Showing posts with label Attribution Issues. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Attribution Issues. Show all posts

Beware AI generated images of your criminal ancestors!

Eugenicist Hamish Maxwell-Stewart's AI fake photographs of 19th century Tasmanian convicts
Breaches of Moral Rights and Copyright of heritage property using AI generated data
Thomas J. Nevin's real photographs/mugshots of Tasmanian prisoners taken in the 1870s-1880s.



Source of talk at the National Family History Month - Opening Ceremony
- https://familyhistorymonth.org.au/index.php/videos/video/2023-opening-ceremony
Topic: Artificial Intelligence

PRETTY CARTOONS
Why would you accept an AI generated image of your deceased family member which was made from data taken from various unrelated photographic and non-photographic sources when you may already possess a real photograph of that person or their immediate descendant? Then don't. Protest about this to the National Trust of Tasmania, to the Australian Research Council and the Australian Copyright Council.

No extent of warnings that the images created are FAKE will ever account for Hamish Maxwell-Stewart's waste of public research money in this, his latest attempt at messing up the digital environment with FAKE images of your deceased family members which he has assigned to YOUR REAL FAMILY NAMES. These images are FICTIONS playing with eugenics and phrenology all over again, this time with a new toy called ChatGPT. The resultant image of YOUR CONVICT is a pretty cartoon akin to the coloured drawings created by Simon Barnard's representation of convicts in his illustrated book Convict tattoos : marked men and women of Australia, (Melbourne, Vic. The Text Publishing Company, 2016.) Website: https://www.simonbarnard.com.au/product/convict-tattoos/

In a new exhibition assisted by Andrew Redfern called UNSHACKLED (2023) proposed for the National Trust at the old Penitentiary, Hobart Gaol, Campbell Street, Maxwell-Stewart wants you to believe this nonsensical indulgence is worthwhile. No it isn't. It's a waste of time and money, with no authentic historical merit and no apology for any distress he is causing to bearers of those family names. He has created FAKE images of 19th Tasmanian prisoners to show YOU what your ancestor MIGHT have looked like, subsuming in the process those real photographs already extant in Australian public collections, correctly attributed to government contractor Thomas J. Nevin taken in the 1870s, and now building on a previous mess of FAKE and homogenised "Port Arthur offenders" images of 1870s prisoners he developed for an earlier exhibition held there at the Old Penitentiary in 2019.

The field called criminal anthropology (to which this project affects an affiliation) long ago discredited Lombroso's stereotype, the "criminal type", with Goring's study published in 1913 of  statistics gathered from 3000 prisoners in British prisons over a ten year-period:


Dr. Charles Goring, Deputy Medical Officer of H. M. Prison, London, in the Most Important Contribution of Recent Years to Criminology Upsets Accepted Theories Through Statistics Gathered from 3,000 Convicts.



"THERE IS NO CRIMINAL TYPE," SAYS PRISON EXPERT
THE NEW YORK TIMES
November 2, 1913, Sunday Section: Magazine Section, Page SM13, 4250 words
THE 'criminal type' is an anthropological monster. There is no such thing as a criminal type.' In other words, the criminal is a normal person, not markedly different from the rest of humanity who have managed to keep out of prison. In other words, there are in ministers and Cambridge undergraduates and college professors the making of pickpockets and thieves, as well as murderers and forgers...
Read about the REAL photographs of Tasmanian prisoners ("convicts" in tourism discourse) taken by government contractor Thomas J. NEVIN in the 1870s-1880:

- https://tasmanianphotographer.blogspot.com/2008/07/the-parkhurst-prisoners-anthropometry.html
- https://tasmanianphotographer.blogspot.com/2019/07/exhibition-2019-t-j-nevins-mugshot-of.html.
- https://prisonerpics.blogspot.com/.
- https://thomasnevin.com/category/19th-century-prison-photography/

Clip: Beware AI generated images of your criminal ancestors! #1



Clip uploaded to Thomas Nevin's Youtube channel:
- https://www.youtube.com/@klwnfcgroup/featured
- https://youtu.be/av_9D3mZ3wQ?si=-3Hmzr1syfiYEB5k

Note here Maxwell-Stewart's assumption that his gratuitous act of using the NAMES and photographic records of REAL people and their families to attach to his AI generated FANTASY IMAGES of their ancestors is perfectly fine. It is not. He is breaching their moral rights and their copyright.

TRANSCRIPT
0:00 so I wanted to quickly say a little bit
0:02 about how we're generating those images
0:03 so the the AI takes the physical
0:06 description from the record the age of
0:09 the prisoner and where they're born and
0:11 it matches them to 19th century prison
0:14 and other photographs that we've
0:17 harvested online now again as we get
0:20 better at this what I want to do is to
0:23 create our own
0:25 um resource of images
0:28 um so that we can fine-tune this
0:31 experience but the images of individual
0:34 convicts have been created by merging
0:36 multiple photographs which share
0:38 characteristics
with their record
0:41 and the faces that have been generated
0:43 are really quite striking so this is um
0:46 one we generated for William Allen and
0:48 again this is almost certainly not what
0:50 William Allen would have looked like
but
0:52 I think it's it's best seen as the AI's
0:54 best guess at what he might have looked
0:56 like
0:58 and this allows us to um you know we're
1:01 playing around with slogans now for this
1:03 experience
1:11 and we can also do this so this is
1:13 Michael Heath who's one of our amazing
1:16 volunteers there are about 40 volunteers
1:19 who just pump data into various um
1:22 projects that digital history Tasmania
1:24 is focusing on
1:26 um Michael like many of you are the
1:27 volunteers who who spend time with with
1:30 DHT
1:32 um is a descendant of a convict and so
1:34 we fed his photograph into the AI and
1:37 this is the the image that the AI came
1:40 up with for his
1:42 convict ancestor and I think this gives
1:45 you an indication of how we can we can
1:47 get better at this image Generation by
1:49 seeding more and more photographs in we
1:52 want to use the photographs that James [sic - John]
1:55 Watt Beattie took uh Tasmanians in the
1:58 1890s because we'll know a lot about
2:01 their descent to fine-tune this process
2:04 um even further
2:07 and here you can see a whole lot more of
2:10 these and we're hoping that that this
2:13 the AI will provide a new way for
2:16 visitors to Hobart to engage with the
2:19 convict past and to actually understand
2:21 the work that family historians and
2:23 academic historians have done ...
Source: Beware AI generated images of your criminal ancestors! #1
Thomas J. Nevin: https://youtu.be/av_9D3mZ3wQ?si=-3Hmzr1syfiYEB5k

What is the point of this expensive project, apart from Maxwell-Stewart's personal motivation to prolong his academic career in the space of penal history? Attendees at this talk expressed strong misgivings that the CREATED IMAGES of their ancestors, using both mugshots and family photographs, will not be fully understood as AI FICTIONS when viewed and copied. These are some of their questions and responses from Maxwell-Stewart and Andrew Redfern:



Clip: Beware AI generated images of your criminal ancestors! #2
https://youtu.be/yhiCaXMadqk?si=3FGNzVZWBDVhjALp

TRANSCRIPT
0:01 uh where there are known photographs of
0:04 convicts I have one of a convict as an
0:06 older man could these be compared with
0:09 an AI generated image to test the
0:12 accuracy
0:15 um yes so one of the things that AI can
0:17 do is unage a photograph
0:20 and so
0:22 um yeah that's I think great potential
0:25 for using photographs taken at different
0:27 stages in life to try and reconstruct
0:31 what somebody might have looked like at
0:32 a younger age
0:35 and I think your example to Hamish of
0:37 the um your volunteer that you uploaded
0:40 his photo and then generated the
0:42 ancestor I think that's a great example
0:44 of that as well where the the two yes it
0:47 can sort of take Modern Images or other
0:49 images and then cross-reference and
0:51 correlate
0:54 and there's a great line in in the chat
0:56 as well for Maureen about
0:58 um how do we prevent these being passed
1:00 ff as the real images online and I mean
1:02 I think that's a that is a huge danger
1:04 and so as a community I think that we
1:06 have to construct guidelines for the use
1:10 of all of this
1:11 um you know when the penitentiary
1:14 experience on Chapel goes live we need
1:16 to have a
1:17 um a statement about how these images
1:19 were created and they're not what the
1:22 individual would have looked like but
1:24 it's using the best tools in order to
1:27 try and imagine what they might have
1:28 looked like
1:30 um and there's a a an interesting little
1:34 line from Michelle there as well which
1:36 um I totally agree with and we we tend
1:38 to We tend to there's a danger of
1:40 thinking that particularly paintings or
1:43 newspaper images of convicts that were
1:46 done at the time are the Real McCoy
1:49 whereas of course they are often very
1:52 strongly influenced by people's um
1:55 attitudes towards um convicts or people
1:58 of various classes or in different
1:59 people of different Sexes and so you
2:02 know using the originals doesn't
2:04 necessarily get us out of the minefield
2:07 hmm and Fran has also asked will the
2:11 images be marked saying that they're
2:13 produced by AI
I guess that is related
2:17 to what tool you're using
2:19 yes most definitely we will
2:24 um yes and um that's been
2:27 um we're certainly working going back
2:31 now and doing any images that we've uh
2:33 generated through the Ironclad
2:34 Sisterhood project we're going to
2:36 explicitly have I mean it says it on the
2:38 web page that they're AI but we're
2:40 actually going to put it on each
2:41 individual photo
as well so that if they
2:44 do get copied uh which I'm sure we've
2:47 all had that happen with you know people
2:49 copying things in online trees that at
2:52 least hopefully that will alert others
2:56 that they
2:57 um artificially intelligent intelligence
3:00 generated images
3:02 hmm
Youtube and transcript source:
Beware AI generated images of your criminal ancestors! #2
https://youtu.be/yhiCaXMadqk?si=3FGNzVZWBDVhjALp

RELATED POSTS main weblog

Prisoner Cornelius HESTER, photograph by T. J. Nevin 1874

PRISONERS Cornelius Hester, Alfred Harrington and James Connolly 1870
Missing MUGSHOTS Tasmanian prisoners 1870s
B. Travers SOLLY and A. H. BOYD: the memo January 1874

As a result of their respective trials and imprisonment held in October 1870, photographs taken by T. J. Nevin for police and prison administration of two prisoners, Cornelius Hester and James Connolly, have survived and are held in public collections. A photograph of the third prisoner sentenced on the same date, Alfred Harrington, if one ever existed, is not extant, for possible reasons - see below for  further discussion.

