Friday, March 22, 2013

Captain Henry James Day of the 99th Regiment

Convict transport CANDAHAR to VDL, 1842
Prisoner John APPLEBY, photo by T. J. NEVIN, 1873
Major Captain James DAY, 99th REGIMENT
ANGLESEA BARRACKS, Hobart



Archives Office of Tasmania
Left: Ref: 30-38c. Memorial column, 99th Regiment, Anglesea Barracks, erected in 1850.
Right: Anglesea Barracks, Ref: 30-36c. Unattributed half stereos, ca 1868

The ship "Candahar" (1842)
Captain Henry James Day (1803-1876), first cousin of Thomas J. Nevin's father-in-law, master mariner Captain James Day (1806-1882), was Guard Captain of the 3rd detachment of 99th Regiment of Foot on board the convict transport Candahar when it arrived in Hobart in 1842 with 60 troops under his command, and 249 male convicts. Also on board were a "lady and four children", several soldiers' families and government stores. The Candahar was a 4 gun barque of 642 tons built in Shields in 1840, class A1 which departed Spithead, England on the 2nd April 1842, docking in Van Diemen's Land on the 21st July 1842. Captain Day's arrival was noted in the Hobart Town Courier. The regiment was stationed at the Anglesea Barracks, Hobart.



Arrival of ship Candahar, Hobart Courier July 22, 1842

TRANSCRIPT
21- Arrived the ship Candahar, 642 tons, 4 guns, Ridley, from Portsmouth 2nd April, with Government stores -passengers, Peter Leonard Esq., Surgeon Superintendent; Captain Day, 99th regiment, lady, and four children; Ensign Young, 80th regiment; and 249 male prisoners.

Of the 250 convicts who embarked, 249 convicts disembarked in Hobart Town, one perished on the voyage.



Arrival of Captain James Day 99th Regiment 21 July 1842 on the Candahar
Port Officers' Forms: Series MB2/39 (TAHO)

Thirty years later, government contractor Thomas J. Nevin would photograph some of these same convicts who had re-offended after serving their term and who were imprisoned again at the Port Arthur penitentiary and Hobart Gaol . The list of Candahar convicts, 1842 is available online at the Tasmanian Heritage and Archives Office. Thomas Nevin's photographs of 1870s convicts - i.e. police identification mugshots - are held at the NLA, QVMAG, Mitchell Library NSW and TMAG. This photograph by Nevin of prisoner John Appleby is held at the National Library of Australia. Appleby was tried for receiving stolen plate in July 1871 and sentenced to six years at the Hobart Gaol. His petition for discharge in June 1873 was declined by the Attorney-General's Office;  on the 20th September 1873 he was transferred to the Hobart Gaol, Campbell St. from the Port Arthur prison where Thomas J. Nevin photographed him on being received. Two years later, on the 13th August 1875, the residue of Appleby's sentence was remitted. Read more about John Appleby here



Prisoner John Appleby, per Candahar 1842
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin, taken 20th September 1873 at the Hobart Gaol
National Library of Australia URL link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-142919212

Captain Henry James Day
On the 10th August 1842 the Candahar departed Hobart Town, Van Dieman's Land for Sydney, N.S.W, arriving on Tuesday the 16th August 1842 laden with government stores. Captain Day and family proceeded to Maitland.



Sydney Government Gazette, 22 November 1842.
Appointment of Captain Henry James Day as magistrate, assistant engineer and superintendent of ironed gangs, for the district of Maitland, NSW.

