Showing posts with label Cascades. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cascades. Show all posts

The sweetest young brother: thirteen year old Jack Nevin 1865

NEVIN, William John (1852-1891) aka Jack, younger brother of Thomas
NEVIN, Thomas James (1842-1923) family photographs of younger brother Jack
NEVIN, William John (1878-1927) nephew of Jack, son of Thomas and Elizabeth NEVIN.



Of all four siblings - from the eldest Thomas James to his sisters Rebecca Jane and Mary Ann - William John Nevin, known to the family as Jack, was the youngest child with the most to gain from his family's decision to uproot their lives in County Down, Ireland and start again in the remote British penal colony of Van Diemen's Land. A babe in arms when they arrived at Hobart in July 1852, and a toddler by the time his father had built their cottage at Kangaroo Valley adjacent to Jane Franklin's Museum in 1854, Jack Nevin at 13 years old was a beautiful boy, the perfect choice for his older brother Thomas to practice full-length studio portraiture.



Subject: William John Nevin (1852-1891), known as Jack to the family.
and known as Constable John Nevin from 1870 to his death in 1891.
Photographer: older brother Thomas J. Nevin (1842-1923)
Location: City Photographic Establishment, 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart Town, Tasmania.
Date: ca. 1865, Jack Nevin here is barely a teenager, 13 years old.
Details: full-length carte-de-visite, albumen print, sepia toned. Verso is blank.
Studio decor features the shiny leather slipper chair.
Source: Sydney Rare Books Auctions 2019
Copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2020 Private Collection. Watermarked.


The life and death of W. J. Nevin (1852-1891)
Known as Jack to the family, William John Nevin entered the civil service from his eighteenth birthday in 1870 in the capacity of warder at the "Cascade Asylum" according to his obituary. It was formerly known as the Cascade Female Factory, South Hobart, but by 1869 the site housed the Invalid Depot, the Boys Reformatory Training School and the Cascade Gaol for Males. Jack Nevin continued service there until he was transferred to the Hobart Gaol, Campbell Street in 1877. He remained in service on salary in administration as gaol messenger, wardsman and photographer until his death from typhoid fever in 1891, aged 39 yrs, while resident at the gaol. His length of service with H. M. Prisons was twenty-one years. According to his obituary published in the Mercury on 18th June 1891, he was a well-respected civil servant who left no family but a large circle of friends.

1852: born January (?) at Newtonards (near Belfast), County Down, Ireland in January
1852: babe in arms on board the Fairlie, reported on sick lists in June
1852: arrives at Hobart in July 1852 on the Fairlie with parents and three siblings
1854: settles with family on farm at Kangaroo Valley Hobart (Wesleyan Trustees)
1858: schooled by his father John Nevin snr and older siblings
1865: death of older sister Rebecca Jane Nevin (1847-1865)
1870: joins civil service as wardsman at Cascade Asylum, Gaol and Reformatory
1871: best man at the wedding of his brother Thomas James Nevin to Elizabeth Rachel Day
1874: assists with transfer of prisoners at Port Arthur to the Hobart Gaol and Cascade Asylum
1875: death of his mother Mary Anne Nevin nee Dickson (1810-1875)
1875: constable duties and keeper trainee, Hobart Gaol
1876: on duty at Hobart Hospital and Cascade Asylum during funeral of Truganini
1876-1886: assistant photographer to his brother Thomas Nevin at Hobart Gaol
1878: witness at marriage of aunt Mary Sophia Day (his mother's sister) to Captain Hector Axup
1878: death of older sister Mary Ann Carr nee Nevin (1844-1878) from childbirth (Victoria)
1881: renewal of application to join police administration
1882: witness at inquest of Constable Frank Green
1882: elector support for Hon. Dobson in General Election
1882: resident at the Hobart Gaol on salary to H. M. Prisons Dept.
1882: registered to vote in Denison election
1887: death of father John Nevin snr (1808-1887) at Kangaroo Valley, Hobart
1887: Hobart Gaol messenger
1889: witness at inquest into death of prisoner James Thornton at H. M. Gaol
1890: wardsman at the Royal Hobart Hospital
1891: own death from typhoid at the Royal Hobart Hospital
1891: his body misidentified at the morgue, buried in the wrong grave, re-interred at Cornelian Bay cemetery


While on duty ...
These were some of highs and lows of William John Nevin's civil service in prison administration:



Signed 24th November 1881, Constable (Wm) John Nevin's renewal of application to the Constabulary Tasmania.
Records courtesy State Library of Tasmania

1872-1883: the Ogden brothers:
Two of the most recalcitrant boys during John Nevin's early years as wardsman at the Boys Reformatory Training School and Cascade Asylum were brothers Robert aka James and William Ogden. Their transgressions which began with absconding, being idle and disorderly and larceny progressed over a decade to murder. Early police reports noted that both Ogden brothers were undergoing a sentence of 4 years passed on 29 October 1870 at Green Ponds for being idle and disorderly and vagrancy. Every 18 months or so, they continued to abscond, their ages indeterminate to police, their identities sometimes confused one for the other, described as 10, 12, 15, or 16 yrs old, or "short for his age", and sometimes reported as older in 1873 than in 1875 etc. 



Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police, 3 October 1873
Absconded again from the Cascade Reformatory, Robert and William Ogden.

By the time he was executed in 1883 for the shooting murder of William Wilson with his accomplice James Sutherland, Robert Ogden was thought to be about 20 yrs old. Constable John Nevin had witnessed this youth's progression from petty crime to murder, and no doubt attended Robert Ogden's execution at the Hobart Gaol in the course of his duties. He may have assisted his brother Thomas Nevin take this photograph of Robert Ogden in 1875 for police and prison records, or indeed, taken it himself.



Prisoner Robert Ogden (1861?-1883), known as James Odgen,
Executed on 4th June 1883 at the Hobart Goal for murder.
Photographed by Thomas J. Nevin at the Hobart Gaol, 23 September 1875.
Source of image: State Library of NSW
Digital Order No. a421036
Miscellaneous Photographic Portraits ca. 1877-1918
36. James Ogden
Call Number DL PX 158:

1876: burial of Truganini:
Constable John Nevin was on duty at the burial of Trucanini, regarded in that era as the "last Tasmanian Aboriginal", on 10th-11th May 1876 at the Cascades cemetery. Trucanini [var. Truganini] died on 8th May, 1876, aged 73 years. Her body was guarded by a constable at the city hospital "to prevent any mutilation or snatching" until just after 11pm on Wednesday evening, 10th May 1876 when she was secretly removed from the hospital and transported personally to the Cascades by the Superintendent of the Cascades Gaol and Reformatory, the much reviled former Commandant of the Port Arthur prison, A. H. Boyd. He had suddenly appeared at the hospital and demanded her body be handed over to him, much to the surprise of staff on duty and the undertaker next day who arrived and left with an empty coffin. During the long night of Wednesday May 10th and the morning of Thursday May 11th until the time of her burial at midday, Trucanini's body, now at rest in the Cascades Chapel, was guarded by Constable John Nevin. The Sergeant-at-Arms, Mr. Calder, did not arrive till the proceedings were over.

The public expected a funeral procession would take place at noon, and that a hearse carrying Trucanini's body would proceed from the hospital where a crowd waited, not knowing they had been deceived. This angry report appeared in the Mercury the following day, 12th May, and another which attempted an explanation, on the 13th May 1876.

