Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Prisoner William KELLOW 1872

EXHIBITIONS and copies, 1915, 1938 and 1983
ORIGINAL PRINTS from negatives, T. J. Nevin 1870s



Original print of negative by T. J. Nevin 1870s
Reprised and collated by J. W. Beattie ca. 1915
QVMAG Collection: Ref : 1983_p_0163-0176

The TMAG copy



Prisoner William KELLOW
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin
Photographed on arraignment September 1872, rephotographed on release from the Hobart Gaol February 1875.
Originally held at the QVMAG, now held at the TMAG
TMAG Ref: Q15601



Verso: Prisoner William KELLOW
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin
Photographed on arraignment September 1872, rephotographed on release from the Hobart Gaol February 1875
Originally held at the QVMAG, now held at the TMAG
TMAG Ref: Q15601

The QVMAG copies



[Above]: Black and white print reproduced at the QVMAG in 1985 from the original print below from Thomas Nevin's original negative, scratches removed and cleaned up.

QVMAG Collection
Filename: 1985_P_0138
Camera: Canon Model: Canon EOS-1D Mark II
ISO: 100 Exposure: 1/125 sec
Aperture: 14.0 Focal Length: 100mm



Detail from frame below
Prisoner William Kellow, top row second from left
QVMAG Collection: Ref : 1983_p_0163-0176



One of three frames containing forty prints of 1870s Tasmania prisoners
Original prints of negatives by T. J. Nevin 1870s
Reprised and collated by J. W. Beattie ca. 1915
QVMAG Collection: Ref : 1983_p_0163-0176

The originals of these forty (40) individual prints of Tasmanian prisoners photographed at the Hobart Gaol by the commissioned photographer Thomas J. Nevin in the 1870s, were intended to be pasted to the criminal record sheet of each prisoner. It was customary to photograph a person before conviction and after it, and again on discharge, by order of the Tasmanian Attorney-General from 1872 onwards, and since the men whom Nevin photographed were repeat and habitual offenders, the same glass negative was used again and again. The plates were handled repeatedly to produce duplicates for distribution to regional prisons and police stations, and for the many administrative copies required by the central Municipal Police Office at the Town Hall, the Supreme Court and the Hobart Gaol.

Photographs from the glass negatives were produced in various formats, first as uncut and unmounted prints as in these 40 prints, and again in carte-de-visite format within an oval mount, a practice which persisted in Tasmania through the 1870s, 1880s and into the 1890s. The same cdv was sometimes overlayed again in an oblong mount when the glass plate became too damaged for further use. All three photographic formats appear on the criminal record sheets of prisoners bound together as the Hobart Gaol record books dating from the late 1880s onwards, held at the Archives Office Tasmania. Some of the earlier gaol record books of the 1870s have survived, now mysteriously missing the prisoners’ photographs. One possible explanation is that convictaria collector John Watt Beattie and his assistant Edward Searle removed the photographs or even destroyed the sheets in the early 1900s while trying to save the photographs, the bulk of which ended up at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery from their acquisition in 1930 of John Watt Beattie’s estate.

This carte-de-visite of William Kellow, one of the extant hundreds of Tasmanian prisoners taken in the 1870s and printed in an oval mount, is held at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart. It was originally held in the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston, together with another three hundred or more 1870s mugshots taken at the Hobart Gaol by government contractor Thomas J. Nevin which were acquired by the QVMAG as part of the bequest from the estate of John Watt Beattie in the 1930s. When this cdv, along with 55 more now at the TMAG, were removed from Beattie's collection and taken down to Port Arthur for an exhibition in 1983, it was not returned to the QVMAG. It was deposited instead at the TMAG . The QVMAG list (2005) showed a total of 199 mugshots, but only 72 were physically held at the QVMAG when the list was devised. A total of 127 mugshots were missing by 2005. This carte-de-visite of William KELLOW is one of those listed as missing, number 143. See the list here.

POLICE RECORD



Prisoner William Kellow, 43 years old and locally born, was sentenced at the Supreme Court Hobart on 10 September 1872 to 3 years, convicted of feloniously receiving. He was photographed at the Hobart Gaol by T. J. Nevin prior to relocation to the Port Arthur prison, and was returned to the Hobart Gaol in late 1873 where he was discharged in the week of 10th February 1875.