TRANSCRIPT
Government Gazette. —o— TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1842. His excellency the Governor has been pleased to appoint Captain Henry James Day, of H.M. 99th regiment of foot, to be a magistrate of the territory and its dependencies. His excellency the Governor has been pleased to appoint Captain Henry James Day, of H. M. 99th regiment of foot, to be assistant engineer and superintendent of ironed gangs for the district of Maitland, in the room of Lieut. Rinaldo Scheberras, of H. M. 80th regiment of foot.
Source: Australasian Chronicle (Sydney, NSW : 1839 - 1843), Thursday 24 November 1842, page 4

From 1842, several convict ships sailed from England with the 99th regiment on board as convict guards. In addition to the Candahar were the John Renwick, North Briton, Richard Webb, John Brewer, Isabella, Somersetshire, Emerald Isle and Forfarshire. The 99th was founded in Glasgow in 1824, became the 99th Lanarkshire Regiment in 1832, and ordered to embark for Australia first from West Wall at Dublin for Liverpool, then on to Chatham near London. By early 1842, 900 officers and men of the 99th Regiment were assembled for ports in NSW and Van Diemen's Land. The 3rd detachment arrived on the Candahar in July 1842.



"Chatham" engraved by E. Finden after a picture by Warren, published in Finden's Ports and Harbours..., 1842.
Image courtesy of Ancestry Images

Detachments of the 99th Regiment were sent from Hobart to Norfolk Island and New Zealand. In 1845 members were sent to New Zealand to quell the Maori rebellion. A detachment took part in the assault on Ohaeawai Pah on 1 July 1845 and on Ruapekapeka on 10th January 1846. The campaign lasted for two years. The regiment returned to Hobart, Tasmania in 1847, stationed there until 1854 when a contingent was sent to Victoria.

In 1848, Captain Henry James Day was stationed at the Blackheath Stockade, NSW, as assistant engineer and superintendent, but by 1852 he was back in Hobart, VDL.



Source: Victorian Government Gazette, 6 May 1848

TRANSCRIPT
Colonial Secretary's Office
Sydney, 9th May 1848
His Excellency the GOVERNOR has been pleased to appoint
CAPTAIN HENRY JAMES DAY, of Her Majesty's 99th Regiment of Foot,
to be Assistant Engineer, and Superintendent of Blackheath Stockade, in the room of Captain Bull.
By His Excellency's Command.
E. DEAS THOMSON
Captain Henry James Day served on Norfolk Island again as guard captain of the Sir Robert Seppings, a convict transport which returned to Hobart on 4th October, 1852. He was now accompanied by Mrs Day and eight children, four more than in 1842 when she arrived on the Candahar.



Captain and Mrs Day, arrival from London, 1842 and from Norfolk Island, 1852
AOT Arrivals Index, Surname "Day"



Arrival of Captain James Day 99th Regiment on the Sir Robert Seppings, 4th October 1852
Landed 302 male prisoners at Port Arthur.
Port Officers' Forms: Series MB2/39 (TAHO).

Their stay in Hobart was not without tragedy. Captain and Mrs Day's second eldest son, George Henry, aged 5yrs, died on 30 August 1853 while stationed at the Anglesea Barracks.



TRANSCRIPT
DEATHS
On 29th August at the Military Barracks, Hobart Town, aged 5 years and 5 months, George John, second son of Captain Day, 99th Regiment.
Source: Hobart Courier 30 August 1853

Mrs Eliza Day (nee Eliza Terry, daughter of a proctor in the Vice Admiralty), married Henry James Day at Port Louis, Mauritius in 1832. She was 19, he was 28. He was born into the Imperial Forces on Jamaica, christened in 1803, and commissioned in July 1825. Just as they were born to parents who were in service in the colonies , so were four of their eight children. Mary Jane was born on Mauritius (1833); Henrietta (1844) and George (1848) were born in NSW, and Arthur Frederick Francis was born on Norfolk Island (1850). Coincidentally, Thomas Nevin's father, John Nevin, was attested the same year, in 1825, spending the next 12 years from 1826-1838 in the West Indies before serving at the Canadian Rebellions in 1839.



Henry James Day
Christened 7 May 1803, St Catherine Jamaica. FamilySearch index and image.