TRANSCRIPT extract
Trucanini died early on Monday afternoon, and her body was at once removed to the hospital, a constable being specially told off to watch over it, and prevent any snatching or mutilation. There was, of course, considerable anxiety felt as to where the remains were to be deposited, and when the funeral was to take place ; but it was Wednesday night before the Press was made acquainted with the decision of the Government, and not till yesterday morning was the information conveyed to the public. It was then done in such a manner as clearly to show that an attempt was to be made to deceive the public. The note from the Colonial Secretary, which appeared in yesterday's issue, after stating that the Government had refused the body to the Royal Society, ran thus :—"The Government have given orders for the decent interment of the corpse ; but, to prevent a recurrence of the unseemly scenes which were enacted in March, 1869, it has been deemed expedient to inter the body at the Cascades, in the vacant spot immediately in front of the chapel. The funeral will take place at noon to-morrow." The inference drawn from such information, when it was well-known that the body was at the hospital, was that the funeral would take place from that institution at noon, and that there would be a hearse, with the usual procession of mourners ; for there were many citizens who, prompted by a desire to show respect to the deceased, would have followed her remains. Towards noon numerous inquiries were made at the hospital, and up to one o'clock people were standing at street corners on the route which it was thought the cortége would take, waiting to see it pass ; but the Government had taken as much pains as possible to deceive them. It appears that at 11 o'clock on Wednesday night, Mr. A. H. Boyd, Superintendent of the Cascades Gaol and Reformatory, went to the hospital, armed with an authority from the Government, and demanded the body of the deceased Queen. It was, of course, given up, though the officials were taken completely by surprise, and evidently had never dreamt that any such demand would have been made upon them at that unseemly hour. At all events, the body was placed in the cart, and in the dead of the night, when all good citizens had retired to rest, it was borne through the streets of the city up to the Cascades institution. In this way, by a stratagem for which there was not the least necessity, and which does no credit to the Government, was the public frustrated in their desire to see proper respect paid to the last member of a now extinct race. To show how secret this removal of the remains was, and the duplicity which it was considered necessary should be practised, no intimation of it was conveyed to the undertaker, Mr. Hamilton. He, therefore, acting on instructions received, went to the hospital yesterday morning with the coffin, and was as much surprised as anyone when he found what had taken place. There is no palliation for the conduct of the Government in this matter. The remains were sufficiently protected by the presence of a constable, and the deliberate deception practised upon the public in the way we have described merits the strongest condemnation.
Source: FUNERAL OF QUEEN TRUCANINI. Mercury 1876, May 12  p. 2.Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8944992

1882: Death of Constable Frank Green
On the 14 May 1882, Constable W. J. Nevin was on duty at 11.45am when the guard in the sentry box on the hill at the Quarry behind the stone-shed near the Hobart Gaol failed to return. He was dispatched to investigate and found the guard, Frank Green, dying of a gunshot wound. "I am shot, John" were Green's dying words as Nevin lifted his head. Frank Green was 21 yrs old, rather tall, a Catholic, single, born in Hobart and a former sailor when he joined the Constabulary for the first time, signed in by the Sheriff on October 1st, 1878. Frank Green had accidently shot himself. He died in John Nevin's arms. The press reported the incident on 19th May 1882:

TRANSCRIPT Mercury extract 19 May
... At a quarter to 12, by which time it was usual for the guard to be at his post, Green was not present there, and the officer in charge, Mr. White, despatched Constable Nevin to see what detained him. Constable Nevin ascended the hill, and at the sentry-box situated at the corner of the workings, a little more than midway up the incline, found Green lying on the ground with his feet on the threshold of the box, and his rifle about a yard distant from him. The constable knelt down to lift up the head of the prostrate man, who said , "I am shot; let me alone. " Nevin then ran down and acquainted those in the yard with the accident, and Green was then conveyed to the hospital, where he lingered for half an hour, and then expired. It was found that he had been shot through the abdomen and lungs ...
Inquest at the Bird-in-Hand, Const. W. J. Nevin's deposition, Mercury 19 May 1882

At the inquest held at the Bird-in-Hand Hotel five days later, Constable John Nevin was a key witness. The jury of seven reached a verdict of accidental death. Coroner Tarleton found the guard Frank Green had slipped when about to descend the hill and his double-barrelled breech-loading gun had caught in a string on his coat, discharging a bullet through his abdomen and lung.

TRANSCRIPT Coroner's verdict 20 May
Mr. Tarleton, the Coroner, held an inquiry on the body of the man Frank Green, who was accidentally shot on Tuesday, while on guard over prisoners working at the quarry. From the evidence taken, it appeared that the wind was blowing very hard at the time and no one heard any report of a gun, but a constable named W. J. Nevin, finding that Green did not come forward to do his accustomed duty at twenty minutes to twelve, when the men were marched to dinner, called out, and receiving no reply, went in search of him. He found Green on his side, with a discharged gun on the ground near him. In reply to Nevin's question, he said ,"Oh Jack, I am shot," and when Nevin attempted to lift him up he said, "For God's sake, let be." He spoke with great difficulty, but never said anything to lead Nevin to suppose it was anything but an accidnet. Dr. Holden said the muzzle of the gun must have been close to the man's body when it went off. The jury returned a verdict of death from accident.
Further report of the Coroner's findings on the death of Constable Green
The Tasmanian (Launceston) Sat 20 May 1882 Page 547 TASMANIA.


Death of W. J. Nevin: 18th June 1891
By 1884 William John Nevin was registered as an elector resident on salary at H. M. Prison, Hobart. He was residing full-time in the foul environment of the Hobart Gaol, a hot-spot of contagion during those years just as prisons today are sites of rapid infection from the current COVID-19 pandemic. He died from a typhus infection while on duty.

TYPHOID EPIDEMIC 1891
The Deaths in the District of Hobart for 1891 registered Constable John Nevin's death on 17th June 1891 at the Hobart General Hospital (born Ireland) with typhoid fever as the cause of death, his age listed wrongly as 43 years [sic -39 years on burial record] and rank or profession as Gaol Messenger. But on the Register of Burials No. 8253 of 17th June 1891 his age was listed as 39 yrs, and his occupation as "Wardsman". This might suggest that he was engaged in bed-side nursing at the Hobart Hospital, possibly in a prisoners' ward in similar capacity to the position of hospital sergeant which Dr Bingham Crowther filled in May 1878 when employed by the Southern Artillery. Between the 1850s and 1880s it was a characteristic of hospitals to employ men, referred to as "wardsman" to carry out bedside nursing (Collins and Kippen 2003). A few years earlier, in 1889, John Nevin had attended the inquest as a witness of the death of a recently incarcerated prisoner in his care, James Thornton who died of cancer.



Obituary for Constable John Nevin, brother of photographer Thomas J. Nevin
Source: Tasmanian News (Hobart, Tas. : 1883 - 1911) Thu 18 Jun 1891 Page 2 LOCAL AND GENERAL

TRANSCRIPT
Obituary.—This morning the remains of Mr John Nevin, an old and well-respected Civil Servant were buried, he having died of fever in the Hospital yesterday. The deceased, who was 39 years of age, arrived here from Ireland when a child in arms. When 18 years of age he entered the Civil Service in the capacity of warder at the Cascade Asylum. After some years of service there he was appointed messenger at the gaol, which position be held up to the time of his death. He leaves no family, but a large circle of friends will hear of his death with regret.
Source: Tasmanian News (Hobart, Tas. : 1883 - 1911) Thu 18 Jun 1891 Page 2 LOCAL AND GENERAL

And then the unthinkable happened ...