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

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Monday, August 24, 2015

Prisoner John POPE 1881



John Pope per Flinders, F.C. 2 years
Photographed at the Hobart Gaol, July 1881 by Thomas J. Nevin
TMAG Ref: Q15624



Verso: John Pope per Flinders, F.C. 2 years
Photographed at the Hobart Gaol on being received July 1881 by Thomas J. Nevin
TMAG Ref: Q15624

There is no number inscribed on the recto of this photograph, unlike the majority in the TMAG collection of prisoner cartes-de-visite in oval mounts which were sourced from the QVMAG in 1983 for exhibition at the Port Arthur prison heritage site, and returned instead to the TMAG. The number verso (446) may be related to admission or discharge from one of the welfare depots, Cascades or Brickfields (see the hand-tinted cdvs of Brittain and Clark also held at the TMAG). If so, the photograph was reprinted from the original negative taken in 1881, to be used again for offenses after the prisoner was discharged from the Hobart Gaol in 1883. The verso gives no indication of the name of the prisoner, but from the inscribed details, this prisoner fits the physical description of John Pope, the ship on which he arrived in Tasmania, the sentence served of 2 years, and discharged free with conditions (FC). This photograph was not reprinted by John Watt Beattie  from Nevin's original negative,  or from Nevin's duplicates of his own cdv produced for gaol records from his single sitting with the prisoner. Its verso shows it was removed from paper, probably the prisoner's criminal record sheet. Many of the later Hobart Gaol records books dating from the mid 1880s retain the prisoner's mugshot(s) intact (held at the Archives Office Tasmania), but the earlier 1870s mugshots by Nevin have survived mostly only as loose duplicates, so this loose carte is unusual in that respect. This photograph's late date of production, 1881-83, is possibly one reason it appears to be an original prisoner identification photograph by Nevin, typical of his commercial posing and printing in an oval cdv mount commenced in 1872.

POLICE RECORDS


A warrant for the arrest of John Pope per Flinders, notice published on 28 April 1881,  for false pretences, since arrested by Detective Kemp of the Hobart Municipal Police.



John Pope, 50 yrs old,  per Flinders, was arraigned on 26 July 1881, sentenced to 2 yrs for obtaining money by false pretences at the Supreme Court Hobart, where he was photographed by Thomas J. Nevin on incarceration at the Hobart Gaol.



John Pope was discharged from the Hobart Gaol on 30 May 1883.

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

Miscarriage of justice: the case of John MAYNE 1874



Thirty-three year old John Mayne was a Member of the Table Cape Road Trust when he was wrongfully convicted for rape in January 1874. A sentence of death was recorded which was remitted to 15 years. He was released 10 months later, in December 1874 after protracted protests in the press and several juror capitulations, the same jurors who had initially returned a verdict of guilty after two hours' deliberation at the trial (13 January 1874), a case strongly defended by John Mayne's barrister R. Byron Miller. Thomas Nevin photographed John Mayne on arrival at the Hobart Gaol from the Supreme Court, Launceston, in January 1874 before Mayne was sent to the Port Arthur prison, from where he was discharged as "Free." The release was effected by barrister R. Byron Miller and Attorney-General W. R. Giblin, two key members of the legal fraternity along with John Woodcock Graves jnr, whose endorsement of Thomas J. Nevin as government contractor for the provision of prisoner identification photographs was effected in 1872 and extended through to the late 1880s. Thomas Nevin also provided portraits of these lawyers, including members of their respective families (Graves & Miller family album , KLW NFC Private Collection).



[Left]:John Mayne, wrongfully convicted and imprisoned
Photographer Thomas J. Nevin 1874
TMAG Ref: Q15599

[Centre]: Attorney-General W. R. Giblin (1840-1887)
Photographer Thomas J. Nevin 1874
TAHO Ref: NS1013/1971

[Right]: Barrister R. Byron Miller
Photographer George Cherry late 1860s
Photo © copyright KLW NFC Imprint & KLW NFC Private Collection



Wrongly convicted: Prisoner John MAYNE. "Native"
Photographed by Thomas Nevin, January 1874
The incorrect verso caption "Taken at Port Arthur 1874" was inscribed in 1915.
Originally held at the QVMAG in the Beattie Collection
Now held at the TMAG Ref: Q15599



Verso: Wrongly convicted: Prisoner John MAYNE. "Native"
Photographed by Thomas Nevin, January 1874
The incorrect verso caption "Taken at Port Arthur 1874" was inscribed in 1915.
Originally held at the QVMAG in the Beattie Collection
Now held at the TMAG Ref: Q15599

The Six Jurors
THE CASE OF JOHN MAYNE.
The following telegram was received late on Monday evening by the hon. R. Byron Miller, Esq, by whom it has been placed at our disposal :- Petition of six jurors received and laid before Governor, with all the examinations who has been pleased to remit the unexpired portion of Maynes sentence. -(Signed) W. R. GIBLIN, Hobart Town . The following is a copy of the letter of the jurors : To his Excellency Charles Du Cane, Esq., Governor of Tasmania.- -We, the undersigned being members of the jury upon the trlal of John Mayne for rape, having learned that an application has been made to your Excellency to grant a free pardon to John Mayne upon the ground of his innocence, beg respect fully to recommend such application to your Excellency's favorable consideration. The case was a difficult one, and our verdict was arrived at in consequence of our belief in the good character and truthfulness of Sophia Jane Shackle; Mrs Shackle, and Hickey, the three principal witnesses for the prosecution. We have now learned from an investigation instituted by your Excellency's orders, that these witnesses did not merit the credence which we gave them, and instead of being per- sons of good character were living in a state of disgraceful immorality; and we have only too much reason to fear that our verdict was a mis- taken one. (Signed) W. East, foreman ; B. P. Farrelly, J. Hollington, E. Gaunt, John Ellis, F. Hart.