Detail of Captain Henry James Day's service records
WO25/3239/346 National Archives, UK

Eight children were listed on his service record by 1863, including a son with the same name, Henry James Day, born in 1833. When the family returned again from Norfolk Island to Hobart via Port Arthur on the Southern Cross, Commander George McArthur (347 tons, 2 guns, registry at Hobarton) with the 99th Regiment, Henry James snr was listed as Major Day, accompanied by Mrs Day, five Miss Day’s and a Master Day (i.e. male child). All seven of his children, with the exception of Henry James jnr, the eldest son, were travelling with him. Also on board were 1 sergeant, 4 corporals, 27 privates, 10 women and 25 children of the 99th Regiment. They had landed 2 prisoners, 4 horses, 2 cows and part of cargo at Port Arthur before proceeding to Maitland, NSW.



Detail below: Southern Cross 7 Mar 1855 MB2/39/1/19 P1



State Library Tasmania
Day Mr Southern Cross 7 Mar 1855 MB2/39/1/19 P1
Day Mrs Southern Cross 7 Mar 1855 MB2/39/1/19 P1



State Library of Tasmania
Title: Barque “Southern Cross”, 347 tons George R. McArthur, Commander / T.G. Dutton del. et lith.; Day & Son lithrs. to the Queen
Creator: Dutton, T. G. fl. 1845-1879. (Thomas G.),
Publisher: London : W. Foster, [1853?]
Description: 1 print : coloured lithograph ; sheet 38 x 52 cm
Format: Print
ADRI: AUTAS001124068123
Source: Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts
Notes: Printed lower left below image: T.G. Dutton, del. et lith. ; lower right: Day & Son lithrs. to the Queen
Inscribed lower right image: T.G.Dutton
Inscription below title: To the owner Mr. Charles Seal of Hobart Town, this print is respectfully dedicated; by his most obedient servant, the publisher
Indexed in: Hobart Town Courier, 6 July, 1853, p. 2, c. 3

The Band of the 99th Regiment provided entertainment for Hobartonians on numerous occasions between 1849 and 1855:



State Library of Tasmania
Theatre and Ball Programs on silk, 1849,1855, music by the 99th Regiment

Captain Henry James Day served in Australian waters until 1856, proceeded to Bengal 1858-9, and from there he was deployed to the Chinese Rebellions of 1860. He was awarded the Chinese Clasp of Pekin, and retired from the 99th Regiment as Honorary Colonel brevet in 1863. He died in Kensington, London in 1876 (England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837-2007, p.37)



Photographer: Felice Beato (1832 – 1909) 1860
Series of photographs taken of British forces at the Chinese Rebellions, 1860
National Gallery of Australia Collections
Right: Accession No: NGA 82.1287.41(Head Quarters, Pehtang. Mr Bowlby, Mr J. Dock, Honble Stuart Wortley, Mr HB Lock, Col Hope Crealock):... (1860)

Henry James Day's (senior) record of service, and records of more officers of the 99th Regiment, for example, Loftus John NUNN, who married Jane Anne Pedder at St Davids Church on 4 December 1851 are viewable here:

National Archives UK Ref: WO-76-47-01
NB this is a large file: The 99th Regiment Records of Officers' Services pdf.

Captain Henry James Day of the 99th Regiment (1803-1876) was the older first cousin of master mariner Captain James Day who was born at York, UK, on 10 June 1806 and died at Hobart, Tasmania on 21 November 1882. Captain James Day was Thomas J. Nevin's father-in-law, father of his wife Elizabeth Rachel Nevin nee Day and her sister Mary Sophia Axup nee Day. He died at Mary Sophia Axup's house in Sloane St.,Battery Point, Hobart, just weeks after she gave birth to Sidney James Vernon Axup, on 31 October 1882.

Memorial to the 99th Regiment
The Anglesea Barracks was the focus of attention again for photographers in 1874 with the arrival of the American scientific team under Captain Harkness to record the Transit of Venus. The New York Times ran a report of the expedition in February 1875: New York Times on Transit of Venus in Hobart 1874 [pdf]. These two stereographs taken of the team on site are also unattributed.



