Sentence of death commuted to life for crime of "buggery" 1857
T. J. Nevin's 1875 mugshot of Daniel Murphy at 20th century national exhibitions
Prisoner MURPHY, Daniel per Gazelle
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin
Taken at the Hobart Gaol, Tasmania, January 1875
1845: sentenced at Fort St. George, India
Former soldier with 11 years' service in the 94th Regiment, 27 yr old Daniel Murphy, Roman Catholic, literate, tall and single, was charged with insubordinate conduct, striking senior officer Drum Major Cochran at Fort St. George, Chennai, India. He was tried at Madras and transported for 14 years, arriving at Hobart, VDL per the Gazelle, on 7 April 1848.
Daniel Murphy per Gazelle - indenture links:
https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/CON16-1-3/CON16-1-3P453
https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/CON16-1-3/CON16-1-3P452
Daniel Murphy's conduct record (below) states his imprisonment "not now chargeable to Indian Government - "vide letter of sect'y of government of India."
Further notes under "Offences & Sentences" on his conduct record stated:
"Tried Hobart Town S. C. 28th July 1857 Buggery. To be hanged commuted to Penal Servitude for Life at Port Arthur vide G.D. letter of C.J. of 10/8/57 filed with judges report of July 1857. The first six months of this period to be passed in the Separate Prison."
Name:Murphy, Daniel
Record Type:Convicts
Employer:Griffiths, George: 1850
Property:Port Arthur Penal Station
Ship:Gazelle
Place of origin:Cork
Police number: 1121
Index number:51629
Record ID:NAME_INDEXES:1421115
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/1421115
1857: unnatural offence
Judgment of death without the slightest hope of mercy was then passed upon Murphy.
TRANSCRIPT
SUPREME COURT
Criminal Sitting
Tuesday, 28th July, 1857
(Before His Honor Mr. Justice Horne.)
The criminal sitting open this morning.
The following is the list of prisoners for trial:
Daniel Murphy and John Protheroe - Unnatural Offence [etc etc]
TRANSCRIPT
Daniel Murphy and John Protheroe were charged with having at North West Bay committed together an unnatural offence. Protheroe was acquitted, and the prisoner Daniel Murphy was found guilty. Judgment of death without the slightest hope of mercy was then passed upon Murphy.
Source:SUPREME COURT. (1857, July 28 and 29). The Courier (Hobart, Tas.), p.3.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2460302
1857: Supreme Court records
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/SC32-1-7/SC32-1-7_0196
June 16, 1857, tried SC Hobart
Daniel Murphy Sodomy Guilty commuted to Life imprisonment
John Protheroe Sodomy Not Guilty
Murphy, Daniel
Record Type: Court
Status: Probation
Trial date: 28 Jul 1857
Place of trial: Hobart town
Offense: Buggery
Verdict: Guilty
Prosecutions Project ID: 99772
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1502562
Link:https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/AB693-1-1/AB693-1-1_037
Fellow offender John Protheroe
John Protheroe, 29 yrs old, Protestant, single, literate and a lime burner, was transported 7 years for housebreaking, arrived Hobart, VDL per the Joseph Somes 1 on 28 May 1846.
"Tried Hobart Town S.C. 28 July 1857 Bxxxxxxy. Acquitted."Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/CON33-1-77/CON33-1-77P168
1875, discharged and photographed
Government contractor T. J. Nevin photographed Daniel Murphy at the Hobart Gaol in the last week of January 1875 on Murphy's discharge. Although a small number of extant cdv's of Tasmanian "convicts" in public collections have yet to be indentified, John Protheroe's would not be among them. He was acquitted of the charge of sodomy, detained but not imprisoned.
Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police (weekly police gazettes), J. Barnard Gov't printer
1875: Ticket-of-Leave with Peter Killeen
The unmounted reprint from Thomas J. Nevin's glass negative taken at his one and only sitting with prisoner Daniel Murphy was created by John Watt Beattie in the late 1890s to early 1900s for inclusion in his 1916 catalogue of convictaria. He arranged the negative prints on cardboard panels in three rows , and housed the cdv's in family albums by name in alphabetical order. They were offered for sale during the tourism boom of the 1920s at his "Port Arthur Museum" located at 51 Murray St. Hobart (Tasmania) and at the Royal Hotel, George St, Sydney (NSW) in conjunction with convictaria exhibited on the fake prison ship Success (1900s-1916).
