Tasmanian Architecture [album 1]
Source: Archives Office Tasmania

1839
Captain Edward Goldsmith arrived back at Gravesend, London in command of the barque Wave, 345 tons, on 12th February 1839, completing the round trip to and from Hobart, Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) just in time to see his dying father, Richard Goldsmith snr, and sign the codicils to his father's last will and testament. Richard Goldsmith snr died on the 19th March 1839 and was buried in the graveyard of St Mary Rotherithe, known as the Mayflower Church. The following week, Captain Edward Goldsmith submitted a report to the Association for the Colonisation of the Falkland Islands which was formed by his friend Lt. Capt. Wm Langdon in VDL and others who were urging the British government to establish a naval base and penal colony on the islands. His letter confirming the views of Association was published in the Colonial Gazette of the 6th April, stating from his point of view the obvious need of a supply depot midway en route to the Australian colonies:
... I cannot imagine how our Government could, for so long a time, have overlooked so valuable and important a place not only as a naval depot, but as a Colony and resort for our numberless merchantmen requiring supplies in that quarter....
On 2nd June 1839, he sailed again from London for Van Diemen's Land in command of the Wave, arriving at Hobart on 25th September 1839 with ten passengers and a general cargo.



Port Officer's Log, the barque Wave,
Sailed on 2nd June 1839, Arrived at Hobart 25th September 1839, State of Health, Good, Master, Edward Goldsmith, Owners, Phillips & Co., Tons, 345, Guns, 2, Port of Registry, London, Build, British, Crew, 16, Cargo, General Pilot, Mr. Aldridge, Record Type: Arrivals, Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:433018, Resource MB2/39/1/4 P351, Archives Office Tasmania
Passengers:



TRANSCRIPT
SEPT. 26. - Arrived the barque Wave, 345 tons, Goldsmith, master, from London, with a general cargo. - Passengers, Messrs. Barnard, Roop, Herring, Walker, W. M. Cook, Davis, Bennett, Leftwick, Roworzing, and Mrs. Bennett
Source: Colonial Times (Hobart, Tas. : 1828 - 1857) Tue 1 Oct 1839 Page 4 Shipping Intelligence.

Within weeks of arriving at Hobart, Captain Goldsmith formed a ship building company with Messrs Bilton, Haig, Meaburn and Williamson and purchased the land on offer at Secheron Bay with intentions of constructing a patent slip. Messrs Bilton and Meaburn were shipping agents; Captain Haig had completed a warehouse on his river frontage in 1834, with plans for extension, and shipwright William Williamson had tendered for the construction of a dry dock. They purchased the private strip of land adjoining the stone wall boundary of the Secheron estate which included a house and premises, originally in the ownership of Henry W. Mortimer, butcher and gunsmith. William Williamson's tender was successful. He went ahead with the building of three wooden cargo schooners there between 1837-1839.



Source: Southern Australian (Adelaide, SA : 1838 - 1844) Wed 6 Nov 1839 Page 3 V. D. LAND EXTRACTS.

TRANSCRIPT
LAND.-The property of Mr H. W. Mortimer,sold on Wednesday last by Mr W.T. Macmichael, realized the following prices, viz.-an allotment fronting the Derwent, 115 feet,£5 5s per foot,£903 12s do do. 115 feet, £9 10s, £1092 10s; and the dwelling house and premises, £625.-Messrs Bilton & Meaburn, and Captain Goldsmith of the Wave were purchasers, and we have been informed it is their intention to lay down a patent slip, which Captain Goldsmith will bring with him next voyage.-
Source: Southern Australian (Adelaide, SA : 1838 - 1844) Wed 6 Nov 1839 Page 3 V. D. LAND EXTRACTS.



Source: Colonial Times, Tues 29 October 1839, page 7, Domestic Intelligence

TRANSCRIPT
SHIP BUILDING. - A Ship Building Company, composed of Messrs. Bilton, Goldsmith, Haig, Meaburn, and Williamson, are just about to commence, on the ground lately purchased from Mr. Mortimer, where an extensive and well sheltered building yard, and patent slip, are to be erected; an enterprise very much required, and deserving of encouragement. The parties are all gentlemen of practical knowledge, a qualification very much calculated to give general satisfaction, and to ensure success, for the attainment of which they have our best wishes.