State Library of Tasmania
Title: Hobart, Barrack Square
Creator(s):Unknown
Date: 1874
Location: W.L. Crowther Library ADRI: AUTAS001125299032
Location: W.L. Crowther Library ADRI: AUTAS001125299040



State Library Tasmania
Title: The last of the 99th Regt. in Hobart (1890? Williamson photographer?)
Reproduced by Beattie, J. W. 1859-1930
ADRI: AUTAS001125643429

In February 1954, Queen Elizabeth II, the first reigning monarch to visit Tasmania, inspected the gardens and memorial for the 99th Regiment at the Anglesea Barracks, shown here in this photo with the Duke of Edinburgh and Mrs Hurley, wife of Brigadier Hurley. The Maori mask and Regiment number "99" appear in the foreground.



HRH Queen Elizabeth II, at Anglesea Barracks 1954
Courtesy Archives Office of Tasmania
Ref:AB713-1-2701

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Updated April 2021

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Mary Sophia Axup chair of the WPL 1913

IN THEIR SHOES



March is Women's History Month.

The Tasmanian Archives and Heritage Office for this year 2013 at Flickr has featured an album of Founding Women and a page on women's suffrage at the State Library of Tasmania.

MARY SOPHIA AXUP and the TWPL
Thomas Nevin's sister-in-law Mary Sophia Axup nee Day, chaired a meeting in 1913 of the Tasmanian Workers' Political League, the forerunner of the Australian Labor Party, seeking nominations for Labor candidates to stand for the seat of Bass in the forthcoming Federal election:



The Mercury 22 August 1913

TRANSCRIPT
Bass Divisional Council of the T.W.P.L. [Tasmanian Workers' Political League] met last week at the A.W.C. office, Launceston, Mrs Axup being in the chair. It was decided to invite nominations for Bass of those willing to stand in the Labour interests in the Federal campaign which may shortly be entered upon. The secretary Mr. J. Mooney was also instructed to advise all country branches to be in readiness for the campaign.



Mary Sophia Axup ca, 1940
Photo (detail) courtesy of © John Davis and Axup descendants 2007 ARR.

THE NEW LABOR 1913
If these women in army and police uniform one hundred years ago  had something to blow their bugles about, it certainly wasn't about plain sailing towards leadership in the Services, let alone leadership of the Labor Party, or - dared they even contemplate it - leadership of the Nation as Prime Minister and Governor-General.



Title:Two women in army and police uniforms ca. 1912
ADRI:PH30-1-4981
Source:Archives Office of Tasmania

Extract from The Companion to Tasmanian History
CLASS
... A different segment of the middle-class provided the most effective challenge to landed power in Tasmania. In the 1880s a new generation of politicians, mostly lawyers and businessmen hostile to notions of landed privilege and critical of what they (and earlier criticis) deemed class legislation, established a reformist political class that reshaped the political landscape and hence class relations in Tasmania by replacing landed power with parliamentary democracy and centralised executive power.

Class relations were further rewritten after the west coast mining industry was established in the early 1880s. A Trades and Labor Council was formed in 1883. The rise of unions was a challenge to capital, pointed to distinct class interests, and was a focal point for collective identities based on work. The movement for reform was aided by the devastating impact of the 1891 Depression. Disputes in the shipping, pastoral and mining industries dispelled the liberal belief that labour and capital had shared interests, hastened working-class organisation, and ushered in a period of class conflict. The Tasmanian Workers' Political League, the Tasmanian forerunner to the Australian Labor Party, was formed in 1901 and represented workers' interests at a political level....

Wednesday, March 06, 2013

Captain Edward Goldsmith and the McGregor family

CAPTAIN Edward GOLDSMITH
McGREGOR brothers Alex, John, James and family
PATENT SLIP Queen's Domain Hobart

The patent slip at the Queen's Domain in Hobart was established by Elizabeth Rachel Nevin's uncle, Captain Edward Goldsmith, in 1854 from machinery he brought out from London on his finest trading barque The Rattler. He obtained a long lease on the foreshore of the Domain from Sir William Denison to lay the slip on the condition that the terms of the lease were fulfilled. When he withdrew from the lease in 1855 due to the sudden death from fever of his 25 yr old son Richard Sydney Goldsmith the previous year, among other reasons to do with costs and prison labor, Alexander McGregor bought Captain Goldsmith's interest.