HOSPITAL SCANDAL: THE WRONG BODY
The confusion over John Nevin's age was the fault of the morgue at the Hobart Hospital. They had sent the wrong body to the Cornelian Bay Cemetery. John Nevin's body was sent and buried in a pauper's grave instead of another man who was to be buried as a pauper. The mistake was discovered by the undertaker only after the cemetery burial had taken place. Funeral mourners had to wait several hours while John Nevin's body was exhumed from the pauper's grave and re-interred. The shocking details of the body swap were revealed in this article published a day after his funeral:



John Nevin was buried twice: the body swap
Source: Zeehan and Dundas Herald (Tas. : 1890 - 1922), Friday 19 June 1891, page 2

TRANSCRIPT
Hospital Scandal
[BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.]
(From our own Correspondent)
Hobart, June 18.
A remarkable case of mistaken identity or carelessness occurred today at the Hobart Hospital. Mr. A. Clark, undertaker, received orders for the internment of the body of John Nevin, who for many years was employed in the Hobart gaol, but who died recently in the Hospital from typhoid fever. The funeral was fixed for 10 o'clock this morning, and the Governor of the gaol had made arrangements for the presence of himself and staff at the funeral. Upon proceeding to the Morgue, undertaker Clark found that Nevin's body had been removed, and another one left in its place. Enquiries elicited the information that a pauper funeral had taken place some hours earlier, the undertaker for which had taken Nevin's remains in mistake for that of the pauper. The authorities immediately telephoned out to the cemetery, ordering the body to be exhumed and returned to the hospital. This was effected after nearly two hours delay, the friends in the meantime waiting, and the remains of Nevin was reconveyed to the cemetery.
When Mr Clark discovered the mistake he was prevailed upon to take the body that was left, but this he refused to do. It would appear that the person whose business it is to attend to the morgue has multifarious duties to perform, the consequence being that supervision is most defective. No doubt this matter will be enquired into by the Hospital authorities.
Source: Zeehan and Dundas Herald (Tas. : 1890 - 1922), Friday 19 June 1891, page 2

Nephew by the same name: William John Nevin (1878-1927)
Naming children with exactly the same three names - first or Christian name, middle name, and surname - as the name of one of their parents, or in this case, with exactly the same three names as one of their uncles - was common practice in the late 19th century, or at least it seems the tradition the Nevin family followed when the birth of Thomas and Elizabeth Nevin's first son, second child Thomas James Nevin (1874-1948) was registered in 1874 with the same name as his father, and the birth of his fourth child, third son William John Nevin (1878-1927) was registered in 1878 with the same name as Thomas' younger brother, William John Nevin (1852-1891).

This leather wallet embossed in gold lettering with the initials and name "W. J. Nevin" might have originally belonged to Thomas Nevin's brother William John Nevin, and on his death in 1891, passed down to his son, nephew of his brother by the same name, William John Nevin, who died in a cart accident in 1927. The Prince Albert fob chain too, worn by Thomas's brother Jack in the portrait taken ca. 1876 was passed down to his nephew.



Brown leather wallet embossed "W. J. Nevin" 1880s-1927
Copyright © KLW NFC Imprint Private Collection



William John Nevin (1878-1927), son of Thomas & Elizabeth Nevin
Nephew of William John aka Jack Nevin
Verso inscription "William J. Nevin, Furniture Removalist"
Unattributed, no date, ca. 1926? Died in a cart accident, 1927.
Copyright © KLW NFC Imprint Private Collection

Gallery
Apart from the photograph (at top) taken in 1865 by Thomas Nevin of his younger brother William John Nevin (1852-1891), six are extant and perhaps there are more, yet to be identified. Most are held in private collections except for this stereograph taken at the Hobart Gaol ca. 1865.

HOBART GAOL 1865
The first of these is a stereograph, unattributed and taken together with another stereograph of the prison buildings ca. 1865-68 in the grounds of the Hobart Gaol, Campbell Street. This view included two figures - a teenage boy and an older man wearing a top hat. The boy may have been a very young William John Nevin accompanying the unidentified photographer, and the man with him may have been a prison official. The boy's stance is the clue here to his identity - it's Jack Nevin's favorite pose with left hand on hip, his signature stance when photographed, for example, at his brother Thomas' wedding (group photograph below).

Jack Nevin at the Hobart Gaol 1860s

View of the prisoners' barracks, Campbell Street
Publication Information: ca. 1865
Physical description: 1 stereoscopic pair of photographs : sepia toned ; 9 x 18 cm. (mount)
W.L. Crowther Library, Tasmanian Archive and Heritage Office
Link: https://stors.tas.gov.au/AUTAS001125299420w800

THE DUKE'S VISIT 1868
The second photograph is a full-length portrait of William John Nevin, 16 years old, taken by his brother Thomas J. Nevin in early 1868 during the visit to Hobart Tasmania of Alfred Ernest Albert, the Duke of Edinburgh, second son of Queen Victoria on board the Royal yacht HMS Galatea. The typical pose and dress of young William John aka Jack Nevin, choices made whenever he was photographed while still a youth, were with left arm bent, hand on hip, clean shaven (until his twenties when he favoured a moustache), a three piece suit with fob chain, and jacket with velvet revers (lapels). The little bowler was brand new, placed next to two decorative pot plants. The decor in the studio at this time - January 1868 - featured the heavy plinth with plaster panels inset with a wreath which Thomas Nevin acquired from Alfred Bock's auction and which appears in one of his photos of the Bayles sisters. The large lozenge patterned carpet softened with white edges and floral centre appears in several of these NEVIN & SMITH portraits.





Subject: William John Nevin (1852-1891), known as Jack to the family;
also known as Constable John Nevin from 1870-1891
Photographers: Thomas J. Nevin (older brother) and Robert Smith, as the firm NEVIN & SMITH
Location and Date: 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart, Tasmania, January 1868.
Details: verso stamped with Prince of Wales blazon of three feathers, coronet and Ich Dien;
"From Nevin & Smith late Bock's, 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart Town"
Source: Private Collection, Sydney Rare Books Auction, June 2019

THOMAS NEVIN'S WEDDING 1871
The third is a group photograph taken at the wedding of older brother Thomas J. Nevin to Elizabeth Rachel Day, 12th July 1871, at the Wesleyan Chapel, Kangaroo Valley, Hobart, Tasmania. The bride and groom sat down for the capture while younger brother Jack Nevin, clean-shaven and barely 19 years old, struck his signature pose, left arm bent and hand on hip, on viewer's extreme right. The other members of this group may have included Mary Sophia Day, Elizabeth's younger sister, and photographers Alfred Bock and Samuel Clifford. Jack Nevin was by this date a civil servant, employed at the Cascades Asylum and Invalid Depot which housed the Boys' Reformatory Training School and Cascades Gaol for Males.