Left: Print from the original glass plate negative taken by T. J. Nevin 1870s
Offered for sale by J. W. Beattie ca. 1916
QVMAG Collection: Ref : 1983_p_0163-0176
Right: Prisoner MURPHY, Daniel per Gazelle
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin
Taken at the Hobart Gaol, Tasmania January 1875
This copy was first deposited at the QVMAG in the 1930s and numbered verso "204"
Numbered recto "152" in 1983 when removed for exhibition at Port Arthur.
Now held at the TMAG Ref: Q15605
Daniel Murphy and Peter Killeen were both photographed and by Thomas J. Nevin on discharge from the Hobart Gaol with a T.L. (Ticket of Leave) during the week ending 20th January 1875:
TRANSCRIPT
TICKETS-OF-LEAVE
The Governor in Council approves of the Prisoners named hereunder being discharged on Tickets-of-Leave: -
Murphy, Daniel per Gazelle
Killeen, Peter. per M.A. Watson
Left: Mugshot of prisoner Peter Killeen
Print from the original glass plate negative taken by T. J. Nevin 1870s
Offered for sale by J. W. Beattie ca. 1916
QVMAG Collection: Ref : 1983_p_0163-0176
Right: NLA Catalogue (incorrect information)
Peter Killern [sic], per M.A. Watson, taken at Port Arthur, 1874
Part of collection: Convict portraits, Port Arthur, 1874.
Gunson Collection file 203/7/54.
1875- 1894: Daniel Murphy's records
1875: absconding at Cascades
In September 1875, Daniel Murphy was admitted to the Cascades Invalid Depot, Launceston, discharged on 10 December, able to work. He was admitted again in July 1877 and June 1878 when he absconded.
1877-1878: admitted and discharged Cascades, Hobart
1879, January: discharged Cascades, Hobart
1885, March-September: discharged to police
Daniel Murphy was admitted to the New Town Charitable Institution in March 1885 and released to police in September 1885. He died at New Town in 1894, of senile decay, 75 yrs old.
1894, August 31: death at New Town Charitable Institution
Death of Daniel Murphy 31 August 1894 at New Town of senile decay, 75 yrs old.
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/1140244
T. J. Nevin's mugshots at 20th century exhibitions
Thomas J. Nevin's photograph of prisoner Daniel MURPHY (1875) was repeatedly exhibited from the early 1900s to the early 2000s along with dozens of similar 1870s mugshots held in national public collections. Catalogued as "convict portraits" and curated as aesthetic items on gallery walls for the middle-class gaze as the 20th century progressed, the first and by far the most significant "curator" was John Watt Beattie at his "Port Arthur Museum" located at 51 Murray Street, Hobart, where he advertised reprints of the originals for sale in his 1916 Catalogue.
1916: John Watt Beattie's catalogue
Daniel Murphy, bottom row, third from right.
One of forty(40) prints of 1870s Tasmania prisoners in three panels
Prints from the original glass negatives taken by T. J. Nevin 1870s
Reprinted and offered for sale by J. W. Beattie ca. 1916
QVMAG Collection: Ref : 1983_p_0163-0176
1977: the QVMAG Exhibition
This copy of the cdv on a buff mount produced by Thomas J. Nevin was one of at least four duplicates he made for police and prison records in the 1870s. One was pasted to the prisoner's rap sheet, one was pasted into the Municipal Police Office central registry's Photo Books, and the remaining were forwarded to regional police stations wherever the prisoner was assigned employment. The verso of this copy was inscribed by Beattie in the early 1900s with the number "204", the name of the prisoner, the ship on which he was transported and the factually incorrect phrase "Taken at Port Arthur 1874" in the interest of tourism to the heritage site's ruins.
An exhibition of these 1870s prisoner photographs by T. J. Nevin was held at the QVMAG in 1977, curated by John McPhee and Special Collections Librarian (Tas) Geoff Stilwell.
Prisoner MURPHY, Daniel per Gazelle
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin
Taken at the Hobart Gaol, Tasmania January 1875
This copy was first deposited at the QVMAG in the 1930s and numbered verso "204"
Numbered recto "152" in 1983 when removed for exhibition at Port Arthur.