Photographs of the Patent Slip 1870s



Title: New Government House [from the Patent Slip]
Creator: Clifford, Samuel, 1827-1890
Publisher: [ca. 1865]
Description: 1 stereoscopic pair of photographs : sepia toned ; 9 x 18 cm. (mount)
ADRI: AUTAS001125298653
Source: W.L. Crowther Library
Notes:Title printed on photographer's label on verso
NB: image is color corrected for display here in this article

Although the stereograph (above) bears Samuel Clifford's label on verso, it was probably taken by his younger partner Thomas Nevin in the early 1860s, as were many of the prodigious output of stereos printed and stamped by Clifford in the decade 1868-78. Clifford may have reprinted it after 1876 when he acquired Nevin's stock of commercial negatives while Nevin continued in civil service. Similar examples of Nevin's stereographs reprinted as a single image by Clifford or vice versa are of the Salmon Ponds, The Derwent River at Plenty, and other commercially viable and touristically appealing scenic representations. However, this stereograph and the single image below were taken at different times and from slightly different vantage points, and while purporting to represent Government House, in fact both images foreground the patent slip as the stronger signifier. Nevin certainly had an interest in the history of this slip because Captain Edward Goldsmith was Elizabeth Rachel Nevin's (his wife's) uncle. Note the figure of a man leaning against the tree near the fence in the stereograph which is missing in the single image, as is the second barque, but all other details are identical. The single image was taken at closer range, suggesting two photographers and two cameras, spending an afternoon at the slip. Note also that the single image does not bear Clifford's name nor any photographer's name, but is nonetheless attributed to Clifford by its inclusion in an album bearing his name.



Title: Government House from the Patent Slip
In: Tasmanian scenes P. 4, item 8
Publisher: [ca. 1865]
Description: 1 photograph : sepia toned ; 11 x 19 cm
Format: Photograph
ADRI: AUTAS001124074907
Source: W.L. Crowther Library
Notes: Title inscribed in ink below image ; date noted in pencil at lower right of image on album page ; item number noted in ink at centre left of image on album page
Exact size 105 x 184 mm
"Tasmanian scenes" also known as "Clifford album 1"

Another member of Thomas Nevin's cohort of photographers, Henry Hall Baily, took this photograph from the exact same spot a decade later, but labelled his photograph "Government House, from the Ship Yard", probably because he had no personal interest in the patent slip.



State Library of Tasmania
Title: Government House, from the Ship Yard
In: Baily album : Tasmanian souvenir P. 1
Publisher: [ca. 1875]
Description: 1 photograph : sepia toned ; 10 x 18 cm
Format: Photograph
ADRI: AUTAS001124850355
Source: W.L. Crowther Library
(NB: color corrected)

Captain Edward Goldsmith 1854-5



Notice of Captain Goldsmith's sale at the slip, Hobart Courier, 12th November 1855.

TRANSCRIPT
12th November 1855
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.
A brief history of the Patent Slip and other Hobart slips was published years later, in 1882 beginning with a tribute to Captain Goldsmith:

To Captain Goldsmith, who came to the colonies in charge of one of the London traders, the credit of introducing patent slips into Hobart is due.



This is an excerpt from "Shipbuilding in Tasmania", a detailed account of this patent slip written with the benefit of 30 years hindsight, and printed in the Mercury Friday 23 June 1882. Read more at this link.

Read more on site about Captain Edward Goldsmith:

The McGregor Family
Details of the transfer of the lease of the patent slip from Captain Goldsmith to Alexander McGregor from the Launceston Examiner, 21 January 1881, were outlined in an article looking back at ship building in Tasmania.