The ship building company was disbanded in 1841, as the Courier reported in this notice:
NOTICE.- The Copartnership hitherto carried on by the undersigned, under the style or firm of "The Derwent Ship Building Company", has been dissolved as on this date.
George Bilton
  for John James Meaburn
Andrew Haig
E. Goldsmith
Wm. Williamson
Witness- Robert Pitcairn
Hobart Town, March 3. [1841]
Source: Classified Advertising. (1841, March 5). The Courier (Hobart, Tas. : 1840 - 1859), p. 3. Retrieved April 21, 2014, from https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2956876

1848
Ship-building on Battery Point's slipyards gained considerable momentum during the peak whaling years of the 1830s, Attention turned to producing larger vessels in the 1840s. Enthusiasm for the fine barque, the Rattler, a 552 tons A1 vessel which Captain Goldsmith first sailed to Hobart on its maiden voyage in 1846, was expressed in this report on the progress of local ship-builders using the colony's own timbers, notably the blue gum (eucalyptus globulus) and Huon Pine.



Source: Hobart Courier, 23 August 1848

TRANSCRIPT
ENCOURAGEMENT FOR COLONIAL SHIP-BUILDERS.
- The Harpley, built by Mr. Raven, in Launceston, has been classed by the surveyors for Lloyd's A1 for ten years, the same as the Rattler and Windermere, being one year longer than the Jane Frances, Aden and Colonist. This is a gratifying fact, and will offer increased inducement to ship-building in Van Diemen's Land. The surveyors at Lloyd's are good judges of the durability and qualities of the material used; the classification of the Harpley may therefore be regarded as incontestable evidence of the applicability of the timber of this colony to purposes of shipping.



Risby Bros. timber yard showing Secheron House in background late 1800s
Archives Office Tasmania



The barque Eucalyptus on slip ca, 1862 [unattributed]
Williamson's Dockyard with Secheron House in background
Ref: AUTAS001126070440w800
Archives Office Tasmania

1849 -1855
The construction of a dry dock at Secheron Bay by William Williamson proved inadequate to the repair needs of large vessels. Captain Edward Goldsmith used the patent slip at Sydney Cove NSW on return voyages from Hobart to London via Sydney for the repair of his ships during the 1840s. While on an extended stay with the Parrock Hall from London to Sydney in November 1844, departing January 1845, he drew up a proposal for a new patent slip at Hobart to be presented to the colony’s governor Sir William Denison who reviewed it in 1849, and suggested it would best be situated on the other side of the harbour (Sullivan Cove), at the Old Wharf behind the Commissariat Stores, the site now part of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Historic Precinct. However, by 1851, with difficulties associated with modifications to the Old Wharf, the patent slip was relocated to the Queen’s Domain, on the foreshore of the Royal Botanical Gardens.

Captain Goldsmith arrived at Hobart with the patent slip on board the Rattler in December 1851, and issued a notice to contractors to tender for its construction.
The New Patent Slip has been brought out by Captain Goldsmith of the Rattler. It is capable of heaving a steamer of 1000 tons burthen, or vessel of 800 tons. Hobart Town Courier
Source; Sydney Morning Herald 13 December 1849
PATENT SLIP
NOTICE TO CONTRACTORS
Tenders will be received at the counting house of the undersigned, until 12 o’clock on Friday, 1st August, for the works necessary in laying down a Patent Slip in the Government Domain.
Plans, specifications, and all necessary particulars, may be learnt on application to
EDWARD GOLDSMITH
Davey-street, July 4, 1851
Source: Colonial Times 29 July 1851

