Prisoners Hugh McCALLUM and George WILSON aka White, 1872

Prisoner George WILSON aka WHITE
Prisoner Hugh McCALLUM
Mugshots by T. J. NEVIN used as visual STEREOTYPES of convicts
University of Tasmania's WASTE of HISTORY

Hugh McCallum and George Wilson alias White were sentenced for theft of tools and clothing at the Supreme Court Launceston in April. They were transferred to the Hobart Gaol in May 1872 where Thomas J. Nevin photographed them on being received.

Prisoner McCULLUM [sic - McCallum], Hugh
TMAG Ref: Q15609
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin, May 1872

Verso of cdv: Prisoner McCULLUM [sic - McCallum], Hugh
Inscription: "Hugh McCullum per Ratcliffe 2 Taken at Port Arthur 1874"
TMAG Ref: Q15609
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin, May 1872

Hugh McCallum, transported 1848
Prisoner Hugh McCallum was 20 years old, a house painter, when he arrived at Hobart, VDL in November 1848, sentenced to seven (7) years for theft.

Name: McCallum, Hugh
Record Type: Convicts
Property: Port Arthur Penal Station
Departure date: 29 Jul 1848
Departure port: Spithead
Ship: Ratcliffe (2)
Place of origin: Glasgow, Lanarkshire
Origin location: Latitude and Longitude
Voyage number: 302
Police number: 21006
Index number: 44773
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1415796
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/1415796

Court Records: offences 1858 and 1864

Mccallum, Hugh
Record Type: Court
Status: Free by servitude
Trial date: 20 Sep 1858
Offense: Larceny
Verdict: Not guilty
Prosecutions Project ID: 100197
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1524939
https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/AB693-1-1/AB693-1-1_044

Name: Mccallum, Hugh
Record Type: Court
Status: Free by servitude
Trial date: 2 Aug 1864
Place of trial: Launceston
Offense: Housebreaking
Verdict: Guilty
Prosecutions Project ID: 106837
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1524147
https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/AB693-1-1/AB693-1-1_072

Police Gazette: warrant and arrest 1872

TRANSCRIPT

WARRANTS ISSUED, AND NOW IN THIS OFFICE
Launceston: - On 9th instant, by Thomas Mason, Esq., J. P., for the arrest of Hugh McCallum, charged with having on the 7th instant, at Launceston, feloniously broken and entered a detached kitchen within the curtilage of the dwelling house of one George Smart, and stolen therefrom one suit of boy's clothing, the property of the said George Smart.
Description
5 feet 7 inches, 42 years of age, stout build, fresh complexion, oval head, brown hair, sandy whiskers worn all round the face except on part of chin where there is a division, oval visage, low forehead, brown eye-brows, hazel eyes, long nose, native place Glasgow, a labourer, has a large scar and a small scar on neck. When last seen he had on a dark sacque coat, dark or moleskin trousers, black billy-cock hat, and a red comforter. Supposed to have gone westward. The property was found in the possession of McCallum's companion George Wilson, alias White, who has been arrested

.
Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime (weekly Police Gazette) 15 March 1872

Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime (weekly Police Gazette) 22 March 1872

Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime (weekly Police Gazette) 30 May 1872

Press Reports: Court sittings

TRANSCRIPT

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27. (Before T. Mason, Esq., P.M.) Drunk and Incapable. - H. J. Mitchell was fined 6s for being drunk and incapable in a street at Launceston, on the night of Monday last. Burglary.-George Wilson alias White and Hugh M'Cullum were charged, by Sergeant Wilson, with breaking and entering the dwelling house of J. G. Inall, at Westbury,. on 29th February, 1871. James Mathews deposed that he was a pawnbroker, and carried on business in this town. On Tuesday, 5th March, he took in pledge two augers precisely similar to those produced. He believed that Wilson or White was the man who pawned the augers, and he was certain that Mc'Cullum was the man who came with some women the next morning to redeem them. J. G. Inall deposed that he was a carpenter and joiner at present residing at Westbury. On, the 20th February left off work about six o'clock, and went out, locking his door. On returning, between 10 and 11 p.m., he found the door had been broken open and his blankets carried away . He also missed two towels, two shirts, one pair boots, carpenter's brace, and two auger bits belonging to Mr Ford. He did not know either of the prisoners. Maria Perhan deposed that she lived with a man named Dean in Frankland-street, in this town. She knew the wife of Owen Daly in, Wellington-street. McCullum [sic -McCallum] had given her a pawnbroker's ticket to sell. She took the ticket to Mrs Daly, but she would only buy it from the man who had pawned the articles.. McCullum, Mrs Daly, another woman, and her self went to redeem the goods. She heard the prisoner McCullum say they were two augers. Wilson and McCullum were together in the Jolly Butchers, but White was left behind, when McCullum, went with her to redeem the articles. Anstitia Daly deposed that she lived in Wellington street in this town, and kept a dealers' shop. She lately bought a pawn ticket from Mrs Dean conditionally on the release of the goods. Mrs Dean brought the prisoner McCullum with her, and they went to Matthews's. The goods were two augers. She meant when she said Mrs Dean, the woman named Maria Perhan. John Bracken deposed that he lived in Wellington-street, and kept a general dealer's shop. He knew both prisoners by appearance. They came to his shop together, but McCullum was the only one who came in; he asked him to buy some blankets which he had under his arm ; he would not buy them, and they went away. This happened in the regatta week, the day before Mrs Dean had offered to sell him a pawn ticket for two augers. Detective Sergeant Wilson deposed that the two auger bits now produced he obtained from Mrs Daly on the 15th March ; they were in the window for sale. Committed for trial on this charge, and also on the charge of housebreaking at Captain Smart's.