Source: Launceston Examiner, 21 January 1881

TRANSCRIPT
The twin steamer Kangaroo was built in the year 1854, under the immediate supervision of the late Governor Sir William Denison, R. E., by the late Captain Goldsmith, formerly of the London traders Waverley and John Izat, at the Imperial expenditure, regardless of cost. Her timbers, which (says the Mercury) are still as sound as ever, were the pick of the forests of Tasman's Peninsula, and her machinery was the best of the day. She was designed for the purpose she still serves, as a huge floating bridge between Hobart and Kangaroo Point, and was built on that portion of the Queen's Domain known as McGregor's patent slip. During the progress of her building a long lease of the site was granted to Captain Goldsmith by Sir William Denison, on condition that he laid down what was then much needed - a patent slip. The conditions of the lease were, however, unfulfilled by him, but the hon. Alexander McGregor purchased Captain Goldsmith's interest in the lease, and forthwith carried out its conditions by laying down the slip, now carried on by his brother, Mr. John McGregor, on the Queen's Domain.



Harriet McGregor at New Wharf with Wagoola
Format: photograph
Location: W.L. Crowther Library
ADRI: AUTAS001126070770
Source:W.L. Crowther Library


The Harriet McGregor, 332 tons, was built at the Domain shipyard by Alexander McGregor in 1871, and named after his wife, the former Harriet Bayley. It was the most renowned of the blue-gum clippers that made 24 voyages from Hobart to London and back as well as trading on intercolonial and Mauritian routes until sold in 1895 to Danish owners, renamed Water Queen, and destroyed soon after by fire at Rio.



'Lenna' Battery Point, Hobart - McGregor family on balcony for wedding
Item Number: PH30/1/7562
Start Date: 01 Jan 1860
Source: Archives Office of Tasmania



Wedding Party - Harriet McGregor (front left)
Description: photographic print
Date: 1860?
ADRI:PH30-1-7561
Source:Archives Office of Tasmania

The McGregor brothers - Alexander as merchant and ship owner, James as shipmaster and John as ship builder were one of the most successful mariners, shipbuilders and deep-sea whaling families in 19th century Tasmania, along with the Bayley brothers, Charles and James.



This photo is actually a John Watt Beattie reprint of an earlier photographer's work.

Title: Alexander McGregor
Creator(s): Beattie, J. W. 1859-1930
Date: 19--
Description: 1 photograph : sepia toning ; 14 x 10 cm.
Notes: Exact measurements 140 x 98 mm, Title inscribed in pencil beneath image in unknown hand., In: Members of the Parliaments of Tasmania - no. 187 / photographed by J.W. Beattie.
Location: Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts
ADRI: AUTAS001125880799



Title: Alex McGregor
ADRI: PH30-1-6937
Source: Archives Office of Tasmania

The Domain Slipyard ca.1878, 1900 and 2014
Former site of Goldsmith's and McGregor's patent slip, now TasPorts Domain Slip



Title: Whaling ship "Velocity" at McGregors Slipyards 1878
TAHO Ref: ADRI: AUTAS001125641035



Title: Viking [at] McGregor's Shipyards, Domain - in background whalers Asia [and] Derwent Hunter?
Publisher:[Tasmania : s.n., ca. 1900]
Description:1 photographic print : sepia toned ; 16 x 21 cm
Format: Photograph
ADRI:AUTAS001126072040
Source: W.L. Crowther Library



Title: "Waterwitch" cutting at McGregor Slip 1890
ADRI: PH30-1-7500
Source: Archives Office of Tasmania



The Helen and Derwent Hunter at the Domain slip ca. 1900
TAHO Ref: NS1013177 (color corrected)



The Derwent Hunter at the Domain slip ca. 1900
TAHO Ref: NS1013174 (color corrected)



Above: the Kangaroo, built by Captain Goldsmith in 1854 on the Domain slip ca. 1900 (photo TAHO)
Below: the Ocean Dynasty on the Domain slip 2014 (photo © KLW NFC 2014)





Above: View towards Government House Hobart from the Domain slip 2014
Below: TasPorts Domain slip 2014
Photos © KLW NFC 2014





The Domain Slipyard, Hobart Tasmania 2014
Photos © KLW NFC 2014

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