Source: THE CASE OF JOHN MAYNE. (1874, November 26). Launceston Examiner (Tas. : 1842 - 1899), p. 2. Retrieved August 25, 2015, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article52896337



TRANSCRIPT
RELEASE OF JOHN MAYNE
Now that John Mayne has been released from Port Arthur, our contemporaries, north and south, have become profoundly impressed with the enormity of the injustice that has been done him, and call aloud for vengeance upon his persecutors, the girl Shackles and the man Lawrence Hickey. The former they would like to see prosecuted for perjury; the latter for the offence upon the girl which was laid to Mayne's charge, and his hideous conspiracy against Mayne's life and liberty....It must be gratifying to the Mayne family to know that John Mayne will be restored to them without any direct intervention on their part, that neither they nor he have been suppliants for mercy, but that the Crown has been compelled to render him simple justice in the face of the revelations made. This fact goes a long way towards removing the terrible stigma cast upon his character by an unfortunate miscarriage of justice.
The following letter was forwarded to the Attorney-General on 24th inst.: -
REGINA V. MAYNE
St. John-streeet. Launceston
November 24th, 1874
Sir, — I have the honor to acknowledge tho receipt of your telegram informing me that "The petition of six jurors received had been laid before the Governor with all the examinations, and that His Excellency had been pleased to remit the unexpired portion of Mayne's sentence." This most gratifying intelligence has been communicated to the family of the prisoner, and I am now instructed on their behalf to tender their grateful thanks to His .Excellency and the members of the Executive Council, not for mercy extended towards a man whom they at least believe to be an innocent sufferer from a judicial mistake, but for justice rendered after a patient and exhaustive examination. His Excellency is about to leave the colony, and the Mayne family respectfully trust that amongst the pleasing memories of his official career in Tasmania will be the recollection that as the representative of Her Majesty, the fountain of justice and mercy, one of his latest acts was to restore to freedom the innocent victim of a foul conspiracy.
I have the honor to be
Sir-
Your obedient Servant,
R. BYRON MILLER.
The Hon. The Attorney-General,
Hobart Town.
Source: RELEASE OF JOHN MAYNE. (1874, December 5). The Tasmanian (Launceston, Tas. : 1871 - 1879), p. 8. Retrieved August 25, 2015, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article198924565



Barrister R. Byron Miller
Photographer George Cherry late 1860s
Inscribed verso by Miller family member "My Father ... Judge in Chambers Essex St ..."
Photo © copyright KLW NFC Imprint KLW NFC Private Collection

POLICE RECORDS for JOHN MAYNE



John Mayne, 33 yrs old, was arraigned in the Supreme Court, Launceston on 8 January 1874, convicted of rape, death sentence commuted to 15 years, transferred to the Hobart Gaol where he was photographed by Thomas Nevin, then relocated to the Port Arthur prison, arriving there on 30th January 1874. His trade was listed as "Dealer". Mayne's record of earnings in the Port Arthur conduct book was inscribed -

Transferred to House of Correction for Males Hobart Town by order of the Hon.ble The Attorney General Telegram dated 24/11/74
Civil Commandant



TAHO Ref: CON94-1-2_00033
Description:Conduct register - Port Arthur
Start Date:01 Aug 1873
End Date:30 Sep 1876
CON94 TASMAN'S PENINSULA - CONDUCT REGISTERS, PORT ARTHUR.



John Mayne was transferred to the Hobart Gaol on 24th November, and discharged, 2nd December 1874: "Free."

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

Sunday, August 23, 2015

Rogues Gallery: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Collection



These cartes-de-visite of Tasmanian prisoners printed in an oval mount are held at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG), Hobart. They were originally held in the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery (QVMAG), Launceston, together with another three hundred or more 1870s mugshots taken at the Hobart Gaol by government contractor Thomas J. Nevin which were acquired by the QVMAG as part of the bequest from the estate of John Watt Beattie in the 1930s. When they were removed from Beattie's collection and taken down to the Port Arthur prison heritage site for an exhibition as part of the Port Arthur Conservation Project in 1983, they were not returned to the QVMAG. They were deposited instead at the TMAG .