Subject: Wedding party photograph, Thomas and Elizabeth Rachel's wedding 12 July 1871
Jack Nevin, top right, Thomas Nevin and Elizabeth Rachel Day seated
Three unidentified couples, unknown photographer
Location and Date: Nevin's studio at Hobart or at New Town, 1871
Details: unmounted, uncut sepia paper print, poor condition
Copyright © KLW NFC Imprint Private Collection 2009 ARR

This unmounted print was for private family viewing, and has survived, albeit badly damaged, in descendants' collections.

JACK NEVIN TURNS 21 YEARS OLD 1873
The fourth photograph is a vignetted carte-de-visite of William John Nevin, face and upper body only, taken by his brother Thomas J. Nevin a few years later when Jack was approaching his 21st birthday. He smiled as he was captured, perhaps because of the informal setting. It was his brother standing there in front of him giving him instructions or even passing a few humorous observations, rather than another photographer in a more formal setting.



Subject: William John Nevin (1852-1891), known as Jack to the family.
and Constable John Nevin from 1870 to his death in 1891.
Photographer: older brother Thomas J. Nevin (1842-1923)
Location: City Photographic Establishment, 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart Town, Tasmania.
Date: ca. 1872, Jack Nevin was approaching his 21st birthday
Details: vignetted (cloudy background) carte-de-visite, albumen print, sepia toned.
Unusual for the period, Jack was captured smiling
Verso carries Thomas Nevin's most commercial studio stamp, T. Nevin late A. Bock
Source: Sydney Rare Books Auctions 2019.
Copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2020 Private Collection. Watermarked.

FORMAL PORTRAIT 1875
The fifth photograph of William John Nevin was taken by his brother Thomas at the Elizabeth Street studio ca. 1874-1876. He was now in his mid twenties. The setting was formally composed and the resultant photograph was produced as a standard studio portrait, typical of Thomas Nevin's commercial practice in this decade. This print on flimsy paper was not mounted as a carte-de-visite, perhaps because of flaws in the printing. Jack wore a shirt, tie, fob watch, and three piece suit with velvet revers. He posed beside the ever-present table with the griffin-shaped legs, his hand resting on a book, the usual signifier of literacy in 19th century portraits.



Constable W. John (Jack) Nevin ca 1874-6
Photographed by his brother Thomas J. Nevin
Copyright © KLW NFC Imprint and Private Collection (Shelverton family) 2006 ARR.

A MAN of the WORLD ca. 1880-85
The last photograph to have survived in family and private collections (to date) of William John Nevin was taken by his brother ca. 1880-1885 as a mature adult in his  thirties. He was by now resident full-time at the Hobart Gaol, a wardsman, messenger and photographic assistant to his brother on weekly visits during Oyer sessions at the Supreme Court in Campbell Street, next to the Hobart Gaol.



Subject: Constable W. J. (Jack) Nevin ca. 1880-1882.
Photographer: older brother Thomas J. Nevin
Location: Thomas Nevin's New Town studio
Details: verso is blank
Copyright © KLW NFC Private Collections 2009 ARR


RELATED POSTS main weblog

Copyright © KLW NFC Imprint October 2020

The Trial of Joshua ANSON 1877

Joshua ANSON, criminal offence 1877
Photographers H. H. BAILY, T. J. NEVIN, ANSON Bros. 1870s-1880s
James CRONIN, prisoner ex Aboukir 1851



Detail of Joshua Anson's Hobart Gaol record with photos taken 1877 (Nevin) & 1897 (unknown)
Source: Archives Office State Library of Tasmania
Mugshots 1891 GD67-1-10, 1895 GD128-1-2, 1901 GD128-1-1


The Anson brothers photographers, and there were only two - Joshua, who called himself John once paroled from prison on January 12, 1879, and his brother Henry who died in 1890 (the third brother Richard, b. 1851 died in infancy) - bought Samuel Clifford's studio and stock in 1878. Included in that purchase were photographs, negatives, cartes and stereographs by Clifford & Nevin taken and printed during their partnership which began in the 1860s and lasted beyond 1876 when Nevin transferred the "interest" in his commercial negatives to Clifford (Mercury, January 17th, 1876). John Watt Beattie joined the Anson brothers in 1890, buying them out in 1892, and reprinting many of the stock of Clifford and Nevin he had acquired through the purchase and without due attribution.

Joshua Anson 1877 and 1897
Joshua Anson was indicted for feloniously stealing a quantity of photographic goods from his employer, H. H. Baily, photographer, of Hobart Town on May 31st, 1877. The charge was larceny as a servant. The prisoner pleaded not guilty. Despite the depositions of good character from photographer Samuel Clifford, Charles Walch the stationer, and W.R. Giblin, lawyer and Attorney-General, Joshua Anson (b. 1854, Hobart), was found guilty of stealing goods valued at £88, though the real value of the goods, which included camera equipment, negatives, paper, mounts, chemicals, tripods etc exceeded £140. He was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment, with parole. On July 12, 1877, the Mercury reported that Joshua Anson’s appeal was ” to seek to retrieve his character by an honest career in another colony; and asked that during his incarceration he might be kept from the company of other prisoners as much as possible, though not, he said, on account of feeling himself above them, as the verdict of the jury removed that possibility.” The seriousness of the crime warranted a 14 year sentence, but the jury strongly recommended him to mercy “on account of his youth“.

Henry Hall Baily, the victim of Joshua Anson's theft in 1877, was a colleague and close friend of Thomas Nevin. Their respective studios in the 1860s were located opposite each other in Elizabeth St. Hobart Town. Baily and his wife were in Nevin's company that fateful night in December 1880 when Nevin was detained by Detective Connor on suspicion of acting in concert with the "ghost". The Chief Justice in Joshua Anson's case was Sir Francis Villeneuve Smith, who was photographed about this same time holding a carte-de-visite. The photograph was later reprinted by Beattie, and although the original is unattributed, it can safely be assumed from the Justice's ascerbic comments on Anson's character in the course of hearing the case on July 11, 1877, that Joshua Anson was certainly NOT the photographer.

Joshua Anson's trial stirred interest. The Mercury, July 11th, 1877 reported:
Second Court
Before His Honor the Chief Justice
LARCENY AS A SERVANT
Joshua Anson was indicted for feloniously stealing a quantity of photographic goods from his employer, H. H. Baily, photographer, of Hobart Town on May 31st, 1877. The prisoner pleaded not guilty.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL prosecuted, and Mr. J. S. DODDS defended the prisoner."
Despite the depositions of good character from photographer Samuel Clifford, Charles Walch the stationer, and W.R. Giblin, lawyer and Attorney-General, Joshua Anson (b. 1854, Hobart), was found guilty of stealing goods valued at 88 pounds, and sentenced to two years' imprisonment, with parole. This was no small misdemeanour. Joshua Anson had also racked up a large bill at Walch's Stationers with promissaries for goods which included expensive imported equipment.