Now held at the TMAG Ref: Q15605
Verso:Prisoner MURPHY, Daniel per Gazelle
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin
Taken at the Hobart Gaol, Tasmania January 1875
This copy was first deposited at the QVMAG in the 1930s and numbered verso "204"
Numbered recto "152" in 1983 when removed for exhibition at Port Arthur.
Now held at the TMAG Ref: Q15605
PRESS NOTICE
TRANSCRIPT
CONVICT photos at Launceston
HISTORIC photographs showing convicts at Port Arthur in 1874 will be exhibited at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery at Launceston from tomorrow to May 2.
The work of T. J. Nevin, the photos are being shown at Launceston for the first time.
Many of the men shown in the pictures had been transported to Port Arthur as young boys 40 years earlier.
The curator of fine art at the museum, Mr. John McPhee, said yesterday that the photos had "a quality far beyond that of records".
"Just once rascally, occasionally noble, always pathetic, these photographs are among the most moving and powerful images of the human condition," he said.
Source: Convict photos at Launceston, Mercury, 10th March 1977
1983: Port Arthur Heritage site exhibition
At least fifty of these prisoner photographs from the 1870s which were originally held in the QVMAG collection were removed in 1983 for an exhibition at the Port Arthur heritage site and not returned, deposited instead at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart. Those missing on the QVMAG inventory list were inscribed with a pencilled number to keep track of them when they were physically removed from the QVMAG by the exhibitors. Only 72 cdvs of the much larger acquisition from Beattie's estate in the 1930s are now extant at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston.
Prisoner MURPHY, Daniel per Gazelle
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin
Taken at the Hobart Gaol, Tasmania January 1875
This copy was first deposited at the QVMAG in the 1930s and numbered verso "204"
Numbered recto "152" in 1983 when removed for exhibition at Port Arthur.
Now held at the TMAG Ref: Q15605
This numbered inventory devised in the 1980s of the collection of 1870s Tasmanian mugshots originally acquired by the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston from the estate of photographer and convictarian John Watt Beattie shows that the number "152" in pencil underneath Murphy's image on the mount was physically missing from the QVMAG holdings. It was removed for exhibition at the Port Arthur Development Project in the 1980s along with another 120 or so; only 72 of those listed from 1-200 remained. Those that were removed were sent to the National Library of Australia, Canberra; the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart; the Archives Office of Tasmania, Hobart; and the Port Arthur Historic Site, Tasman Peninsula. This dissemination of copies was intended to augment national and state collections and for travelling exhibitions.
The mounted cdv photograph of Daniel Murphy, numbered "152" is shown here (pencilled) as missing from the 1980s inventory of Beattie's collection of convict mugshots at the QVMAG. Those 50 os so that were instead deposited at the TMAG from the 1983 Port Arthur exhibition were then used to re-assign Thomas J. Nevin's photographer attribution to a public official, superintendent of the Port Arthur prison, A. H. Boyd, not a photographer in any genre or sense of the word, at the whim and fancy of his descendants. This fabrication then led to confusion if not downright suspicion of deliberate fakery of a photographer attribution to talk up the significance of Port Arthur as Tasmania's premier tourist attraction.
2000: National Portrait Gallery
The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery constructed four wooden-framed collages under glass from their collection of Thomas Nevin's prisoner mugshots for an exhibition titled Mirror with a Memory at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, in 2000. Daniel Murphy's image was placed top row, centre in this frame. However, for reasons best described as blind-sided, the TMAG staff who chose these mugshots sent the four frames to Canberra, five cdvs in the first, six per frame in the other three, with labels on the back of each wooden frame stating quite clearly that the photographs were attributed to A. H. Boyd, the much despised Commandant of the Port Arthur prison who was not a photographer by any definition of the term, nor an engineer despite any pretension on his part and especially despite the social pretensions of his descendants who began circulating the photographer attribution as a rumour in the 1980s to compensate no doubt for Boyd's vile reputation.
Names as they appear on the back of the wooden frame:
Top, from left to right: John White, Daniel Murphy, James Harrison
Bottom from left to right: Daniel Davis, George Willis, James Martin
Photos recto and verso copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2014-2015
Taken at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, 10 November 2014
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