Prisoner Cornelius Hester



Prisoner HESTER, Cornelius
Photographed on discharge at Hobart (not Port Arthur) October 1874
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin, government contractor, Hobart, Tasmania
TMAG Ref: Q15581



Prisoner HESTER, Cornelius (verso)
Photographed on discharge at Hobart (not Port Arthur) October 1874
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin, government contractor, Hobart, Tasmania
TMAG Ref: Q15581

TIMELINE: prisoner Cornelius HESTER

1852: Transported to Hobart
Prisoner Cornelius Hester was 35 yrs old when he arrived at Hobart on 16 December 1852 on board the Equestrian (3). Later annotations on this record for 10 year sentence in 1876, discharged 1883:
Supreme Court Launceston 6th January 1876 Housebreaking. 10 yrs imprisonment. Discharged to freedom 5.4.83



Hester, Cornelius
Record Type: Convicts
Employer: Clark, G.C.: 1856 [at Ellinthorpe]
Departure date: 1 Sep 1852
Departure port: Plymouth
Ship: Equestrian (3)
Voyage number: 357
Index number: 32340
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1401272

Summary of trials after arrival in Tasmania:

Trial Id 582695
CORNELIUS HESTER MALE HOUSEBREAKING 1876-01-06 S. C. LAUNCESTON 10 YRS.
Trial Id 598135
CORNELIUS HESTER MALE LARCENY 1888-01-03 DELORAINE 1 MTH
Trial Id 601137
CORNELIUS HESTER MALE HOUSEBREAKING 1876-01-06 S. C. LAUNCESTON 10 YRS.
Trial Id 605875
CORNELIUS HESTER MALE LARCENY 1888-01-07 DELORAINE 1 MONTH
Trial Id 618722
CORNELIUS HESTER MALE ABSCONDING 1865-11-01 HOBART 5 YEARS
Trial Id 620427
CORNELIUS HESTER MALE LARCENY IN A DWELLING 1870-10-20 S. C. LAUNCESTON 5 YEARS
Trial Id 99704
CORNELIUS HESTER MALE LARCENY 1857-04-15 GUILTY 2 YEARS
Trial Id 112331
CORNELIUS HESTER MALE LARCENY IN A DWELLING HOUSE 1870-09-29 GUILTY 5 YEARS

Source: The Prosecution Project Search Results (griffith.edu.au)

1857: Larceny
Hester, Cornelius was sentenced to two years' imprisonment
Record Type: Court
Status: Free by servitude
Trial date: 15 Apr 1857
Offense: Larceny
Verdict: Guilty
Prosecutions Project ID: 99704
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1503755
Archive Office Tasmania. Link: https://stors.tas.gov.au/AB693-1-1$init=AB693-1-1_036

1865: absconding from the Domain



Source: WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 20. (1865, September 21). Launceston Examiner (Tas. : 1842 - 1899), p. 3 (MORNING.).
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article38662493

TRANSCRIPT
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 20.
(Before W. Gunn, Esq., P.M., and J. J. Hudson, Esq., J.P.
Absconding.--Cornelius Hester was charged by Detective Lanham with absconding. On 16th inst. he was brought up, charged with having on the 14th of February last absconded from the gang at work on the Domain at Hobart Town, whilst undergoing a sentence of nine months' imprisonment for larceny, and was remanded to Hobart Town for examination, Prisoner was accordingly en route for Hobart Town when he was apprehended by Detective Lanham for having absconded from Carrick Watchhouse on the 3rd June last whilst undergoing a sentence of twelve months' imprisonment for larceny. Since prisoner's absconding from Hobart Town he has suffered two sentences in the House of Correction, Launceston. The Bench sentenced prisoner to three years' hard labor in chains.
Launceston Examiner (Tas. : 1842 - 1899), Thursday 21 September 1865, page 3

1870: Larceny at Longford
Cornelius Hester pleaded guilty to stealing goods from Mrs Brumby's hotel, Longford, on 18th September. He was remanded for sentence.
Source: TELEGRAPHIC DESPATCHES. (1870, October 21). The Tasmanian Times (Hobart Town, Tas. : 1867 - 1870), p. 2.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article232960954
Cornelius Hester pleaded guilty to the charge of stealing, at Longford, on the 19th September, blankets, rings, lockets, &c., the property of Thomas Goodman. He was remanded for sentence.
Source: CRIMINAL JURISDICTION. (1870, October 22). The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas. : 1835 - 1880), p. 6.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article67114781



Cornelius Hester was convicted of larceny in a dwelling house at the Supreme Court, Launceston on 20th October 1870, sentenced to five years. He was transferred to the Hobart Gaol in December 1870.

1874: Discharged



Prisoner Cornelius Hester was photographed by Thomas J. Nevin in the week prior to discharge at the Hobart Gaol, 28th October 1874.

1876: Housebreaking
Sentenced to 10 years - see trial dates above.

1888: Pauper or invalid

Hester, Cornelius
Record Type: Health & Welfare
Description: Pauper or invalid
Property: Launceston Invalid Depot
New Town Charitable Institute
Admission dates: 25 Jul 1888 to 14 Nov 1888, 02 Mar 1889 to 27 Dec 1889, 19 Jul 1890 to 28 Nov 1890, 30 Apr 1891 to 06 May 1891, 06 May 1891 to 06 Oct 1891
Ship to colony: Equestrian 3
Paupers & Invalids no.: pi0808200
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1607182
Archives Office Tasmania https://stors.tas.gov.au/NI/1607182

1893: Death
Hester Cornelius died of senility at the Invalid Depot, Launceston on 11 October1893.

Hester, Cornelius
Record Type: Deaths
Gender: Male
Age: 73
Date of death: 11 Oct 1893
Registered: Launceston
Registration year: 1893
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1241403
Resource: RGD35/1/62 no 326
Archives Office Tasmania
Link: https://stors.tas.gov.au/RGD35-1-62$init=RGD35-1-62_30

Prisoner Alfred Harrington
When Cornelius Hester was sentenced to five years' imprisonment for larceny at the Supreme Court, Hobart, on 20th October 1870, three more prisoners were convicted on the same day: William Burns for common assault on a woman ( 12 months' imprisonment); Alfred Harrington for manslaughter (10 years' imprisonment); and James Connolly for wilful murder (sentence of death).



Prisoners Hester, Harrington, Connolly, Gibbs and Smith; sentenced 20 Oct. 1870)
SENTENCES. (1870, October 25). Cornwall Advertiser (Launceston, Tas. : 1870 - 1877), p. 2.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article232998467

1870: manslaughter



Sentences for prisoner Alfred Harrington 29 Oct 1870
SUPREME COURT. (1870, October 29). The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas. : 1835 - 1880), p. 4.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article67115938

TRANSCRIPT
SENTENCES.
Cornelius Hester, who pleaded guilty on Thursday to stealing goods in a dwelling house at Longford, called on Dr Lewis to speak for him.
Dr. Lewis said that Hester had been suffering from disease of the heart when at Port Arthur.
His Honor reviewed the past career of the prisoner and sentenced him to five years' imprisonment.

William Burns convicted of a common assault on Elizabeth Maguire, was sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment.

Alfred Harrington, convicted of the manslaughter of David Johnson, at Mangana, said he was a poor unfortunate man, and he hoped his Honor would be lenient with him for the sake of his wife and children.

His Honor — Alfred Harrington, yours is a very painful case. You, a young man in the prime of life, might have had to answer with your life for the offence of which you stand charged. You deprived an unfortunate man of life, and I have no doubt that every day of your future life to the last day of it you will regret the act. You come before me with high testimonials in your favour; the witnesses ' spoke very favorably of your character and kindness of disposition. I have received further testimony in your favour from the Warden of Clarence, the chaplain of Clarence, and other gentlemen. I have no doubt you dealt the fatal blows under great provocation, but finding that you had disabled the unfortunate man by one blow, was there any necessity for you to repeat that blow, not once but twice? This was far beyond what was necessary for the protection of your own life, and it is here you have gone wrong. It is this act which you must ever regret. The discretion vested in the judge with regard to the punishment of manslaughter is a very wide one ; the term of imprisonment for the offence may be made very short, or extended for the whole term of life. In your case I must take into account the seriousness of the crime, and mark it so as to induce you (and others who may be similarly situated) to be cautious not to use a weapon further than is necessary for the protection of your own life. The sentence of the Court is that you be imprisoned for eight years.