The Mercury, July 11, 1877 further reported:
"H.H. Baily's evidence was in substance the same as that given at the preliminary examination in the Police Court. He believed all the articles produced in Court, embracing views, portraits, mounts, albums etc were his property, and specially identified some particular albums and other goods as his.
By Mr. DODDS: Two albums produced are not mine, but they contain views that have been taken from negatives that belong to me. The mounts produced I claim, as I have similar mounts in my shop. Other photographers in the town have not got mounts of the same quality. I cannot possibly say that the cards are mine. The albumenized paper I cannot swear as to my property. The glass produced I cannot identify as my property, but I have missed some glass of a similar description, marked with a diamond in the corner. I cannot swear to the brushes produced ..... The stereoscopic views (produced) were printed by the prisoner from negatives belonging to me .... I have treated the prisoner as my brother.... About 12 months ago, I increased his salary from 2 to 3 pounds a week, but I did not then offer to give him an interest in the business .... I have assisted him in printing from negatives belonging to him in order to see the effect of the printing. Some of these negatives were upon glass belonging to me. I did not then suspect him of taking my property. I had lent the prisoner a camera and lens, a tripod stand, and a glass but nothing else. I gave the prisoner on one occasion permission to take two bottles of chemicals home, so as to take quantities out for his own use ....." " .... W.R. Giblin said he had known the prisoner for about seven years, and his reputation for honesty was good. Witness had personally a very high opinion of the prisoner and had offered to find him 50 to 100 pounds to set him up in business but the prisoner declined the offer....."



Attorney-General W.R. Giblin by Thomas J. Nevin ca. 1874
Archives Office of Tasmania Ref: NS 1013/1971

"The Jury, after a retirement of about 20 minutes, found the prisoner guilty, and strongly recommended him to mercy on account of his youth...."

The charges warranted a sentence of 14 years, but was shown mercy on account of his youth.



Source: Criminal: re Anson, June 29, 77 (1.189)

On July 12, 1877, The Mercury reported that Joshua Anson's appeal was -
" to seek to retrieve his character by an honest career in another colony; and asked that during his incarceration he might be kept from the company of other prisoners as much as possible, though not, he said, on account of feeling himself above them, as the verdict of the jury removed that possibility."




Joshua Anson, 22 years old, arraigned at the Supreme Court, Hobart on 10th July 1877 for the offence of larceny as a servant, was sentenced to two years.



Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime Information for Police, Gov's printer J. Barnard

Joshua Anson was discharged from H. M. Gaol on 15 January 1879, the residue of sentence remitted.



Joshua Anson's Hobart Gaol record
Source: Archives Office State Library of Tasmania
Mugshots 1891 GD67-1-10, 1895 GD128-1-2, 1901 GD128-1-1

Joshua Anson did not take the two photographs of himself that were pasted to his criminal sheet, the first (on left) in 1877 when he was 23 yrs old, and the second (on right) in 1897 when he was 43 yrs old, nor did he photograph any of the other prisoners for gaol records while serving time at the Hobart Gaol. His abhorrence of the company of convicts was extreme, as his statement testifies. His 1877 prisoner mugshot was taken by Constable John Nevin in situ, and unmounted. Thomas Nevin may have printed another for the Municipal Police Office Registry at the Town Hall, Macquaries St. Hobart where he was the Hall and Office Keeper, but it is yet to be identified among the Tasmanian prisoner cdvs held in public collections. Joshua Anson was certainly the beneficiary of Thomas Nevin’s stock and commercial negatives when Samuel Clifford acquired them in 1876 and then sold them on to Joshua Anson and his brother Henry Anson in 1878. The Anson brothers reprinted Clifford & Nevin’s Port Arthur stereoscopes for their highly commercial album, published in 1890 as Port Arthur Past and Present without due acknowledgement to either Nevin or Clifford.

The Launceston Examiner reported another theft by Joshua Anson on 30 May, 1896.



TRANSCRIPT
HOBART, Friday
At the City Court to-day Joshua Anson, photographer, was charged with having robbed Charles Perkins of £32 12s5d. Accused, who was not represented by counsel, stated he had had two epileptic fits since he was arrested, and his head was not now clear. He asked for a remand. After the evidence of the prosecution had been taken, the accused was remanded till Tuesday.
Beautiful spring-like weather is prevailing.
Both of the Anson brothers were incarcerated at different times at the Hobart Gaol. In July 1889, Henry Anson, aged 39, was sentenced to one month for being drunk. Soon after Joshua Anson's parole, the two Anson Brothers set up business at various addresses:

132 Liverpool St. Hobart 1878-80
129 Collins St. Hobart 1880-87
36 Elizabeth St. Hobart 1880-87
52 Elizabeth St. Hobart 1887-91



Ansons' studio, 36 Elizabeth St 1880 (TAHO)

The photograph of ex-convict James Cronin



Studio portrait of ex-convict James Cronin ca. 1880
Anson Brothers 1880s, TMAG Collection

This is the only extant image of former convict James Cronin (1824-1885). It was taken by the Anson brothers, commercial photographers, as an Album portrait in their Hobart studio in the 1880s, i.e. it was therefore a privately commissioned portrait, and this is evident from both the street clothes and the pose of the sitter. It is not a police photograph, ie. a mugshot pasted to a criminal record sheet, unlike those taken by Thomas J. Nevin for the express use of police authorities, because James Cronin was not an habitual offender, at least, he was never convicted and sentenced under his own name in the decades 1860s-1880s or up to his death in 1885 at the Cascades Hospital for the Insane, Hobart. The Tasmanian Police Gazettes of those decades registered no offence for James Cronin, nor even an inquest when he died of pulmonary apoplexy on July 16, 1885.

Criminal and Transportation History: James Cronin (1824-1885)
James Cronin may have offended at Limerick for theft prior to his major felony of shooting at Jas. Hogan with intent to kill in 1847. He was transported to Bermuda on HMS Medway in the same year to serve eight years.  It was at Bermuda that he attempted to murder Mrs Elleanor Howes, wife of James Howes, mate in charge of the prison hulk, the Coromandel. Despatches from Charles Elliot, governor of Bermuda (CO 37/135) requested James Cronin be returned to England on HMS Wellesley to be convicted and transported to Tasmania (VDL) in correspondence dated January and April 1851. James Cronin arrived at Norfolk Island on board the Aboukir in March 1852, and thence to the Port Arthur prison Tasmania in December where he was "detained" until 1857 and assigned on probation to Major Lloyd at New Norfolk, Hobart on 27th November.



The National Archives UK has two entries for James Cronin detailing his attempt to murder Mrs Howes in Bermuda:
1. Reference:CO 37/135/4 Description:
Reports that a convict named James Cronin had attempted to murder Mrs Elleanor Howes, the wife of James Howes, mate in charge of the Coromandel hulk. Considers the existing laws inadequate to punish such cases. Recommends that a law should be passed to bring such cases to Courts Martial. Adds that in Cronin's case a convict named Edwin Smith intervened and saved Mrs Howes. Recommends Smith for a free pardon. Encloses a memorandum and correspondence concerning the matter.

Convict Establishment No. 4, folios 15-38
Date: 1851 Jan 18 Held by: The National Archives, Kew

2. Reference:CO 37/135/35 Description:
Reports that the convict James Cronin would be returned to England in HMS Wellesley. Encloses the requisite documents.

Convict Establishment No. 29, folios 224-230
Date: 1851 Apr 17 Held by: The National Archives, Kew



Source: Tasmanian Archives
Cronin, James
Convict No: 16007
Extra Identifier:
Voyage Ship: Aboukir
Voyage No: 347
Arrival Date: 20 Mar 1852
Departure Date: 07 Dec 1851
Departure Port: London
Conduct Record: CON33/1/106
Muster Roll:
Appropriation List:
Other Records:
Indent: CON14/1/31
Description List: CON18/1/56



Indent: CON14/1/31 

Title: James Cronin, one of 280 convicts transported on the Aboukir, 24 December 1851.
Details: Sentence details: Convicted at Ireland, Limerick for a term of life on 08 March 1847.
Vessel: Aboukir.
Date of Departure: 24 December 1851.
Place of Arrival: Van Diemen's Land and Norfolk Island. [These convicts appear to have all landed in Van Diemen's Land].