However, construction of the patent slip at the Queen's Domain did not proceed as planned. Sir William Denison, the Colony’s governor in 1849 was most enthusiastic about Captain Goldsmith’s plans for a patent slip, but the government’s refusal to recompense him fully for expenses in building the twin steamer the Kangaroo in 1854, had already led to major disappointment. The final insult came with the government not meeting their own terms of agreement in promising assistance to build the patent slip. Sir John Franklin’s nephew, William Porden Kay, was the Director of Public Works in 1855 when he wrote the Report on Captain Goldsmith’s Patent Slip. The Report covers the years 1849 to 1855 (read the full transcript here) from the first date of Captain Goldsmith’s proposal of a patent slip, to Captain Goldsmith’s receipt of timber in November 1854 on condition work started on the slip within six months. The report details the frustrations, delays, obstacles, objections and unreasonable conditions placed on Captain Goldsmith prior to his sale of his interest and lease to the McGregor brothers. Personal tragedy also beset him: his eldest son Richard Sydney Goldsmith, a clerk at the Union Bank, died of fever in August 1854, Hobart, aged 24 yrs. By November 1855, Captain and Mrs Elizabeth Goldsmith, and their only surviving son Edward Goldsmith jnr were preparing to depart permanently from Tasmania. They had auctioned the contents of their house at 19 Davey St. in mid 1855, and advertised the stock of Goldsmith's yard on the Government Domain for sale. They sailed from Tasmania as passengers on board the Indian Queen in February 1856:
TO SHIPBUILDERS, CONTRACTORS, AND OTHERS
Unreserved Clearing Sale of the well selected and thoroughly seasoned Gum, Planking, Knees, Treenails, English Pine Spars, Yards, Cut Deals, Huon Pine in Logs; also Pitch, New Ten-ton Launch, Punts, &c, &c,, at the Yard of Captain Goldsmith, Government Domain.
Source: Hobart Courier, 12th November 1855.

The original slipyard site on the Domain on the foreshore of the Royal Botanical Gardens commenced by Captain Edward Goldsmith in 1851 is still in operation, now owned by TasPorts.





The Domain slipyard and slip Hobart Tasmania 2014
Photos © KLW NFC 2014

The Secheron Bay Site Today



Detail: map of Hobart by R. Jarman - Battery Point ca. 1858:
Top circle = Goldsmith's patent slip and Williamson's Dry Dock on the river frontage at Secheron Bay.
Lower circle= where Ross relocated the patent slip at the end of Sloane St. in 1866.
At peak capacity, the technologically-advanced, steam-powered winch of the Ross Patent Slip had the power to manage vessels of up to 1,250 tonnes deadweight. But few ships of that size were built here - most of the slip's work was in maintenance and repair, hauling the vessels from the water in a cloud of hissing steam and billowing smoke.Ross's Patent Slip operated here from 1866 before being dismantled in 1903. Later slipways and shipyards took over the lower part of the site and are still working today.
For an overview of the function, history and preservation of the slip yards, see this Report on Battery Point Slipyards Conservation Plan 2008.

The proposed site for the patent slip in 1836, suggested by George Frankland and purchased by Captain Goldsmith and partners (see Google map below marked with a red cross), is now an empty space on the riverfront at the end of Finlay Street, Battery Point. After William Williamson sold the slip to John Ross in 1866, it was relocated to a site known as the Ross Patent Slip, now an empty stone shell located at the end of Sloane Street, Battery Point. The large cost of relocation caused foreclosure on Ross' loan in 1870, and John Lucas was next to acquire the site until its eventual sale to the Marine Board in the early 1900s. Today, the remnant of the Ross slipyard is visible from the foreshore below Sloane St. Battery Point, the last address of master mariner Captain James Day, who died there in 1882, and who must have spent many hours at the Domain and Secheron Bay slips first established by his brother-in-law, Captain Edward Goldsmith, uncle of Thomas Nevin's wife, Elizabeth Rachel Day.



A brick shell: site of the slip below Sloane St. Battery Point, Hobart Tasmania
Photo © KLW NFC 2014



The site of the original proposed slip and shipbuilding yard at Secheron Bay in 1839, situated at the end of Finlay Street, Battery Point  - marked X with a red cross.
Google maps 2016.

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