James Connolly or McArdell, convicted of the wilful murder of John Burton, at Westbury. in June last, was a venerable looking old man, with a profile very like the portrait of the Duke of Wellington towards the close of his life, said, " I hope your Lordship will look over it as I didn't know what I was going to do. I hope you will be as I favourable as possible, as I have been so unfortunate. The crime I never intended to do at all; and it was all along of my landlord who was the instigation of me doing it.'

His Honor. — James Conolly you have been convicted of the wilful murder of John Burton —

Prisoner. — Well, I'm informed so your Honor, but I did not know I was doing it.

His Honor.— It is now too late for you to address me. You are convicted of the murder of a man who did not offend you but was merely splitting a tree in obedience to his master's orders. If you had any cause of complaint it was with his master, not him, yet you deliberately went up to him and with a blow of an axe deprived him of life. For such a crime as this, deliberate murder, the law assigns but one punishment. You are a very old man, and it is my duty to advise you to make the best use of the short time that may remain to you of life. Seek for reparation for your enormous crime while it is yet time at the fountain of mercy. You will be attended by the minister of your denomination, and I implore you to attend to his guidance. His Honor then pronounced sentence of death in the usual form, and the poor dazed old man touched his forelock respectfully, and descended the steps leading from the dock.

The Court rose at 5 p.m.
Source: SUPREME COURT. (1870, October 29). The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas. : 1835 - 1880), p. 4.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article67115938

Summary of trials: Alfred Harrington
Trial Id 112303
ALFRED HARRINGTON MALE MURDER 1870-08-05 GUILTY OF MANSLAUGHTER 8 YEARS
Trial Id 620431
ALFRED HARRINGTON MALE MANSLAUGHTER 1870-10-20 S. C. LAUNCESTON 8 YEARS
Source: Search Results (griffith.edu.au)

Read more about prisoner Alfred Harrington in this post:
A missing or unidentified mugshot : prisoner Alfred HARRINGTON

Prisoner James Connolly
Government contractor Thomas J. Nevin photographed this prisoner James Connolly (or Conly) at the Hobart Gaol on the prisoner's transfer from Port Arthur on 29th November 1876 (Conduct PA Register Con 94-1-2 1873-76 State Library Tasmania).

Death sentences
Trial Id 30553
JAMES CONNOLLY MALE MURDER 1883-04-05 LAUNCESTON DOBSON GUILTY DEATH COMMUTED TO IMP. FOR LIFE
Trial Id 112288
JAMES CONNOLLY MALE MURDER 1870-06-14 GUILTY DEATH. COMMUTED TO PS FOR LIFE
Source: Search Results (griffith.edu.au)



Prisoner James Connolly was photographed in November 1876 by Thomas Nevin at the Hobart Gaol (QVMAG Collection: Ref. No.Q1985_p_0086).



Photocopy of the QVMAG cdv held at the Archives Office Tasmania, Hobart, of prisoner James Connolly, photographed in November 1876 by Thomas Nevin at the Hobart Gaol (P30/1/3231).

Read more about prisoner James Connolly in this post:
Hobart Gaol camera and mugshot books 1891-1901

C. S. Travers Solly & missing mugshot of Alfred Harrington
Photographs taken by T. J. Nevin for police and prison administration of two prisoners, Cornelius Hester and James Connolly have survived and are held in public collections. A photograph of Alfred Harrington, if one ever existed, is not extant. It might never have existed since Harrington served out his sentence at Port Arthur. He was not transferred to the Hobart Gaol with the first group of 60 prisoners from Port Arthur who were photographed by Nevin on being received at Hobart between 1872 and early 1873; nor was he included in the second group of 109 prisoners whose names were tabled in Parliament on 23 July 1873 to be relocated to the Hobart Gaol as a matter of some urgency with calls from both members of Parliament and the public at large to close down the Port Arthur prison.

The Colonial Secretary B. Travers Solly requested a photograph of prisoner Alfred Harrington and two other absconders in January 1874 from the Port Arthur prison commandant, A. H. Boyd, as none were extant. A. H. Boyd, however, had already vacated the post under allegations of corruption, although he was paid until March 1874 when Dr. Coverdale assumed the position. The Colonial Secretary's simple request in a memo to A. H. Boyd dated January 4, 1874, for prisoners' photographs has been touted (by Reeder 1992, Long 1995, Clark 2010) as evidence that it was none other than A. H. Boyd himself who was personally undertaking the process of photographing each and every prisoner, even though he was absent from the post by January 1874, and no photograph in any genre, least of all portraits, has ever surfaced from his own family let alone on official records: none has ever been validated in any way creditable as an authentic work by A. H. Boyd. His accreditation has simply grown out of a desire at the Port Arthur Historic Site to impress tourists. It is a fabrication which has since grown into a full-blown personal fantasy paraded as research (Clark, 2015). Professional photographer Thomas J. Nevin was and still is the only fully-accredited government contractor on record who photographed Tasmanian prisoners ("Port Arthur convicts" is the phrase in touristic spin) at Port Arthur from 1872 through to the mid 1880s.

The letter of 7 January 1874 
The letter (below) was sent by Colonial Secretary B. Travers Solly (1820-1902) from his office at Government House on the Queen's Domain, Hobart, Tasmania, dated 7th January 1874 to the former Commandant of the Port Arthur prison, A.H. Boyd. The letter asks Boyd to send photographic copies of prisoners who had absconded - from work gangs on Hobart's Domain, not from Port Arthur - but Boyd was already absent from his Port Arthur position by December 1873, forced to resign. There is NOTHING in this document that suggests the photographer was or would be Boyd himself. Yet this one document has spawned the personal ambitions of Boyd's descendants and his apologists in the tourism business in the 20th century to claim that here is proof enough to claim Boyd was THE photographer of more than 300 mugshots extant in public collections of Tasmanian prisoners. There were cameras and photographic equipment belonging to professional photographers Samuel Clifford and Thomas Nevin readily available on site from July 1873 to May 1874 when they were requested to provide the Parliament with visual evidence of Boyd's neglect of the prison buildings and illegal deforestation of the site, but none belonged to Boyd nor were they used by Boyd to photograph prison inmates.

TRANSCRIPT
D. 14 0
C.S.O.
7th January 1874
My dear Sir, Will you be good enough, by return of post, to send up half a dozen copies of photographs of the two "Greigson's" who absconded yesterday from the Gang employed

A. H. Boyd Esq.
Civil Commandant

employed in the Domain.
It will be a good plan to send up photographs of all prisoners transferred to Hobart Town, and I should esteem it a favor if you will do so at your early convenience.

I remain etc
B. Travers Solly



Source: Archives Office Tasmania
Colonial Secretary's Office 1869-1874
CSD7/1/60 file 1470 (not online)

RELATED POSTS main weblog

T. J. NEVIN's cdv's of Wm PRICE and Wm YEOMANS; A. H. BOYD's testimony 1875

Mugshots of Tasmanian "convicts" taken by Thomas J. NEVIN 1870s
National collections and exhibitions of Tasmanian mugshots in the 20th & 21st centuries.
A. H. BOYD's dismal career in public office; his misattribution by the NLA.

Thomas J. Nevin's original photographs of Tasmanian prisoners (or "Port Arthur convicts" when used in tourism discourse) which he provided on government contract for police in Hobart from 1872 to the 1886 included these two mounted carte-de-visite mugshots of prisoners William Price and William Yeomans. Both cdvs held at the National Library of Australia were spared numbering on the recto when accessioned in the 1960s from government estrays donated by Dr Neil Gunson and correctly attributed as the work of commercial photographer T. J. Nevin (1842-1923). A collection of 84 Tasmanian prisoner mugshots is currently held at the NLA. Two hundred and more of Nevin's 1870s mugshots were removed from police criminal registers ca. 1900-1916 by convictarian John Watt Beattie for sale and exhibition. Those mugshots were not spared the archivists' now-obsolete numbering and historically inaccurate information when they were acquired by the QVMAG on Beattie's death in 1930.

Fresh sets of numbers and names by museum workers subsequently appeared on all these cdvs held at the QVMAG when they were removed from Beattie's original collection in Launceston and deposited elsewhere for local, national and travelling exhibitions in the late 20th century. With digitisation of these photographic records in the first decades of the 21st century, some public institutions have omitted older, important archival information, and in the case of Thomas J. Nevin's historically correct attribution as the original photographer, the NLA in particular has compromised their records with speculations about the corrupt commandant A. H. Boyd who did not personally photograph any prisoner during his service at the Port Arthur site 1871-1873. A non-photographer, A. H. Boyd's name appeared on NLA records against their collection of Nevin's mugshots for no other reason than to support  the Port Arthur Historic Site's claim for World Heritage status in 2007, and principally at the behest of a former employee with a personal agenda seeking affirmation through derogation of Nevin's work, family and descendants (see section below In His Own Words).