The death of James Cronin, labourer, was registered at the Cascades Hospital for the Insane on 16 July 1885. His cause of death was pulmonary apoplexy, unlike several other deaths of asylum inmates which were registered in the same month, e.g. "brain softening".



Death of James Cronin, male, 63 yrs old, 16 July 1885, Hobart, Tasmania
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1232085
Resource: RGD35/1/10 no 2506
https://stors.tas.gov.au/RGD35-1-10p314j2k
Archives Office Tasmania

Constable John Nevin at Trucanini's funeral 1876

Cascades Gaol and Reformatory, South Hobart
Constable John Nevin 1876
Tasmanian Aboriginal Truganini and the body snatchers



The Cascades Prison for Males ca. 1880
Source: University of Tasmania ePrints "Cascades Factory" No's 2-4

Constable John Nevin at the Cascades Gaol
Constable John Nevin (1852-1891), brother of photographer Thomas J. Nevin, joined the civil service as an 18 year old in 1870 and was stationed at the Cascades Gaol and Reformatory until transferred to the Hobart Gaol in 1877. He was on duty at the burial of Trucanini, regarded in that era as the "last Tasmanian Aboriginal", on 10th-11th May 1876 at the Cascades cemetery. Located on a patch of ground -"a vacant spot opposite the Cascades" as the press described it (South Australian Register 12 May 1876) - that patch is now identified as No. 2, Nevin Street (Tasmanian Heritage Council 2007).



Constable W. John (Jack) Nevin ca 1874-6
Photographed by his brother Thomas J. Nevin
Copyright © KLW NFC Imprint and Private Collection (Shelverton family) 2006 ARR.


Body snatching
Trucanini [var. Truganini] died on 8th May, 1876, aged 73 years. Her body was guarded by a constable at the city hospital "to prevent any mutilation or snatching" until just after 11pm on Wednesday evening, 10th May 1876 when she was secretly removed from the hospital and transported personally to the Cascades by the Superintendent of the Cascades Gaol and Reformatory, the much reviled former Commandant of the Port Arthur prison, A. H. Boyd. He had suddenly appeared at the hospital and demanded her body be handed over to him, much to the surprise of staff on duty and the undertaker next day who arrived and left with an empty coffin. During the long night of Wednesday May 10th and the morning of Thursday May 11th until the time of her burial at midday, Trucanini's body, now at rest in the Cascades Chapel, was guarded by Constable John Nevin. The Sergeant-at-Arms, Mr. Calder, did not arrive till the proceedings were over.



Above: Trucanini (var: Truganini) is seated here in this reproduction on glass by Anson's Photographs ca. 1880 of an original photograph attributed to C. A. Woolley taken in 1866.
The verso below bears Anson's label and the handwritten inscription "Last Aborigines of Tasmania":
Copyright © KLW NFC Imprint & The Private Collection of John and Robyn McCullagh 2007 ARR.



Detail of portrait: Trucanini's hands



The verso of this portrait bears (John) Anson's label and the handwritten inscription "Last Aborigines of Tasmania"
Copyright all photos © KLW NFC Imprint & The Private Collection of John and Robyn McCullagh 2007 ARR


Public Outrage at Government deception
The public expected a funeral procession would take place at noon, and that a hearse carrying Trucanini's body would proceed from the hospital where a crowd waited, not knowing they had been deceived. This angry report appeared in the Mercury the following day, 12th May (full transcript below), and another which attempted an explanation, on the 13th May 1876.



FULL TRANSCRIPT
FUNERAL OF QUEEN TRUCANINI. (1876, May 12). The Mercury
The remains of the last of the original inhabitants of Tasmania were yesterday consigned to their final resting-place, without any of that ostentatious display which took place at the burial of King Billy. Whatever difference of opinion there may be on the point whether there ought to have been any pageantry on so important an occasion, there can be no doubt that the Government, in their ostensible desire to interdict any such scandal as that which stirred up public indignation in 1869, have laid themselves open to blame, and to a feeling on the part of the public that they were simply playing into the hands of the Royal Society, which body was so anxious to obtain possession of the remains. Let the facts speak for them- selves. Trucanini died early on Monday afternoon, and her body was at once removed to the hospital, a constable being specially told off to watch over it, and prevent any snatching or mutilation. There was, of course, considerable anxiety felt as to where the remains were to be deposited, and when the funeral was to take place ; but it was Wednesday night before the Press was made acquainted with the decision of the Government, and not till yesterday morning was the information conveyed to the public. It was then done in such a manner as clearly to show that an attempt was to be made to deceive the public. The note from the Colonial Secretary, which appeared in yesterday's issue, after stating that the Government had refused the body to the Royal Society, ran thus :—"The Government have given orders for the decent interment of the corpse ; but, to prevent a recurrence of the unseemly scenes which were enacted in March, 1869, it has been deemed expedient to inter the body at the Cascades, in the vacant spot immediately in front of the chapel. The funeral will take place at noon to-morrow." The inference drawn from such information, when it was well-known that the body was at the hospital, was that the funeral would take place from that institution at noon, and that there would be a hearse, with the usual procession of mourners ; for there were many citizens who, prompted by a desire to show respect to the deceased, would have followed her remains. Towards noon numerous inquiries were made at the hospital, and up to one o'clock people were standing at street corners on the route which it was thought the cortége would take, waiting to see it pass ; but the Government had taken as much pains as possible to deceive them. It appears that at 11 o'clock on Wednesday night, Mr. A. H. Boyd, Superintendent of the Cascades Gaol and Reformatory, went to the hospital, armed with an authority from the Government, and demanded the body of the deceased Queen. It was, of course, given up, though the officials were taken completely by surprise, and evidently had never dreamt that any such demand would have been made upon them at that unseemly hour. At all events, the body was placed in the cart, and in the dead of the night, when all good citizens had retired to rest, it was borne through the streets of the city up to the Cascades institution. In this way, by a stratagem for which there was not the least necessity, and which does no credit to the Government, was the public frustrated in their desire to see proper respect paid to the last member of a now extinct race. To show how secret this removal of the remains was, and the duplicity which it was considered necessary should be practised, no intimation of it was conveyed to the undertaker, Mr. Hamilton. He, therefore, acting on instructions received, went to the hospital yesterday morning with the coffin, and was as much surprised as anyone when he found what had taken place. There is no palliation for the conduct of the Government in this matter. The remains were sufficiently protected by the presence of a constable, and the deliberate deception practised upon the public in the way we have described merits the strongest condemnation.
The funeral would have rejoiced the hearts of those who are strenuously advocating a reform in all matters pertaining to the burial of the dead. It was of the simplest character imaginable, entirely devoid of all that useless paraphernalia, all those expensive and showy trappings, which in these times are looked upon as emblems of sorrow and respect for the deceased. In the little Protestant chapel at the Cascades Reformatory, the body of "our native Queen" lay stiff and cold in the plainest of coffins ; no ornamentation of any kind, with the except of the usual silver plate, being upon it. The sombre black contrasted with the white shroud, which, when turned back, revealed the dusky features of her whose life was one romance. We have heard some doubts expressed as to whether the coffin really contained the remains of Trucanini—doubts quite excusable, remembering the mutilation of King Billy and the conduct of the Government on this occasion—but our readers may rest assured on that point. Previous to the lid being screwed down several spectators, our reporter among the rest, were shown the face of the deceased Queen, and one lady, of eccentric habits, and who assumes to herself a title as high as that of poor Trucanini, touched the face, as if to make "assurance doubly sure." All this time the bell in the reformatory yard was tolling, and as none of the inmates of the institution, a few of the officials and servants excepted, were to be seen in the spacious enclosure, a death-like silence pervaded the place. The coffin screwed down, the spectators assembled in the chapel. They did not number, including some children, more than twenty-five. Among those present was the Hon. A. Kennerley, Premier ; the Hon. G. Gilmore, Colonial Secretary ; the Ven. Archdeacon Davies, Rev. W. W. Spicer, Mr. J. W. Graves, Dr. Lewis, Mr. Whitcombe, Mr. Gravenor, Mr. A. H. Boyd, etc. The Rev. Canon Parsons read the beautiful burial service of the Church of England, commencing "I am the resurrection and the life," and after the Psalm and the Lesson, the coffin was carried out of the chapel and placed over a grave that had been dug just in front of the door, all present following and assembling round the grave. The coffin having been lowered, the officiating clergyman read those solemn words beginning "Man that is born of a woman," etc., and committed "our dear departed sister" to the grave in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life. Before it was placed in the grave, Mr. Gravenor, of New Town, who mixed as much with the natives in years gone by as any one now living, touched the coffin and uttered some native word, very much like farewell. After the ceremony was over Mr. Graves threw a sprig of heliocrysum (Graves-eye) into the grave ; and when just about to leave, an officer came up with a pretty bunch of native flowers and berries, kindly sent by Mrs. Dandridge, with whom Trucanini lived for the long period of twenty years, and in whose house she died. The bunch was handed to Mr. Boyd, who passed it to Mr. Graves, and that gentleman deposited it on the coffin. The inscription on the coffin was simply : "Trucanini. Died 8th May, 1876. Aged 73 years." There is no doubt that the number of spectators would have been much larger had the arrangements been thoroughly understood. The invitation of the Government to "any friends and sympathisers" reads now like a huge joke, and, under the circumstances, might well have been omitted. Among those who were specially anxious to be present was Mr. Calder, the Sergeant-at Arms, but he did not arrive till the proceedings were over. We may mention, to satisfy some doubts, that Trucanini was baptised at Oyster Cove by Bishop Nixon. We understand that a monument of some kind is to be erected over the grave, and Mr. Graves has been requested to write an epitaph for it. He has willingly undertaken the task, and proposes that it shall be inscribed in both the English and native languages.

