Captain Edward Goldsmith at the New Market Banquet 1854

By 1854, master mariner Captain Edward Goldsmith had enriched the colony of Tasmania for more than twenty years through his annual voyages in command of merchant ships bringing immigrants, agricultural produce, ship and engineering equipment and fashionable merchandise from Europe and the Americas. He had benefited the colony through the export of Tasmanian horticulture and timbers, especially the blue gum which he exhibited at the Paris Expo in 1855. He constructed the first patent slip on the Domain, and he had bought land in the northern suburbs of Hobart. He witnessed his brother-in-law's marriage, master mariner Captain James Day (photographer Thomas Nevin's future father-in-law) in Hobart in 1841, and was present too when his eldest son Richard died in Hobart in 1854. Captain Edward Goldsmith was highly esteemed by both the Hobart City Corporation's Mayor and aldermen and the business community. He attended the Regattas as a judge, and at his testimonial dinner in 1849 at the Hobart Town Hall, he stated that he might become a colonist and settle in Hobart, but that was not to be. He attended many social functions sponsored by the Governor and Mayor before his final departure in 1855, sometimes with his younger son Edward Goldsmith jnr, who accompanied him to the Governor's Levee. The construction of the New Market on the Hobart Wharves, and the banquet held to celebrate its opening in January 1854, was another of his interests and an event he attended in the company of Hobart's most illustrious officers and the colony's most modest traders alike.

The New Market Banquet
ADVERTISEMENT for the NEW MARKET BANQUET
The Hobart Courier, 19 January 1854

PUBLIC BANQUET
TO CELEBRATE THE
OPENING of the NEW MARKET.
THE COMMITTEE for making the requisite Arrangements beg to acquaint the public that the Banquet will take place at the New Market, Macquarie-street, on FRIDAY, the 20th instant, at half past 6 for 7 o'clock precisely. The Worshipful the Mayor of Hobarton will preside on the occasion, anti the Committee have been honoured by his Excellency the Lieutenant Governor's acceptance of their invitation. The Hon. the Speaker and the Members of the Executive and Legislative Councils, the Commander of the Forces, the Corporation of Hobarton, the Officers of the Garrison, and other guests will be invited to attend; and the Committee rely upon the inhabitants of the island to support them in an entertainment which must lend to the establishment of that good-will and co-operation which is so necessary for the prosperity of the colony.
Tickets-price 30s- each-may be obtained until the 13th instant, after which none will be issued, of Mr. W. Coote, Macquarie-street, Mr. C. Toby, Old Wharf,
Mr. F. G. Holbird, Elizabeth-street, Mr. F. Lipscombe, Murray-street,
Mr. J.T. Coram, City Market Office,
And of Messrs. Huxtable & Co., Murray-street, Messrs. Walch, Elizabeth-street, Hobart Town ; and Mr. A. Duthie, Launceston.
Applications from country residents may be made to the Secretary.
91 J. T. CORAM, City Market Office.

Source: Classified Advertising. (1854, January 19).The Courier (Hobart, Tas. : 1840 - 1859), p. 1.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article224379

State Library of NSW
Samuel Clifford, photographer
19. The New Market, Hobart Town
Digital Order Number: c025370019
Stereographs of Tasmania, Sydney and Scone, N.S.W., collected by George Wigram Allen, 1852-1870
Date of Work 1852-1870
Call Number PXB 199

The following account of the banquet, printed in the Hobart Courier, 24 January 1854, is without doubt a remarkably detailed piece of journalism in which the reporter revels in every detail, every outburst of laughter, and every joke. It's well worth a read. Read the full account (pdf) here.

TRANSCRIPT (excerpt)

NEW MARKET BANQUET.
HAVING in our last, given a notice of the entertainment, on occasion of opening the New Market, on Friday evening, we proceed according to promise, to furnish a more full report. The time fixed for the Dinner being half-past six for seven o'clock, His Excellency the Lieut.-Governor arrived at about five minutes before seven, being received by a guard of honor, at the southern entrance of the market. His Worship the Mayor of Hobart Town, conducted His Excellency to the Dinner Hall, the hon. Colonel Despard commander of the forces,' and M.E C, the Colonial Secretary and Colonial Treasurer, Lieut. Colonel Last, (Private Secretary) Lieut. Colonel Ainsworth, Lieutenant Lochner, (Aide-de-Camp) Mr. Coote, (Chairman of the Banquet Committee) 'ace., attending him; His Excellency being loudly cheered on arrival at the building, and during his progress along the dining hall. The city Aldermen, the members of Council, the remainder of the officers of ihe garrison, and the other guests, then took their places at the tables, cards being arranged on the plates, to indicate their appropriate seats...

... At the centre table, and immediately near the upper table, we observed the honorable members for Oatlands, Brighton, and Campbell Town, together with Captain Langdon, Mr. Bisdee, Mr. Hone, Lieut.-Col. Jackson, D. C. G. Bishop ; Aldermen Elliston, Bonney, Worley, and Thomson. The Revs. Dr. Lillie, Buckland. Messrs. W. Robertson, Roope, Harris, Roberts, J.C.Walker, Capt. Goldsmith, Dr. Huxtable. Mr. Frederick Lipscombe as representative of the Market interest occupied the Vice-chair, assisted by Mr. Coote, in consequence of Mr. Lipscombe laboring under a severe cold. The band of Her Majesty's 99th regiment struck up " God save the Queen," when the Governor entered the hall ; and, during dinner and throughout the evening performed a variety of favourite pieces in their usual excellent style.
Grace having been said by the Archdeacon, the company proceeded to test ,the quality of the viands (provided by Webb) ... (From The Hobart Courier, 24 January, 1854)

Above: Captain Langdon, one of the attendees
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/NS407-1-44/NS407-1-44and
Below: eccentric lawyer Joseph Hone also sat at Captain Goldsmith's table

State Library Tasmania
Title: [Joseph Hone]
Publisher: [Hobart : Frederick Frith [185-?]
Description: 1 photograph : sepia ; oval image 12 X 9 cm
Format: Photograph
ADRI: AUTAS001139592703
Source: Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts

New Market ca. 1880s, now Hobart City Hall

State Library of Tasmania
Title: The New Market (Burnt) Roberts and Company Limited
Description: 1 photographic print
Format: Photograph
ADRI: NS1013-1-1526

State Library of Tasmania
Title: Tasmanian Juvenile Industrial Exhibition Building at New Market - now Hobart City Hall
Description: 1 photographic print
Format: Photograph
ADRI: NS1013-1-754

RELATED POSTS main weblog

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.

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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

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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