Prisoner William PRICE: The TMAG copy



Prisoner PRICE, William
TMAG Ref: Q15590
Numbered on recto: "100"
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin



Verso: Prisoner PRICE, William
TMAG Ref: Q15590. Inscribed recto with number "100"
Inscribed verso with number "265" and "William Price per 'Triton' Taken at port Arthur 1874"
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin 1879

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. Nevin's cdv of William Price was placed bottom row, centre in this frame (below). 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 that the photographs were attributed to A. H. Boyd, the corrupt 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 (see section In His Own Words below).

The QVMAG had correctly attributed the mugshots of convicts to police and commercial photographer Thomas J. Nevin in 1976. But by 1987 and subsequently, exhibitions were mounted at venues such as the National Portrait Gallery by "curators" who had simply collated the ONE Woolley photograph of A. H. Boyd - acquired by the TMAG in 1978 - with Nevin's convict photographs which had been physically removed from the QVMAG collection in 1983 by Elspeth Wishart for a display and exhibition at the Port Arthur Heritage Site. The majority of the prisoner photographs in these four picture frames bear a pencilled number on the front. Those numbers appear as missing prisoner photographs on the QVMAG lists of 1-300 convict cdvs which were originally archived at the QVMAG in Beattie's collection. For example, William Price is numbered "100" on recto, and is noted as missing from the QVMAG inventory when it was prepared and received here (to this researcher) in 2005.



Names as they appear on the back of the wooden frame:
Top, from left to right: James Rogers, Henry Clabley [sic], George Leathley
Bottom, from left to right: Ephraim Booth, William Price, Robert West

Photos recto and verso copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2014-2015
Taken at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, 10 November 2014

Prisoner William PRICE: the NLA copy
This copy was spared any numbering on the recto when it was acquired in the 1960s from government estrays and accessioned at the National Library of Australia as one of several from the Gunson collection.



National Library of Australia catalogue notes:
Part of collection: Convict portraits, Port Arthur, 1874. No numbering on recto.
Title from inscription on reverse. "William Price, per Triton, taken at Port Arthur, 1874"
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-142918514
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin (1842-1923)

TRANSPORTATION RECORDS
Name: Price, William
Record Type: Convicts
Property: Port Arthur Penal Station
Tasman Peninsula Probation Stations
Departure date: 17 Aug 1842
Departure port: London
Ship: Triton
Place of origin: Bath, Somerset
Voyage number: 207
Police number: 8081
Index number: 57501
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1427135
Source: Archives Office Tasmania
Link: https://stors.tas.gov.au/NI/1427135

Name: Yeomans, William
Record Type: Convicts
Employer: Bush, William: 1855
Property: Port Arthur Penal Station
Departure date: 6 Oct 1829
Departure port: Downs
Ship: Bussorah Merchant
Place of origin: Plymouth, Devon
Voyage number: 71
Police number: 66
Index number: 79123
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1449339
Link:https://stors.tas.gov.au/NI/1449339

POLICE RECORDS
William Price per Triton (arrived Hobart 1842) and William Yeomans per Bussorah Merchant (arrived Hobart 1829) were granted TICKETS-OF-LEAVE on 4th July 1879. Both were photographed by T. J. Nevin on discharge on the same day in the week ending 9 July 1879. Both were sentenced to life - Wm Yeomans in 1857 for stabbing with intent, and Wm Price in 1862 for burglary. Yeomans was 63 yrs old on discharge and Price was 55 yrs old. Born in 1824, William Price died at the Hobart Hospital in May 1897, 73 years old, of a malignant disease of the rectum. William Yeomans died of senilis at the New Town Charitable Institute in September 1899. He was 91 years old.



William Price per Triton and William Yeomans per Bussorah Merchant were granted TICKETS-OF-LEAVE on 4th July 1879. Both were photographed by T. J. Nevin on discharge at Hobart in the week ending 9 July 1879.



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

Prisoner William YEOMANS: three copies



National Library of Australia catalogue notes:
Part of collection: Convict portraits, Port Arthur, 1874.
Gunson Collection file 203/7/54.
Title from inscription on reverse.; Inscription: "No 57"--On reverse.
Verso inscription: "William Yeomans, per Basorah [i.e. Bussorah] Merchant, taken at Port Arthur, 1874"
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-142914713
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin (1842-1923)



William Yeomans, cdv top right.
NLA Collection



Recto and verso of the NLA collection housed in plastic sleeves:
NLA copy of T. J. Nevin's cdv of prisoner William Yeomans, 1879 Hobart Gaol Campbell St.
Photographed at the NLA on 16th December 2016
Photo © KLW NFC 2016 ARR

Compare the versos: the NLA copy has the phrase "Taken at Port Arthur" added in the same orthographic style of the early 1900s as it appears on the majority of these prisoners cdv's. That phrase and the number "57" are missing on the verso of the QVMAG copy, suggesting the NLA copy was a reprint from Nevin's negative and numbered for exhibition, with the name of the prison "Port Arthur" added to suggest authenticity for prospective tourists to the site.

In all, there are three extant copies of the photograph taken once and once only in the 1870s by government contractor Thomas Nevin of prisoner William Yeomans: one at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery; one - the name misspelt as "Stormans" - at the Archives Office of Tasmania, the latter two both numbered "2" on the front, and a third which is held at the National Library of Australia with no numbering on the front, rather, it is numbered "57" on the verso, testifying to further copying from a single original glass negative by later archivists again. The NLA copy of the Yeomans carte is an archival estray donated there by Dr Neil Gunson in 1962 and accessioned correctly with T. J. Nevin's attribution. The QVMAG copy was exhibited at the Port Arthur Conservation Project in 1983 along with the cdv of William Price, now held at the TMAG.



Prisoner William Yeomans 1870s
Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery black and white copy made in 1985 from the sepia original
Numbering: 1958:78:22, QVM 1985: P:69
Photographer: T. J. Nevin (1842-1923)

William Yeoman's cdv at the QVMAG is the second in a series numbered recto 1, 2, and 3. Number 1 was written on George Nutt's cdv; number 2 on Yeoman's cdv, and number 3 on Bewley Tuck's cdv. As the recto on Yeomans' carte is numbered "2", its verso was most likely placed on top of the front of George Nutt's carte when the QVMAG archivist was in the process of copying them in 1958. The catalogue number for the job in 1958 was 1958:78:22, accompanied by the QVM stamp with more numbers. George Nutt's cdv shows the ink impress left by the square QVM stamp across his left cheek and collar from the verso of the second carte in the series in 1958 which was placed on top of it, that of convict carte No.2, Wm Yeomans.

For this reason, the square stamp ink is visible in the AOT image, but not in the QVMAG image, although identical in all other respects, which points to multiple copies made by the QVMAG archivist (in Launceston) for circulation to the AOT office in 1977 and in some cases, to the TMAG in 1983 (in Hobart). The original print from which 20th century copies were made may be the one held at the QVMAG but not necessarily the only duplicate which was first made by Thomas Nevin from his glass negative and used in prison and court criminal registers.

The original transcription of the convict's name and ship and the date 1874 was added much earlier, sometime between the late 1890s and 1930s when this collection of prisoner mugshots taken by Nevin for police in the 1870s was removed by John Watt Beattie from police photo books. He displayed them in his "Port Arthur Museum" of convictaria located in Hobart in the early 1900s and in travelling exhibitions associated with the fake convict hulk "Success". The collection was donated on his death in 1930 to the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston.

The most recent inscriptions on these three cdvs 1, 2 and 3 by archivists date from 1985; e.g. QVM1985:P69, and are in a childish hand. The QVMAG copy was exhibited at the Port Arthur Conservation Project in 1983, when several dozen copies were removed from Beattie's collection at the QVMAG, Launceston, and post-exhibition, deposited at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in Hobart. Further numbering was applied to the recto of those cdvs exhibited for that exhibition (Wishart, 1983).



This copy was catalogued at the Archives Office Tasmania from the copy at the QVMAG in the 1970s with Yeomans' name misspelt as "Stormans".

A. H. BOYD: in his own words, 1875
There is NO statement on the verso of the QVMAG's cdv of William Yeoman or on the other two in the series 1, 2, and 3 that these three photographs were taken at Port Arthur, nor any indication that the commandant of the prison there, A. H. Boyd personally photographed this prisoner or any other prisoner during the 1870s. The third prisoner carte in the series, that of Bewley Tuck, with the number "3" on recto, similarly lacks the inscription "Taken at Port Arthur" - the phase applied purely for exhibition purposes during the 20th century from Beattie's time.



Photographic portrait of A. H. Boyd, donated to the TMAG in 1978
Photographer: Charles A. Woolley ca. 1866
TMAG Ref:Q7661

Adolarius Humphrey Boyd was dismissed from the position of Superintendent of the Orphan School in 1864 for mistreatment of male teachers and accusations levelled at several senior women on staff. Public outrage in the press at his appointment to the position of Commandant of the Port Arthur prison in 1871 urged his unfitness to hold another government office. Less than two years later he was cited in a report as co-conspirator with Inspector of Public Works Mr. Cheverton to defraud the government over fabricated costs for maintenance and embezzlement of timber from the Port Arthur prison site. He was duly forced to resign in December 1873 with calls from both the public and members of Parliament to close the Port Arthur prison within the next year. Even so, this disgraced official A. H. Boyd was subsequently appointed Superintendent of the Cascades Establishment (Women's Prison), the position he held when called before the Commission into Penal Discipline in 1875.