Source: Launceston Examiner (Tas. : 1842 - 1899), Thursday 28 March 1872, page 3
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article39686749

Court trial record, 1872

McCallum, Hugh
Record Type: Court
Status: Free by servitude
Trial date: 6 Apr 1872
Offense: Breaking a building with intent
Verdict: Guilty
Prosecutions Project ID: 112549
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1521206
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/1521206

TRANSCRIPT

Launceston Criminal Sittings. These are fixed for Thursday next, 30th inst. The Chronicle gives the following prisoners as in gaol for trial, and says there are others out on bail : - Hugh McCullum and George Wilson, alias White, charged with burglary in breaking and entering the dwelling house of James Inall, at Westbury, on the night of the 9th February, and stealing a carpenter's brace, and a pair of trousers, two augur bits, and other articles. They further stand charged with breaking and entering a detached kitchen at the dwelling-house of Mr. George Smart, on the 24th March, and stealing a suit of boy's clothing.

Source: THE MERCURY. (1872, May 25). p. 2.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8922375

George Wilson alias White

NLA Catalogue (incorrect information)
PIC P1029/50 LOC Album 935/nla.obj-142919110
George Wilson, per Ld. [Lord] Lyndoch 3
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin. May 1872

POLICE RECORD 1872

Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police, J. Barnard Gov't printer

This police gazette notice published George Wilson's conviction on 30 May - 1 June 1872 at the Supreme Court Launceston, where he was sentenced to 12 yrs for housebreaking. It records that he was transported as White, per Ld Lyndoch, and was free in servitude when arrested and transferred to the Hobart Gaol. Hugh McCallum per Ratcliffe 2 was sentenced in the same session to 10 years.

COURT RECORD 1872

Hugh McCallum was sentenced to 10 years, George Wilson to 12 years at Launceston 6 April 1872.

Wilson, George
Record Type: Court
Status: Free by servitude
Trial date: 6 Apr 1872
Offense: Breaking a building with intent
Verdict: Guilty
Prosecutions Project ID: 112550
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1520604
https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/AB693-1-1/AB693-1-1_100

See the Archives Office Tasmanian names index -
https://stors.tas.gov.au/NI/1447521

Mugshots used as visual stereotypes of convicts
Please note the incorrect use of this mugshot (noted 20 October 2022) at this website: -
https://www.dark-emu-exposed.org/home/call-for-submissions-to-the-risdon-cove-history-prize

Their website continues to use this mugshot of prisoner George White/Wilson taken by Thomas J. Nevin for police records in 1872 as a stereotypical image of any 19th century prisoner in Tasmania. They are messing with Nevin's legacy in this manner, and indeed with the family history of George White's or George Wilson's descendants.

The man in this mugshot was not yet even born when all four of their candidates named "Edward White" allegedly witnessed events at Risdon Cove in 1804. The man known as George White and Wilson, supposedly represented by this mugshot (i.e. nothing is certain at this distance from the 1870s), was born at Wells, Somerset UK in 1820. He was transported for stealing a leg of pork (sentenced to 7 years) per Lord Lyndoch 3 in 1842 when he was 20 years old. He was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment with hard labor in 1872 (the man is 50+ yrs old in this mugshot) for housebreaking at the Supreme Court, Launceston and transferred to the House of Corrections Hobart in 1872.

Same old, same old - more rubbish about A. H. Boyd
The University of Tasmania's Kim Shaw couldn't be bothered examining the real legal history behind the real photographer of prisoners in 1870s Tasmania, Thomas J. Nevin before she submitted her recent paper, "We are all alike" to Australian Historical Studies (9 May 2024). A librarian, a worshipper of the printed page, so of course the lack of original research is only to be expected. In this article, which incidentally shows she benefited extensively from repeated visits to our research and critique of the Exhibition at the old Hobart Penitentiary, July 2019, she parrots the same old cliches from the same old song sheet confected by fellow alumni closeted in the same silo, viz. stale old Julia Clark and her fatuous misrepresentations of photographer Thomas J. Nevin, including abuse of his descendants for good measure (2010; 2015). Little surprise Clark's promotion of A. H. Boyd (and herself, the whole point) as THE photographer of "convicts" - when no evidence of any kind has ever existed (or are they the documents she "borrowed" from the Archives Office of Tasmania, the ones ONLY SHE KNOWS are "lost in the mists of time"?) - festers along at the University of Tasmania when the skills-base of the acolyte is so wanting. Kim Shaw should take a good hard look at the motivations of the morbidly bored and arrogant Hamish Maxwell Stewart along with his saboteur, the very silly narcissist Julia Clark, and then take a harder look at the simpering thief, liar, misogynist and embezzler A. H. Boyd. There she will find a chasm of ignorance to which she has subscribed as the latest in a line-up of "all alike" sycophants.

