Prisoner William SAYER or SAWYER 1875

William Sawyer, also known as Sayer(s), arrived in Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) on the Chapman in 1824, transported for seven years for theft of money. When Thomas J. Nevin photographed him for police records in 1875 at the termination of a sentence passed in 1868 at the Supreme Court Hobart of ten years for sheep stealing, he was 76 yrs old.

Prisoner SAYER or SAWYER, William
TMAG Ref: Q15615
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin, 1875

Verso: prisoner SAYER or SAWYER, William per "Chapman"
TMAG Ref: Q15615
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin, 1875

Transportation Records
Crime: Theft
Convicted at: Suffolk Quarter Sessions
Sentence term: 7 years
Ship: Chapman
Departure date: 6th April, 1824
Arrival date: 27th July, 1824
Place of arrival: Van Diemen's Land
Passenger manifest: Travelled with 179 other convicts

Sources: https://convictrecords.com.au/convicts/sawyer/william/111889
Australian Joint Copying Project. Microfilm Roll 88, Class and Piece Number HO11/5, Page Number 145 (74)

Name: Sawyer, William
Record Type: Convicts
Departure date: 6 Apr 1824
Departure port: England
Ship: Chapman (1)
Voyage number: 35
Remarks: Tried Hobart Oct 1838
Index number: 62456
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1432240
Source; https://stors.tas.gov.au/NI/1432240

Marriage of William Sayer to Sarah Wickham 1836
William Sayer married Sarah Wickham at St. John's Church, New Town, Hobart, on 21st July, 1836. She would have been no more than sixteen years old whereas William Sayer/Sayers/Sawyer was 36 yrs old, born in 1799 and 24 yrs old when he was transported on the Chapman in 1824 to serve seven years. Witnesses to the marriage were John and Mary Baily of Hobart Town. William Sayer had gained a Ticket of Leave three years earlier, on 10th May 1833, and a Free Certificate on 21st October 1833.

Name:Sayers, William
Record Type: Marriages
Gender: Male
Spouse: Wickham, Sarah
Gender:Female
Date of marriage:21 Jul 1836
Registered:Hobart
Registration year:1836
Record ID:NAME_INDEXES:822703

Police Record of William Sawyer or Sayer 1868-75
William Sawyer/Sayer was residing with his co-offender John Bradley and John Bradley's wife when he was arrested for theft of a sheep and mutton.

TRANSCRIPT

John Bradley and William Sayers were charged with having on the 19th January stolen a sheep, the property of Daniel Reynolds, and in a second count with having on the same day stolen 20lbs. of mutton, being part of a sheep, the property of the said Reynolds.
Sayers pleaded guilty, and Bradley not guilty. The former was remanded, and the trial of the latter was proceeded with.

Source: The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954) Thu 13 Feb 1868 Page 2 LAW.

The Police Gazette records of convictions and discharges are the most reliable means for accurately establishing the dates on which Thomas J. Nevin produced the several hundred mugshots of Tasmanian prisoners during his commission as commercial photographer, government contractor and civil servant, 1872-1886. This record dates the photograph of William Sawyer or Sayer to March 1875, taken in the fortnight before his discharge.

Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police, March 1875, J. Barnard Gov't Printer

William Sawyer or Sayer, originally from Ipswich (born 1799, Suffolk, UK) and transported on the ship Chapman in 1824, was tried in the Supreme Court, Hobart on 11th February 1868, sentenced to 10 years. He was 76 years old when he was discharged with a ticket of leave (TOL) in 1875. The police recorded his height on discharge as 5 ft 11½ inches tall, with grey hair and a scar on right of upper lip. He was photographed by Thomas J. Nevin on discharge from the Hobart Gaol in the week ending 17th March 1875. He died in 1883, apparently with no further convictions recorded by the police from the date of discharge which occasioned this mugshot and no other subsequently.

Divorce of Sarah and William Sawyer or Sayer 1870
At some point after their marriage in 1836, William and Sarah Sawyer lived at Bothwell, Tasmania. He worked as a shepherd for E. Nicholas at Pine Tier (central highlands) but by 1862 he was thought to have departed the colony.This notice appeared in the weekly police gazette of 30th November 1866. But by 1868, he was resident at Broadmarsh in Tasmania when he was arrested, convicted at the Supreme Court, and incarcerated at the Hobart Gaol.

TRANSCRIPT

INFORMATION is requested as to the whereabouts and circumstances of William Sawyer, formerly residing at Bothwell, and employed as shepherd by E. Nicholas, Esquire, of the Pine Tier, Marlborough. He is supposed to have left this Colony in 1862 or 1863.

William Sawyer reported missing,
Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police, 30th November 1866.

When Sarah Sawyer applied for divorce in September 1870, the judgment was reserved with no explanation, but possibly because William Sawyer was incarcerated, currently serving ten years, and possibly because his wife Sarah Sawyer/Sayer was dying of rectal cancer.

Source: The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas. : 1835 - 1880) Wed 21 Sep 1870 Page 3 No title

TRANSCRIPT

The divorce case, "Sarah Sayer v. William Sayer", was heard to-day. Judgment was reserved. The parties were married in Hobart Town.

Death of Sarah Sawyer/Sayer 1873
On the 19th November 1873, Sarah Sawyer died at the General Hospital, Hobart of cancer of the rectum. She was 53 yrs old, a servant, born in Belfast ca.1820.

Name:Sawyer, Sarah
Record Type: Deaths
Gender: Female
Age: 3
Date of death: 19 Nov 1873
Registered: Hobart
Registration year: 1873
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1151040
Resource: RGD35/1/8 no 1789

Death of William Sawyer 1883
William Sawyer died of "senilis" at the New Town Pauper Establishment on 14th May, 883. He was 84 yrs old. His burial record stated he was a Protestant.

Names: Sawyer, William
Record Type: Deaths
Gender: Male
Age: 84
Date of death: 14 May 1883
Registered: Hobart
Registration year: 1883
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1230474
Resource: RGD35/1/10 no 880

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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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 was built on the traditional lands, nipaluna/Hobart, 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 people of the Australian Capital Territory 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.

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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