Appearing in front of the Tasmanian House of Assembly Commission into Penal Discipline on 18th January 1875, A. H. Boyd, Superintendent of the Cascades Establishment (Women's Prison), gave this outline (below) of duties performed during his career. He made no mention of photographing prisoners because he neither photographed them personally, nor did he oversee their production at any time. He may have received a request sent from the Colonial Secretary's office in January 1874 for photographic copies of prisoners who had absconded - from work gangs on Hobart's Domain, not from Port Arthur - but Boyd was already absent from his Port Arthur position by December 1873, forced to resign. In any event, nothing in the Colonial Secretary's memo suggests Boyd was the actual photographer of any prisoner (though cited by his apologists for a photographer attribution), even though cameras and photographic equipment belonging to professional photographers Samuel Clifford and Thomas Nevin were readily available on site from July 1873 to May 1874 when they were requested to provide the Parliament with visual evidence of Boyd's neglect of the prison buildings and illegal deforestation of the site. Boyd also failed to mention that he was dismissed from the position of Superintendent at the Orphan School, New Town in 1864 because of his misogynistic bullying of women employees; the complaint was lodged by "the board of ladies" presided over by Mrs. C. Meredith and upheld with Boyd's subsequent dismissal.

Here is A. H. Boyd's account of his official duties in his own words, Tasmanian House of Assembly Report of Commission into Penal Discipline, August 1875, pp 2-3:

Page 2:



TRANSCRIPT
Page 2:
Questions answered by MR A.H. BOYD, Superintendent of Cascades Establishment.

23. What office do you fill in connection with this establishment, and what is your previous experience? I hold the offices of Gaoler, House of Correction, and Superintendent of the Reformatory for Juvenile Offenders. As to my previous experience I beg to say I first entered the Convict Department in the month of March, 1847, as junior clerk at the prisoners' barracks: this appointment I held until April, 1848.
Page 3:
From August, 1848, to 31st March, 1860, I occupied the position first of storekeeper at Salt Water River, then of medical clerk at Impression Bay, then storekeeper at Port Arthur, and afterwards of accountant and storekeeper for Tasman's Peninsula. In March, 1861, I obtained the appointment of Superintendent of Police for the city of Hobart, which I held for nearly two years. [Boyd deliberately omits information here - his dismissal from the Orphan School in 1864 -ed.]. In May, 1871, I was appointed Civil Commandant and Superintendent of Tasman's Peninsula, which offices I held until the 31st March last*, when I was transferred to this establishment as Superintendent.
Source: 1875. TASMANIA. HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY. PENAL DISCIPLINE. REPORT OF COMMISSION. Laid upon the Table by the Attorney-General, and ordered by the House to be printed, August 10, 1875
Link: https://www.parliament.tas.gov.au/tpl/PPWeb/1875/HA1875pp49.pdf

*A. H. Boyd was forced to resign in December 1873 as "Civil Commandant and Superintendent of Tasman's Peninsula" - i.e. the prison at Port Arthur - well before his transfer to the position of Superintendent of the Cascades Establishment, South Hobart. His accomplice in the theft of timber from Port Arthur was the public works overseer Mr. William Cheverton whom we shall call "Shingle-short Cheverton"... see this report in the Hobart Mercury, Friday 20 June, 1873 page 2.

Allegations such as alderman candidate and public works contractor James Spence's of gross misconduct in 1872 on the part of public officials came as no surprise a few years later to his supporter Thomas Nevin who had to contend with the notoriously corrupt Mr. W. H. Cheverton, the figure at the centre of James Spence's allegations, when Nevin with his close friend and colleague Samuel Clifford were requested by Parliament in July 1873 to pay a visit to the Port Arthur prison site to photograph the ruinous state of the buildings and surrounds. William Cheverton used his dual roles of Inspector of Public Works and private contractor to please himself. He had the publicly reviled prison Commandant A. H. Boyd in his pocket, and by December 1873, when each was found to have shared the spoils of embezzlement of public funds after they provided Parliament with false reports on the need for massive expenditure at Port Arthur, they were summarily dismissed from public office. A. H. Boyd's term at the Cascades Establishment was short-lived. By 1877 he was begging the government in the press to compensate him for dispensing with his services (Mercury, 9 May 1877).

RELATED POSTS main weblog

A missing photograph and missing letter: John SMITH (x 2) per "Mangles" and Lord Calthorpe

Prisoners called John SMITH per Mangles 1835
Lord CALTHORPE's missing letter
T. J. NEVIN's missing mugshot(s) of a John Smith



Convict ship Mangles, master John Coghill
Date [ca. 1858-ca. 1911]
Identifier(s) H92.410/20
State Library of Victoria
Link: http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/132516

This is a very interesting ship with a colourful history. A logbook of the Mangles on this voyage, listing passengers, crew and prisoners, is held at the New York Public Library (Archives and Manuscripts). It contains entries made by Edward Roberts (3rd officer on board) from April 10, 1835-April 1, 1836, commanded by Captain William Carr. The ship left Deptford and Portsmouth, voyaging to Hobart, Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), disembarking a company of soldiers, convicts, and some of the passengers before proceeding to Timor and Lombok, Dutch East India. A thoroughly engaging account written by Veronica Peek of the arrival of the Mangles and crew at Murray Island in the Torres Strait on the voyage to Dutch East India details the discovery by the crew of a white man living among the islanders.

Further reading:
https://archives.nypl.org/mss/2588
https://veronicapeek.com/2012/06/16/part-two-voyage-of-the-barque-charles-eaton/

The short John Smith and the tall John Smith

Two convicts called "John SMITH" were transported from Britain to Hobart, Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) on the ship Mangles, arriving at Hobart, 1 August 1835. One of these men was 5ft 4½ inches tall, the other was 5ft 10½ inches tall.

Ship Mangles (7) (1835)
Ship Name: Mangles (1835) (7th voyage)
Rig Type: S.
Built: Calcutta
Build Year: 1802
Size (tons): 594 Voyage
Master: William Carr
Surgeon: Peter J. Suther
Sailed: 21 April 1835
From: London
Arrived: 1 August 1835
Port: VDL
Route: Days Travel: 102
Convicts Landed: 310 males & 0 female convicts

Details for the two convicts called John SMITH per Mangles (1835)
1. Convict Name: John Smith (no. 2035, the short one, 5ft 4½ inches tall)
Trial Place: Suffolk Quarter Session
Trial Date: 21 October 1834
Sentence: Life

2. Convict Name: John Smith (no. 2045, the tall one,5ft 10½ -11 inches tall)
Trial Place: Wilts Quarter Session
Trial Date: 14 October 1834
Sentence: 7 years

Source of notes: Hawksbury on the Net
Link:https://www.hawkesbury.net.au/claimaconvict/shipDetails.php?shipId=594

One of these two men called John Smith per Mangles, prisoner no. 2035 arrived with a letter of reference from his former employer, Lord Calthorpe, addressed to the Governor who would have been Lt-Gov Colonel George Arthur in  August 1835 at the time of the ship's arrival, the letter now apparently lost. The other prisoner called John Smith per Mangles, no. 2045 reportedly absconded from the Port Arthur prison on December 3, 1873. According to the Tasmanian police gazette notice of his escape on December 12, 1873 (p. 203), the police had in their possession photographs of prisoner no. 2045 which they stated they had distributed (see police gazette record below). Lacking further information, we are assuming the photographs were police mugshots rather than private studio portraits, and that the police had distributed them to colleagues in regional police stations. Those photographs, apparently, are now lost as well. A recidivist who consistently offended from 1860s to the 1880s, he would have been photographed by T. J. Nevin as a matter of course at the Hobart Gaol.

Prisoners photographed at the Hobart Gaol
When Sheriff of Tasmania and Inspector of Police, John Swan was questioned on Penal Discipline in Tasmania for the Commissioners' Report, tabled on July 24th, 1883, he stated that prisoners tried at the Supreme Court Hobart. Tasmania, were photographed on incarceration. He made no mention of photography for prisoners admitted at the Launceston Gaol in the north of the island. His description of the procedure dated back to its inception in Victoria and NSW when T. J. Nevin's contractual arrangements were formalised for 14 years' duration, from 1872-1886, for the provision of prisoner identification photographs to the Tasmanian colonial government.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1883
JOHN SWAN, Esq., further examined.
12. Do you hold any other office besides that of Sheriff?
Yes; I am the Inspector of Police.
13. What steps are taken for the classification of prisoners in each Gaol respectively?
Proper classification is impossible under existing arrangements. This has been reported, and was pointed out by the Commission of 1874. Parliament voted a sum for effecting certain alterations. Plans were prepared, and a report from Mr. Hunter furnished. In Hobart, first and second convicted prisoners from Supreme Court are kept in the Gaol, old offenders in the House of Correction. In Launceston, there is no separation during the day. At night first and second convicted prisoners occupy cells, old offenders dormitories.
14. Are the Gaols and Houses of Correction sufficient to accommodate the present . number· of prisoners? [etc etc ....