Source: FUNERAL OF QUEEN TRUCANINI. (1876, May 12). The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), p. 2. Retrieved January 24, 2014, from https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8944992

READ THE ARTICLE of 12 May 1876  here [pdf]
READ THE ARTICLE of 13 May 1876  here [pdf]

The Memorial 1976
Exactly 100 years after her burial, Trucanini was cremated. Her ashes were scattered in the D'Entrecasteaux Channel off the Neck beach, and a memorial was erected  in Truganini Park, Mt Nelson, on 8th May, 1976.



Source: ABC Radio National "Hindsight". Truganini, bushranger 12/4/2012
https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/hindsight/truganini-bushranger/3178510

The Waxwork at Madame Tussaud's, Sydney



Waxwork, Trucanini, Madame Tussaud's, Darling Harbour, Sydney
Photo copyright © KLW NFC 2012 ARR

RELATED POSTS main weblog

Nevin Street and the Cascades Prison for Males 1870s-1880s

CONSTABLE JOHN NEVIN civil service 1870-1891
CASCADES GAOL for MALES 1870s
KANGAROO VALLEY to CASCADES walking tracks
NEVIN Street, South Hobart



Constable W.John Nevin (1852-1891), younger brother of photographer Thomas J. Nevin (known as Jack to the family), entered the civil service from his eighteenth birthday in 1870 in the capacity of warder at the "Cascade Asylum" according to his obituary. It was formerly known as the Cascades Female Factory, South Hobart, but by 1869 the site housed the Invalid Depot, the Boys Reformatory Training School and the Cascades Gaol for Males. Jack Nevin continued service there until he was transferred to the Hobart Gaol, Campbell Street in 1877. He remained in service on salary in administration as gaol messenger, wardsman and photographer until his death from typhoid fever in 1891, aged 39 yrs, while resident at the gaol. His length of service with H. M. Prisons was twenty-one years. According to his obituary published in the Mercury on 18th June 1891, he was a well-respected civil servant who left no family but a large circle of friends.

Jack Nevin was sixteen years old in January 1868 when he posed for this photograph taken by his brother Thomas in the studio at the City Photographic Establishment, 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart Town. It was one of several photographs of children and young adults taken by Thomas J. Nevin in partnership with Robert Smith during the Royal visit to Hobart of Queen Victoria's second son, Prince Alfred, on board HMS Galatea.



Subject: William John Nevin (1852-1891), known as Jack to the family;
also known as Constable John Nevin from 1870-1891
Photographers: Thomas J. Nevin (older brother) and Robert Smith
Location and Date: 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart, Tasmania, January 1868.
Details: verso stamped with Royal insignia of three feathers, coronet and Ich Dien;"From Nevin & Smith late Bock's, 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart Town"
Source: Private Collection, Sydney Rare Books Auction, June 2019

In the constabulary



Signature of W. J. Nevin on document below:
Previous employment with police: nine months at Gaol Males Cascades from Aug 1875 to April 1876



W.J. Nevin - renewed applications to join the Constabulary Tasmania 1877 and 1881
Records Courtesy State Library of Tasmania

While a constable at the Cascade Gaol for Males, John Nevin was involved in an incident reported in the Mercury, 27 October 1875:



Constable John Nevin, Mercury, 27 October 1875.

TRANSCRIPT
CITY POLICE COURT
Tuesday 26th October, 1875
Before Mr. Tarleton, Police Magistrate
PEACE DISTURBERS. - Robert Evans and William Inman were charged by Constable Pearce, of the Cascades, with having disturbed the peace in Upper Macquarie-street on the 24th inst. The defendants pleaded "not guilty". Constables Pearce and Nevin, of the Cascades, proved that the defendants were throwing stones and making a disturbance. The Police Magistrate said that in Upper Macquarie-street there existed the roughest of lads in Hobart Town. He would sentence both defendants to 14 days' imprisonment, and warn them that on proof of a second they would probably be birched.

This photograph of Jack (William John) Nevin taken in his mature years, ca. mid 1880s, by his brother Thomas J. Nevin, appears to be only one to have surfaced, at least in family collections to date. He is not to be confused with Thomas and Elizabeth Rachel Nevin's son by the same name, William John Nevin (1878-1927) who died prematurely in a cart accident.



Constable John (W. J.) Nevin ca. mid 1880s.
Photo taken by his brother Thomas Nevin
Copyright © KLW NFC Imprint & Private Collection 2009 ARR. Watermarked.