Last update August 2024

IN HIS OWN WORDS...

"T. J. NEVIN
PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTIST,
Returns his sincere thanks to his friends and the public for past favours, and having made a considerable Reduction in his Prices to suit the times, he solicits a continuance of their patronage, and invites attention to his circulars, showing particulars of the small cost for a first-class faithful Likeness.
140 ELIZABETH-STREET"
Hobart Mercury, 1st February 1873

“I hope that you have not got it in your mind that I am implicated with the ghost“.
Hobart Mercury, 4 December 1880

"Defendant said that he was the father of a large number of children, and did not know which one was referred to. (Laughter.)"
Hobart Mercury, 11 August 1886

"Mr. Thos Nevin was under the impression that the police should be under stricter supervision."
Hobart Mercury, 19 July 1888.

BIOGRAPHY: professional photographer Thomas James Nevin snr (1842-1923) produced large numbers of stereographs and cartes-de-visite within his commercial practice, and prisoner identification photographs on government contract. His career spanned nearly three decades, from the early 1860s to the late 1880s. He was one of the first photographers to work with the police in Australia, along with Charles Nettleton (Victoria) and Frazer Crawford (South Australia). His Tasmanian prisoner mugshots are among the earliest to survive in public collections, viz. the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston; the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart; the Tasmanian Heritage and Archives Office, Hobart; the Port Arthur Historic Site, Tasman Peninsula; the National Library of Australia, Canberra; and the Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, Sydney. Thomas J. Nevin's stereographs and portraits are held in public and private collections in Australia, New Zealand, the USA, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark, France and Switzerland.

Click here for KEY DATES 1842-1923

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here BIOGRAPHICA thumbnail index

Important Notices

INDIGENOUS NOTICE:
lutruwita/Tasmania/Van Diemen's Land (loo-tru-wee-ta) always was, always will be Aboriginal land.

This weblog pays respect to the ancestors and elders past, present, and emerging of the first Australian peoples and acknowledges their continued connection to land, sea and culture as the traditional custodians of this country.

Irish-born Thomas J. Nevin would have been keenly aware that the residence and photographic studio he occupied at No's 138-140 Elizabeth St. Hobart in the 1870s were built on the traditional lands, nipaluna of the palawa people. It is no small irony that today, the very same property, which is renumbered as No. 198 Elizabeth St. Hobart and is occupied by the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, has returned to its traditional owners.

Looking east from the corner of Patrick St., the Royal Standard Hotel, 142 Elizabeth St. then T. J. Nevin’s studio and residence, 140-138 Elizabeth St. Hobart, 1870s

We also acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora nation as the traditional custodians of the City of Sydney, and the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples, the traditional custodians of the Kamberri/Canberra region on whose lands this site is maintained.

PLEASE NOTE: images on this weblog represent deceased people, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Viewing such images may cause sadness and distress.

DISCLAIMER: We have not voluntarily contributed to any publication which supports the misattribution of T. J. Nevin's prisoner/convict photographs (300+ extant) to the non-photographer A. H. Boyd, nor do we condone any attempts by public institutions or private individuals to co-opt the work on these Thomas J. Nevin weblogs and associated sites to apply the misattribution.

Our 19th Anniversary 2005-2024

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NINETEEN YEARS ago (before 2005 actually) we started blogging about Tasmanian photographer Thomas J. Nevin (1842-1923). We look forward to another year or so as the project draws closer to completion. Contributions and donations are most welcome, and many thanks for your involvement.

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Anthony Trollope at Port Arthur

Thomas Nevin's VIP commission 1872

VISIT TO PORT ARTHUR.- Mr. Trollope and the Hon. Howard Spensly, Esq., Solicitor-General of Victoria, accompanied the Hon. the Premier, J.M. Wilson, Esq., and the Hon. the Attorney-General, W.R. Giblin, Esq., embarked in the Government schooner late last night, some time after Mr. Trollope had concluded his lecture on "Modern Fiction, as a recreation for young people," and left for Port Arthur. Their visit to the Peninsula will be a very hurried one, and will afford them only scant opportunity of inspecting the penal establishment, it being the intention of Messrs. Trollope and Spensly to leave Hobart Town for the North, en route for Victoria in a few days ...

Source: The Mercury 2 February 1872