..pages 11 & 12:



TRANSCRIPT
20. Describe the course a convicted prisoner passes through from reception to discharge?
At Hobart, a prisoner tried at the Supreme Court on reception is bathed, shaved, has his hair cut, is dressed in prison clothing, and photographed; he is then put into H. Division to serve a certain period of his sentence in separate treatment. At the expiration of such period he is put to hard labour, either at a trade or gang labor. He is bathed once a week, and attends Divine Service on Sundays; those who wish to attend school at night are allowed to do so. An Inferior Court prisoner on reception is bathed, shaved, and hair cut according to regulations; is then dressed in prison clothing, and put to hard labour either in the quarry or garden gangs; is bathed once a week, and attends Divine Service on Sundays. At Launceston, on admission he enters the receiving-room, his personal description is recorded, searched, and then taken to the male house of correction, where he is bathed, deprived of his clothing, dressed in a grey suit, hair cut, and whiskers shaved. If he is an effective he is placed in the stone-yard until Sheriff's authority is received to employ him outside the prison, He is then drafted into one of the gangs, where he usually remains until his sentence expires.
Source Parliamentary Papers 1883
Link: https://www.parliament.tas.gov.au/tpl/PPWeb/1883/HA1883pp41.pdf

ESTIMATED VALUE of a WRITER and PHOTOGRAPHER at the HOBART GAOL
Constable John Nevin (1852-1891), younger brother of professional photographer and government contractor Thomas J. Nevin, was resident at the Hobart Gaol on salary as Gaol messenger when he contracted typhus and died on 17th June 1891. He had assisted his brother Thomas J. Nevin with prisoner admissions since 1875 at the Hobart Gaol when Thomas was needed to photograph the prisoner on sentencing at the Hobart Supreme Court (next door to the Gaol) and incarceration. With John Nevin's death, and his brother's retirement from professional photography in 1886, the colonial administration advertised in 1892 for the employment of  one or two civil servants to replace the services of the Nevin brothers.

This document records the cost of employing a "writer and photographer" at the Hobart Gaol in 1892 was £77.0.0. No similar cost was incurred at the Launceston Gaol, so it would seem that prisoners there were not photographed until or unless they were relocated to the Hobart Gaol if their offense was serious enough to warrant imprisonment for longer three months.

The cost and estimated value of labour performed by the incumbent(s) as writer and photographer, £77.0.0, was shown on this return of 1892:



Source: Tasmanian Parliamentary Papers 1856 - 1901
Link: https://www.parliament.tas.gov.au/tpl/PPWeb/1893/1893pp44.pdf

Following legislative requirements introduced in NSW and Victoria in 1872 for prisoner identification photographs to be taken on sentencing and discharge, the colonial government in Tasmania engaged professional photographer T. J. Nevin in prisons to produce up to six duplicates from his capture on glass in a single sitting with every prisoner when merited. In all likelihood, he photographed one prisoner or several who called himself "John Smith" over more than a decade, yet no mugshot identified as either prisoner, whether the short one or the tall one, or indeed another using the name as an alias, has survived, or been suggested as likely among the handful yet to be identified in the Beattie collection held at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston.  As each primary document - the letter and the photograph - appears to be lost, these details of each prisoner's criminal career may assist in differentiating one from the other. A further problem appears to be the conflation of records for both men as one catalogue entry at the Archives Office of Tasmania. See this set of records, for example, at -
https://stors.tas.gov.au/NI/1435437

If a mugshot and duplicates were made of prisoner no. 2045, John Smith per Mangles (1835) as the police gazette attests, there is no reason to assume that the prisoner (a) was not photographed at the Hobart Gaol, or (b) that the photographer was not government contractor Thomas J. Nevin. There is not now, nor will there ever be any factual evidence that the commandant at the Port Arthur prison, A. H. Boyd had photographed this or any other prisoner in 1873 while in charge. As Julia Clark - the most recent and the most ardent fantasist wanting to "believe" in a Boyd accreditation for the National Library of Australia's collection of "convict portraits" which were correctly attributed to T. J. Nevin before she started her whimpering to them that she thought Boyd "should get the guernsey" in 2007 purely in self-interest in her quest for a PhD degree - as Julia Clark all too clearly reveals here in her ignorance of jurisdictional procedures of the era, her laziness in not conducting proper research, her confabulation of circumstance to prove her case, and her willingness to buttress these naively conceived fictions about Boyd with abuse of T. J. Nevin AND his descendants, she has not one iota of information to offer on the subject:-
A John Smith arrived on the Mangles on 1 August 1835 but his record stops for lack of room in the 1840s and I have not been able to find any further record of him. No image inscribed ‘John Smith’ has been found and he does not appear in the supplementary lists.... One might then expect that there would be some mention of this project in Boyd’s reports and official correspondence for 1873 and/or 1874; none has so far been found, which is curious....Boyd does not mention photographs in his Annual Reports from Port Arthur, which seems strange given that they include quite detailed accounts of expenditure that note, for example, what it cost to feed the working dogs.654 Perhaps photography was seen as an inexpensive, one-off project rather than a recurring expenditure....
From: Clark, Julia ‘Through a Glass, Darkly’: the Camera, the Convict and the Criminal Life
Unpublished, PhD thesis 2015, University of Tasmania  pp148-149.
Read our comments on this sad little thesis here:
The LONG con: our comments on Julia Clark's fraudulent thesis


Two prisoners called John SMITH

1. Prisoner no. 2035 John Smith per Mangles and the letter
Age: 38 years old on arrival at Hobart in 1835, born ca. 1797
Crime: larceny, stealing money
Trial place: Suffolk Quarter Session
Trial Date: 21 October 1834
Sentence: Life
Height and description: 5ft 4½ inches; hazel eyes; dark brown hair.
Occupation: groom and coachman
Religion: Protestant
Literacy: can read
Native Place: Worcester.
Family: Wife Sophia at Hampton; 6 children.
Stated he had lived with Lord Calthorpe for 25yrs.
Letter from Master Lord Calthorpe addressed to the Lt Governor.
1835 and 1837 Musters in Van Diemen’s Land: assigned at Government House, Hobart.



No. 2035 John Smith per Mangles. His Conduct Record noted this statement:
"I lived with Lord Calthorpe for 25 years"
Source: Archives Office Tasmania
Link: https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON31-1-40$init=CON31-1-40P131JPG

Frederick Gough, 4th Baron Calthorpe (1790–1868) lived at Perry Hall Staffs, at the time prisoner no. 2035 John Smith per Mangles (1835) claimed he lived with him as a servant for 25 yrs. If this John Smith, servant to Lord Calthorpe, was 38 years old on arrival in Hobart, born therefore ca. 1797, and had "lived with" Lord Calthorpe for 25 years, he must have begun service at Perry Hall ca. 1810 when he was 13 years old.



Frederick Gough, 4th Baron Calthorpe (1790-1868) and Lady Calthorpe (1790-1865)
Carte-de-visite 1860 by Disdéri of Paris.
Source: http://www.19thcenturyphotos.com/Lord-and-Lady-Calthorpe-125853.htm

More information regarding a letter from Lord Calthorpe was noted twice on the opposing page of the INDENT record for No. 2035, John Smith per Mangles:



"Letter deposited in the M M Office from his Master Ld Calthorpe"
written in original script, and the second, enclosed in quotation marks, added in original script in faded blue coloured pencil -
"In possession of the Lieutenant Governor"
Source: Archives Office Tasmania
Link: https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON14-1-4$init=CON14-1-4P49

Assuming that the letter accompanied the prisoner no. 2035 John Smith on the Mangles, it was deposited on arrival in 1835 at Hobart. The second note states the letter was then placed in the possession of the Lieutenant Governor, who was George Arthur in 1835, and Sir John Franklin by January 1837. John Smith's CONDUCT record states that during 1837- 1838 he was a coachman assigned to Government House when he committed further offences. The contents and purpose of this important letter from Lord Calthorpe, probably testifying to John Smith's capabilities as groom and coachman despite his criminal offences which earned him transportation for life, must have worked in his favour, since his first assignment was to the highest official in the colony, the Governor.  The letter might therefore be among the letters held by Sir John Franklin until his departure or those of this successors, still undiscovered at the Archives Office of Tasmania along with relevant documents pertaining to employment of prisoners at Government House in those years.

Police no. 2035, John Smith per Mangles 1835 received a Conditional Pardon on 29 August 1848 and soon after departed, probably for the Victorian gold fields. He may not have returned to Tasmania.



Prisoner No. 2035 John SMITH per Mangles
Detail: Conditional Pardon 1848
Archives Office Tasmania Ref: CON31-1-40P131

TRANSCRIPT (where legible)
2035 SMITH John
Mangles 1st August 1835
Suffolk QS 21st Oct 1834. Life

Transported for Larceny. Gaol Report. Bad character convicted before, a drunkard. Hulk. Report orderly. Married. Stated this offence, Stealing a purse from Maria Vickers once for Beer, 12 months, Married, 6 Children, Wife Sophia at Hampton. I lived 25 years with Lord Calthorpe, Surgeon's report Good.