The QVMAG list (acquired here in 2005) showed a total of 199 mugshots, but only 72 were physically held at the QVMAG when the list was devised. A total of 127 mugshots were missing by 2005. Two mugshots in this sequence - numbers 198 and 200 of prisoners James Mullens and William Smith, each bearing verso Nevin's government contractor Royal insignia studio stamp - were deposited at the State Library of NSW, Mitchell collection (SLNSW PBX 6274) ca. 1907, among a dozen more which do not bear the numbering on recto.



The Port Arthur Conservation Project 1983, Elspeth Wishart
Notes from the QVMAG catalogue Q1985: P: 0068
Cdv and uncut print of prisoner Bewley Tuck.See this post.

Fifty-six (56) cdvs of Tasmanian prisoners arraigned at the Supreme Court Hobart and photographed at the Hobart Gaol on incarceration and discharge in the 1870s, now held in the TMAG collection, are displayed here. For more information about each prisoner's photograph, and for the prisoner's police records on this site, search by his name.

See these articles:



Prisoner CHARLTON, George
TMAG Ref: Q15571
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner SMITH, Job alias CAMPBELL alias BRODIE
TMAG Ref: Q15572
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner SEWELL, William
TMAG Ref: Q15573
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner GLENN, James
TMAG Ref: Q15574
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner OWENS, Thomas
TMAG Ref: Q15575
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner RYAN, William
TMAG Ref: Q15576
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner GREGSON, John
TMAG Ref: Q15577
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner CAMPBELL, William as SMITH, Job
TMAG Ref: Q15578 see also TMAG Ref: Q15572
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner HARRISON, William
TMAG Ref: Q15579
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner DORAN, Alfred
TMAG Ref: Q15580
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner HESTER, Cornelius
TMAG Ref: Q15581
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner MORAN, John
TMAG Ref: Q15582
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner SMITH, Thomas
TMAG Ref: Q15583
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin






Prisoner DAWSON, William
TMAG Ref: Q15584
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner DUNN, John alias DEMPSEY
TMAG Ref: Q15585
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner DOWLING, John
TMAG Ref: Q15586
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner MERCHANT, James
TMAG Ref: Q15587
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner LEATHLEY, George
TMAG Ref: Q15588
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner BOOTH, Ephraim
TMAG Ref: Q15589
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner PRICE, William
TMAG Ref: Q15590
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner WEST, Robert
TMAG Ref: Q15591
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner WYNNE, James
TMAG Ref: Q15592
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner RYAN, Thomas
TMAG Ref: Q15593
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner SMITH, Henry
TMAG Ref: Q15594
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner BURTON, Phillip
TMAG Ref: Q15595
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner BLORE, Samuel
TMAG Ref: Q15596
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner ROGERS, James
TMAG Ref: Q15597
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner WALMSLEY, Joseph
TMAG Ref: Q15598
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner MAYNE, John
TMAG Ref: Q15599
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner CLABBY, Henry
TMAG Ref: Q15600
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner KELLOW, William
TMAG Ref: Q15601
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner GLEESON, Cornelius
TMAG Ref: Q15602
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner HARRISON, James
TMAG Ref: Q15603
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner BRADY, James
TMAG Ref: Q15604
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner MURPHY, Daniel
TMAG Ref: Q15605
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner KELLY, Stephen
TMAG Ref: Q15606
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner HICKS, Richard
TMAG Ref: Q15607
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner WOOD, Thomas
TMAG Ref: Q15608
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





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





Prisoner NESTOR, John
TMAG Ref: Q15610
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner GROWSETT, George
TMAG Ref: Q15611
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner WHITE, John
TMAG Ref: Q15612
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner FITZPATRICK, John
TMAG Ref: Q15613
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner MARTIN, James
TMAG Ref: Q15614
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner SAYER or SAWYER, William
TMAG Ref: Q15615
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner FISHER, George
TMAG Ref: Q15616
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner WILLIS, George
TMAG Ref: Q15617
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner PHILLIPS, Richard
TMAG Ref: Q15618
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner MALDEN, Samuel
TMAG Ref: Q15619
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner BRITTON or BRITTAIN, John
TMAG Ref: Q15620
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner CLARK, David
TMAG Ref: Q15621
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner WILLIAMS, John
TMAG Ref: Q15622
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner RUSSELL, William
TMAG Ref: Q15623
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner POPE, John per Flinders
TMAG Ref: Q15624
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner DAVIS, Daniel
TMAG Ref: Q15625
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin





Prisoner GLASSFORD, George or WHITE
TMAG Ref: Q15626
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin



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