Adjacent to the Cascades Gaol for Males in the 1870s and leading directly up the hill behind it was a wide track, now a "No Through Road" named "Nevin Street". On the left, ascending the hill going northwest, and located at an address now called No. 2 Nevin Street, was a cemetery associated with the prison from its days as a Female Factory - a prison for females (1850s) - to its last uses as an invalid depot, orphanage, prison and reformatory (1870s onwards). Thereafter, the deceased were moved to the Cornelian Bay Cemetery. Surrounding parcels of land were sold to a milkman by the government in 1908. Constable John Nevin was on duty at the Cascades on 11th May 1876 when the Government buried Trucanini there, considered in her time as one of the last Tasmanian Aborigines.

The cemetery site itself at No. 2 Nevin St is vacant, however, marked as heritage interest. This report was compiled by the Tasmanian Heritage Council on 27 November 2007:

The location of the graveyard is shown on two historical plans. A c.1859 plan of the Female Factory Reserve shows the graveyard to the northwest of Yard 5 as a roughly triangular shaped parcel of ground (AOT, PWD 266/382). An 1884 survey locates a morgue building on what was later to become Syme Street. It also locates nine graves orientated east-west, along the eastern boundary of the graveyard (LO, Hobart 65, 90469). Private residential development from the mid- to-late twentieth century occupies most of the place today. The housing is not considered to be of State heritage significance. Described in The Mercury in 1873 as ‘a pretty little green patch of three-quarters of an acres ... and has no denominational subdivision. Prisoners, paupers and juvenile offenders, of all creeds, find a resting place in the same spot, and a few graves are marked with neat little crosses erected by the friends or relations of those buried there’.

From Kangaroo Valley to the Cascades Gaol, 1870s
The track or road was formally named Nevin Street at a date yet to be confirmed (at Lands and Titles Office?). The track leading to it was used by walking clubs extensively. In 1935, this map was issued by the Hobart Walkers' Club, which shows a road in heavy outline leading up from the prison, leading northwest up McRobies Gully.



Title: Mt. Wellington Park map of roads, tracks, etc. / [compiled by] V. W. Hodgman
Creator: Hobart Walking Club (Tas.)
Map data: Scale unknown
Publisher: 1935
Description: 1 map ; 17 1/2 inches in diameter (part col.), rolled
Format: Map
ADRI: AUTAS001131821340
Source: Tasmaniana Library



Detail of Hobart Walkers Map 1935 showing relative positions of the Nevin farm next to the Lady Franklin Museum and the two possible routes taken across country by Constable Nevin to the Cascades Gaol for Males in 1875.

The 1935 Hobart Walkers Club map (detail above) shows two very distinct routes to the southeast which John Nevin might have chosen in the 1870s on his journey from the family farm at Kangaroo Valley, situated next to the Lady Franklin Museum where Thomas and John's father John Nevin snr had built their cottage. Whether on foot or horseback, the first and longer route he could have taken was along Kangaroo Valley road, alternatively titled Lenah Valley Road by 1922, to the waterhole and the cabin named by the Old Hobartians (alumni of Hobart High School) as their own by 1935. He would then veer south on the path to the New Town Falls, crossing Brushy Creek until arriving at the edge of a very steep ravine . Once there, he would join the McRobies track until arriving at the Hobart Rivulet, passing below the Cascades Brewery. The track, much wider at that point, passed by the cemetery, and ended directly opposite the Cascades Prison.



McRobies Gully Postcard ca. 1900s
TAHO Ref: NS8691373

Alternatively, he could have proceeded from the Museum along Brushy creek road a short way, then crossed onto a track which joined Pottery Road running bedside the creek, and joining another track until he reached the Slides. Descending a steep hill side on another short track adjacent to another creek led him onto the McRobies gully track which widened into a roadway, ending adjacent to the wall of the Cascades Gaol. It therefore seems likely that the present Nevin Street was originally the track leading up McRobies Gully and the path Constable John Nevin used when coming and going to and from work at the Cascades Prison for Males from 1870 to 1877.

When Constable John Nevin renewed his contract and term of service in 1881 with H. M. Prisons Department, he was still living at home with his parents in the house built by his father on the property at Kangaroo Valley, which was situated on land adjacent to the Lady Franklin Museum and the Wesleyan Chapel and school house where his father John Nevin taught children by day and adult males by night. He would have travelled via the city streets to the Hobart Gaol in Campbell St. by 1881, eventually taking up residence there. He was active in assisting his brother in photographic sessions both at the Hobart Gaol and adjoining Supreme Court. His employment was listed as salaried in administration and resident at the Campbell St Gaol on the electoral roll of 1884, and listed again as "gaol messenger" in residence when he died suddenly of typhoid fever in 1891.



Signature of Wm. John Nevin, Kangaroo Valley, 24th November 1881.



Surveyor's Map showing Hobart Gaol 1887 (TAHO)

As government contractor to the Lands and Survey Dept. from 1868, Thomas J. Nevin snr, took many photographs on the tracks leading from Kangaroo Valley across to the waterfall, Brushy Creek, the reservoir waterworks, and Hobart rivulet, mostly produced with the dual purpose of providing documentation of works and weather damage in local landscapes as well as supplying local and intercolonial visitors with commercial stereographs. These photographs (below) were taken around the same years as Constable John Nevin's second attestation, 1881, to service at the Hobart Gaol, Campbell Street. They are from the State Library of Tasmania's Pretyman Collection.



Title: Photograph - Group on walking track in bush setting
Description: 1 photographic print
Format: Photograph
ADRI: NS1013-1-808
Source: Archives Office of Tasmania
Series: Photographs and Glass Plate Negatives Collected by E R Pretyman, 1870 - 1930 (NS1013)



Cascades Prison for Males
TAHO Ref: NS1013145 (n.s. n.d.) This photo shows the track that is Nevin St rising up to the right



Cascades Prison for Males
TAHO Ref: NS1013146 . This photo was taken from Nevin St. Beattie print, no date.



Cascades Prison for Males
TAHO Ref: NS1013148 (n.s. n.d.)

The naming of Nevin Street may well have been a decision taken by surveyor John Hurst arising from the historical ties of his father, James Hurst, also a surveyor, and John Nevin snr's family in Ireland, reflected in their respective family friendships in Tasmania. For example, Thomas J. Nevin acted as informant on the birth registration of surveyor John Hurst's son, William Nevin Tatlow Hurst in 1868 while John Hurst was working elsewhere in the state. This was the first use of the name "Nevin" by the Hurst family in Tasmania. On another family occasion, John Hurst's mother Eliza Hurst was a signatory witness to the marriage registration of Thomas and Jack Nevin's sister Mary Ann Nevin to John Carr at the Wesleyan Chapel, Kangaroo Valley in 1877. The naming of Nevin Street by a family of surveyors connected to the family of brothers Thomas and Jack Nevin, is therefore a likely outcome of a shared family history.




No Through Road. Looking up Nevin St.
The vacant block in bottom left of this photo is the site of the cemetery at 2 Nevin St.
Photos copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2011 ARR




Top: Looking northwest towards Nevin St from the prison wall
Bottom: Looking southeast in the opposite direction towards Cascades Road
Photos copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2011 ARR

RELATED POSTS main weblog