April 27th 1837, Gov't House Charged by Mr Hepburn in assaulting David Webster. Solitary Cell at nights for 10 nights after his labour by day. [? initialled by authority] To be recorded in his favour his good conduct at the recent fire of Gov House [? initialled] Vide Sup 2 Dec 1837. Nov. 8th 1838 Coachman Govt Ho/ In a public House after hours [? initialled] January 22nd 1839 Drunk and ill using his masters horses Cells on bread one week [? initialled] July 8, 1839 [? initialled] Being in a public house after hours. All 7 nights doing his work by day [? illegible, struck through -"refusing to work.." initialled] June 23, 1840 making use of obscene language - 14 days cells [? initialled] August 24th 1840 [?..Wal?] Stealing 15lb of flour the property of his master To be [? ] to hard labor in chains for 6 mos [months- two sets of initials] Oct 9, 1849 C J [initialled] Ch (chain) Gang. Misconduct in leaving the church during divine service without leave, Rept disch Tol [ticket of leave] 1.3.44.
12 Sepr 1845 TL Breach of Police Act fined 20/- JP/ Recommended for a Con Pardon 29/8/48
Although commended for good conduct when a fire broke out at Government House, Hobart on 21st December 1837, John Smith was not among the three assigned convicts who received a public commendation. In 1837, with the arrival of Sir John Franklin, costs of the forty (40) convicts who were assigned to Government House, Hobart, to Government Cottages at Launceston and New Norfolk, the Domain and Gardens, called "billet men", were defrayed to the Colonial Revenue (page 3, Launceston Advertiser, Thursday 7th December 1837).



... The Lieutenant-Governor has been pleased to grant tickets-of-leave to the following men as a reward for their meritorious exertions on the occasion of the recent fire at Government House: — William Morrow, Moffatt ; James Wicks, Roslyn Castle ; John Adams, Bussorah Merchant.
Source: THE HOBART TOWN GAZETTE. Friday, December 15, 1837).

1852departure probably for the Victorian gold fields
Name: Smith, John
Record Type: Departures
Rank: Steerage
Status: Conditional Pardon
Departure date: 18 Mar 1852
Departure port: Launceston
Ship: Shamrock
Ship to colony: Mangles
Bound to: Melbourne
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:609880
Resource: POL220/1/1 p617

2. Prisoner no. 2045 John Smith and the photographs
Age: 21 years old on arrival at Hobart in 1835, born ca. 1814
Crime: house breaking
Trial Place: Wilts Quarter Session
Trial Date: 14 October 1834
Sentence: 7 years
Height and description: 5ft 10½; 2 blue marks, brown complexion; black hair; blue eyes.
Occupation: ploughman/farm labourer
Religion: Protestant
Literacy: can read
Native place: Osborne
Family: single, brothers - David and Thomas. Sisters - Jane and Sophia. Supreme Court, Hobart 17/04/1844 - sentenced to another 7yrs.



Prisoner No. 2045 John Smith per Mangles (1835) family members, housebreaking offence
Source: Archives Office Tasmania
CON14-1-4P64, CON14-1-4P65



Prisoner No. 2045 John Smith per Mangles (1835) criminal record 1830s
Source; Archives Office Tasmania Ref:CON31-1-40P135



Prisoner no. 2045, John Smith, criminal record 1840s
CON32-1-2P135
Police number: 2045
Index number: 65510
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1435437
Source: Archives Office Tasmania
Link: https://stors.tas.gov.au/NI/1435437



Prisoner no. 2045 John Smith per Mangles (1835) criminal record 1850s-1878
Source: Archives Office Tasmania
CON34-1-5P710

EXTRACT (loosely transcribed)
22 May 1860 Tried Supreme Court Oatlands 26 September 1860 Assault & Robbery being armed. Death recorded. Commuted to Penal servitude for life. Never again allowed to engage with the community.
4 August 1864, Port Arthur. Absconding from the Penitentiary PA, 5 years imprisonment with hard labour in chains, the first six months in separate prison
10 August 1868 Misconduct PA 4 days in solitary conf
13 November 1869 PA Misconduct 7 days solitary conf
19 December 1873 Absconding 12 months SP Separate Prison first month in solitary confinement
22 May 1875 Misconduct 6 months solitary confinement PO police office Torquay
25 6 1878 Larceny 2 months

SIDEBAR column:
To be released from heavy chains & placed in medium irons until further orders. C. O. 27.9.67
Released from chains 30.11.68
The Gov in C declines to interfere 20. 12. 70
H.C. (House of Corrections, Hobart) 7/8/75
Gov inf 20/11/76 T of L. granted Not to reside in Hobart Town
Died Invalid Depot New Town [Hobart] 11 January 1892

1873: "Photographs distributed" of absconder John Smith
This notice was to inform police that prisoner no. 2045, John Smith per Mangles, 60 yrs old in 1873, 5 ft 11 inches tall was wanted on warrant. His mugshot and its duplicates, in existence by December 1873, have disappeared, whether lost, damaged, stolen or destroyed. If he was at the Port Arthur prison prior to absconding in December 1873, and not on a chain gang in Hobart at the Domain with the Gregson brothers among others, he was photographed there during the visit of partners Samuel Clifford and Thomas J. Nevin in August 1873



TRANSCRIPT
ABSCONDED: -
On the 5th instant, from Port Arthur, whilst under-going a sentence of life passed on him at S. C. Oatlands, 26th September, 1860, for assault and robbery.
John Smith, per Mangles, aged 60, 5 feet 11, sallow complexion, brown to grey hair, hazel eyes, long nose, medium mouth, round chin, native of Hampshire, England, 2 blue marks inside right arm. Photographs distributed.
Tasmanian police gazette notice, 5 December 1873. John Smith was arrested within a week and sentenced to 12 months. His record shows he petitioned the Attorney-General in 1870 who declined to interfere. He was transferred to the Hobart Gaol, Campbell St. on 7th August 1875 where Nevin may well have photographed him again on being received, as well as on discharge in November 1876, per regulations in force since 1872. 

1876: discharged from Hobart
Prisoner no. 2045, John Smith per Mangles, 64 yrs old in 1876, 5 ft 11 inches tall, discharged.



John Smith per Mangles was tried at Oatlands S.C. on 26 September 1860 for assault and robbery being armed.
Sentence extended to life.
Native place: Hampshire
Age: 64 years old
Height: 5 ft 11 inches, grey hair, mole near left temple
Discharged 29 Nov 1876. Ticket of Leave.

1878: ticket-of-leave, convicted and discharged
This again was prisoner no. 2045, John Smith per Mangles. When convicted of larceny at Port Sorell (20 kms east of Devonport, northern Tasmania) per this police gazette notice of June 29th, 1878, John Smith per Mangles (1835) held a ticket-of-leave (TL). Now 64 years, 5 feet 11 inches tall, (still growing?) a baker by trade and resident of the Midlands district (Tasmania), the notice recorded a sentence of two months for theft of a watch, and quite remarkably, failed to record any of his prior convictions.



He was discharged two (2) months later, per this notice 31 August 1878.



According to this notice in the Tasmanian police gazette of discharges between 31 August and 4 September 1878,  John Smith, transported per Mangles, 64 years old, 5 feet 11 inches tall, with grey hair and mole near left temple, born England, was tried at Torquay, the former name of Devonport (Tasmania - see Addenda below) on 25 June 1878 for larceny, sentenced to two months' incarceration, and was discharged in late August 1878

1880-1890: Health and Welfare Records
Which of the two men called John Smith per Mangles (1835) do these records describe? Records for the short prisoner John Smith no. 2035 cease after 1852. Given the death date of the tall John Smith in 1892, these records most likely pertain to the former prisoner with the record no. 2045. From 1880 to 1890, John Smith was admitted and discharged at Invalid Depots in Hobart. For example, this notice recorded his admission in 1880 because of disobedience of orders, and his discharge because he was able to work in 1881.
Feb 2, 1881, return of paupers discharged from Invalid Depots Tasmania
Authority No. 64. John Smith per Mangles admitted at Campbell Town on 12 July 1880,
Date discharged: 1 February 1881,
Remarks: Discharged because of disobedience of orders, able to work.
Archives Office Tasmania Ref: POL709-1-18P28



Feb 2, 1881, return of paupers discharged from Invalid Depots Tasmania
Authority No. 64. John Smith per Mangles admitted at Campbell Town on 12 July 1880,
Date discharged: 1 February 1881
Remarks: Discharged because of disobedience of orders, able to work.
Archives Office Tasmania Ref: POL709-1-18P28
Source: Tasmania Reports for Police, (police gazette), February 1881

John Smith per Mangles was admitted again in 1889 and discharged in 1890.
Prisoner John SMITH per Mangles
Return of Paupers discharged from the Invalid Depots Tasmania
Authority No. 38, admitted from Hobart on 10 Sept 1889, discharged 11 Feb 1890
Remarks: at own request
Archives Office Tasmania
Ref: POL709-1-23_1890P47
Source: Tasmania Reports for Police, (police gazette), February 1881-1890



Source: Archives Office Tasmania
Link: https://stors.tas.gov.au/NI/1605660

1892: Death of John Smith (prisoner no. 2045)
Unless both men transported on the Mangles (1835) called John Smith were bakers in late life, this record of John Smith's death at the New Town Charitable Institute of senile debility, 76 yrs old, on 10th January 1892, is the record of the taller one, former prisoner no. 2045, John Smith, 5ft 10½ -11 inches tall. Looking back to his Conduct and Indent records, he was 21 years old on arrival at Hobart in 1835 on the Mangles, so in 1892, he was ca. 78 years old, born ca. 1814.



Smith, John (former prisoner no. 2045)
Record Type: Deaths
Gender: Male
Age: 76
Date of death: 10 Jan 1892
Registered: Hobart
Registration year: 1892
Record ID:NAME_INDEXES:1236916
Archives Office Tasmania Resource: RGD35/1/13 no 977

Disambiguation: George MARSH alias John SMITH
None of these prisoners with the surname or alias of SMITH in the list below who were scheduled in July 1873 to be transferred from the Port Arthur prison back to the Hobart Gaol was prisoner no. 2045, John Smith per Mangles,(1835) 60 years old who reportedly absconded from Port Arthur in December 1873, and was sentenced to 12 months when arrested within weeks. Why wasn't he listed, if the place from which he absconded was Port Arthur? He was most likely a "billet man" working on a chain gang,  perhaps near Torquay (Devonport) in the north of Tasmania when he absconded, and not at Port Arthur, the original place of his incarceration and recidivism for most of the 1830s, 1840s and 1850s. He was confined again at the Police Office, Torquay in 1875 .

1. John Smith alias Wm Orrin, 42 years old, date of conviction 26 November 1872, tried at the Supreme Court, Hobart, Crime- Feloniously receiving, Sentence - 10 years. (DOB ca. 1830)
2. John Smith alias George Marsh , 55 years old, date of conviction 13 June 1871, tried at the Police Office Launceston, Crime - Larceny and absconding, Sentence - 6 months (DOB ca. 1816)
3. Henry Smith, 37 years old, date of conviction, 12 September 1871, tried at the Supreme Court, Hobart, Crime - Housebreaking, Sentence - 5 years (DOB ca. 1834)
4. Campbell, William alias Job Smith, 45 years old, date of conviction 19 March 1872, tried at Supreme Court, Launceston, Crime - Uttering a forged cheque, Sentence - 8 years (DOB ca. 1827)
5. John Smith, 42 years old, date of conviction 10 September 1872, tried at Supreme Court, Hobart, Crime - Attempt at burglary, Sentence 2 years (DOB ca. 1830)
6. Alexander Smith, 40 years old, date of conviction 26 November 1872, tried at the Supreme Court, Hobart, Crime - uttering counterfeit coin, Sentence - 2 years (DOB ca. 1832)

Public outrage in the press at judicial inconsistencies in sentencing mentioned prisoners George Marsh with Henry Page and Charles Downes as getting a reprieve while Job Smith aka Campbell was hanged in 1875. John Smith aka George Marsh was 55 years old in 1871, 5ft 4 inches tall, when he arrived at Port Arthur on 9 December 1876. He was sent back to Hobart in 1877 per this Port Arthur conduct record of earnings, which incidentally doesn't show any earnings. This prisoner was not photographed at Port Arthur during incarceration there, and if he was photographed on discharge, his photograph apparently has not survived either as George Marsh or the alias he used, John Smith, but by 1884 when he was admitted to the Insane Asylum at New Norfolk suffering hallucinations of animal attacks and found to be of unsound mind, he was admitted as George Marsh.



Source: George Marsh as John Smith
Archives Office Tasmania Ref: CON94-1-2P20
Hospital records George Marsh
HSD285/1/1891 Marsh, George dob c.1820 03 Jun 1884 03 Jun 1884
https://stors.tas.gov.au/AI/HSD285-1-1891

Addenda 1: Lord Calthorpe at Perry Hall



Frederick Gough, 4th Baron Calthorpe (1790-1868) and Lady Calthorpe (1790-1865)
Carte-de-visite 1860 by Disdéri of Paris.
Source: http://www.19thcenturyphotos.com/Lord-and-Lady-Calthorpe-125853.htm
A carte-de-visite portrait of Frederick Gough, 4th Baron Calthorpe (1790-1868), and his wife, Lady Calthorpe. Born in London on 14 June 1790, he was the son of Henry Gough-Calthorpe, 1st Baron Calthorpe and his wife Frances née Carpenter. On 12 August 1823 he married Lady Charlotte Sophia Somerset, daughter of Henry Charles Somerset, 6th Duke of Beaufort and Lady Charlotte Sophia Leveson-Gower. The marriage produced at least three daughters and four sons; three of the sons succeeded in turn as Baron Calthorpe. He served as MP for Hindon from 1818 to 1826 and as MP for Bramber from 1826 to 1831. On 14 May 1845 his name was legally changed by Royal Licence to Frederick Gough. In September 1851 he succeeded his older brother George and became 4th Baron Calthorpe of Egbaston in the County of Warwickshire. Lady Calthorpe died, aged 70, on 12 November 1865 at Elvetham in Hampshire. Lord Calthorpe died, aged 77, on 2 May 1868, also at Elvetham. His will (dated 13 May 1856) was proved on 14 May 1868, at under £70,000.Photographed in 1860 by Disdéri of Paris.
Copyright © Paul Frecker 2021
Link: http://www.19thcenturyphotos.com/Lord-and-Lady-Calthorpe-125853.htm

Frederick Gough, 4th Baron Calthorpe (1790–1868) lived at Perry Hall Staffs, at the time prisoner no. 2035 John Smith per Mangles (1835) claimed he lived with him as a servant for 25 yrs.
Perry Hall was acquired by Sir Henry Gough of Oldfallings near Wolverhampton in 1669 and continued as the main residence of the family until 1923 when the estate was sold. The hall itself, which occupied the Northern end of a medieval moated site, bore the date 1576, although substantial additions and modifications had been made to it in 1788 and, by the architect S. S. Teulon, in the late 1840's. A two day sale of Perry's contents in March 1928 included parts of the structure itself, such as "1000 Stone Mullion & other windows", "120 Oak & Pine Doors" and "40 Marble & Oak Mantelpieces". It was demolished shortly afterwards but the moat remains as a boating pool in Perry Hall Park. In 1911 Perry, as part of the parish of Handsworth, was included within the City of Birmingham.



Location: Perry Barr, County WARWICKSHIRE
Year demolished: 1929
Reason: URBAN DEVELOPMENT
Source: Presented by Sir Richard Paget Bt, 1930.
Link: http://www.lostheritage.org.uk/houses/lh_warwickshire_perryhall_info_gallery.html

Perry Hall Park or Perry Hall Playing Fields is a park in Perry Barr, Birmingham, England, at grid reference SP059918. It was in Staffordshire until 1928.[1]
It was formerly the site of Perry Hall, demolished 1927, home of the Gough family, though only the hall's moat remains after the Birmingham Corporation had to choose between saving Perry Hall and the nearby Aston Hall for financial purposes. When Harry Dorsey Gough set up home in Maryland, United States, in 1774, he named his estate there Perry Hall. The site is protected by Fields in Trust through a legal "Deed of Dedication" safeguarding the future of the space as public recreation land for future generations to enjoy.[2]
The park is bisected by the River Tame, which was remodelled in 2005 to slow the flow, alleviate flooding and create improved habitats for wildlife, as part of the SMURF (Sustainable Management of Urban Rivers and Floodplains) project. The park has a small heronry.
The park is skirted by the Birmingham - Walsall railway line (the "Chase Line"), formerly the Grand Junction Railway and served by nearby Perry Barr railway station and, at the western end, Hamstead railway station.
In July 1913, the first International Scout Rally in Birmingham was held in the park, attended by about 30,000 Scouts.[3]
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Hall_Park

Addenda 2: History of Devonport (Tas)
* Prior to the arrival of Europeans the area around Devonport had been home to the Tommeginne Aborigines for an estimated 30,000 years.
* The first explorers into the area reached the Mersey River as early as 1823. Reports were not favourable with one explorer noting that the land was "mountainous, extremely barren and totally unfit for habitation".
* The arrival of the Van Diemen's Land Company in 1826 resulted in the district being explored and surveyed. Settlers began to arrive later that year.
* The local Aborigines resisted settlement. This culminated in the killing of Captain Bartholomew Boyle Thomas, the district's first settler, in 1829.
* The tiny settlement of Torquay was established on the east bank of the Mersey River in 1851.
* A settlement named Formby was laid out on the west side of the Mersey River in 1853.
* The port facilities - a store, wharf and warning beacons as well as the Don Railway - had been completed by 1854.
* Throughout the 1850s the port was used by timber cutters and boat builders. There was also some coal mining in the area.
* Prior to 1860 the only way to cross the Mersey was by boat or swimming.
* In 1860 a rough log bridge was built upstream at the village of Latrobe. Eventually a ferry plied the river.
* A local Marine Board was formed in 1868.
* The railway from Launceston reached Devonport in 1885.
* The Devonport Town Board was formed on 11 February 1890 when Formby and Torquay amalgamated.
* The port's lighthouse, now part of the National Estate, was completed in 1899. It still stands on Mersey Bluff.
* It wasn't until 1902 that a bridge was finally built across the river.
* Devonport Municipal Council was formed in 1908.
Source: Aussie Towns: Devonport, Tasmania


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