Showing posts with label KLW NFC photography. Show all posts
Showing posts with label KLW NFC photography. Show all posts

Captain Goldsmith dines with the Franklins at Govt House



Quinces. Royal Botanical Gardens, Hobart Tasmania
Photos © KLW NFC 2014 ARR

Captain Edward Goldsmith (Elizabeth Nevin's uncle) was invited at least three times to dine with the Lieutenant-Governor of the colony, Captain Sir John Franklin  and his wife Jane, Lady Franklin at Government House, Davey St, between 1839 and 1842.

These pages listing guests and booking dates are from Franklin, Jane Dinner Engagement book, Tasmania, 1837-1843 (University of Tasmania https://eprints.utas.edu.au/7806/ ):

1839



Page 70: Dinner invitation sent to Captain Edward Goldsmith (Wave), 23rd October 1839 to dine at Government House. He had arrived as master of the Wave in late September 1839, and was ready to depart by mid October.



Sept. 26.-Arrived the barque Wave 345 tons, Goldsmith, master, from London, with a general cargo.-Passengers, Messrs. Barnard, Roap, Herring, Walker, W.M.Cook, Davis, Bennett, Leftwick, Roworzing, and Mrs. Bennett.
Source: HOBART TOWN SHIP NEWS. (1839, September 28). The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas. : 1835 - 1880), p. 2. Retrieved August 11, 2014, from https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article65952554



Source: Archives Office Tasmania
Arrived in Hobart Goldsmith Ship's Master on the Wave 25 Sep 1839 
Ref: MB2/39/1/4 P351



For London direct.
THE fast sailing bark Wave, 400 tons, E. Goldsmith, commander, having all her dead weight engaged, will meet with quick dispatch. For freight of wool or passage (having superior accommodations) apply to the Captain on board, or to Bilton & Meaburn
Old Wharf, October 10.
Source: Advertising. (1839, October 11). The Hobart Town Courier and Van Diemen’s Land Gazette (Tas. : 1839 - 1840), p. 3. Retrieved August 11, 2014, from https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8748540

Captain Goldsmith's wife, Mrs Elizabeth Goldsmith (nee Day), does not appear by name or title on these invitations for her husband to attend Jane Franklin's dinners, although other invitees' wives were included. Pregnant with their third child, she had remained in London, but before her husband's departure in command of the Wave for Hobart on 2nd June 1839, she had supervised a cargo of fashionable items to be sent on consignment to Hobart merchants. John Johnson, of 59 Liverpool-street, for example, who appeared delighted with his acquisition of the newest fashions chosen by "Mrs Captain Goldsmith", ran this advertisement for bonnets in The Colonial Times, 15 October 1839:



The deference to women of status in 1830s Tasmania precluded publication of their Christian names, it seems. Captain Goldsmith's wife, Elizabeth Goldsmith , was to be called "Mrs Captain Goldsmith", if John Johnson's advertisement for his sale of her cargo of bonnets was to be a guide:

TRANSCRIPT
BONNET
The undersigned has now ready for Sale, an assortment of Dunstable, Tuscan, and fancy Silk Bonnets
THE GIRL'S and LADIES' Silk Bonnets were selected under the immediate superintendence of Mrs. Captain Goldsmith, shortly before the Wave left England. A Guarantee of the latest and newest fashion! John Johnson, 59, Liverpool-street, Oct. 11, 1839.
Source: The Colonial Times, 15 October 1839.

The ladies of Hobart Town were wearing these styles ca. 1838



Creator: Bock, Thomas, 1793-1855
ADRI: AUTAS001124066499
ADRI: AUTAS001124066606
Source: Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts



Note: DUNSTABLE BONNET, THE. English, Jig. G Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AABB. The melody is unique to London publishers Charles and Samuel Thompson's 1765 country dance collection. The first straw bonnet was said to have been made in Dunstable, a market town in Bedfordshire, England, which in any case became associated in the 18th century with finely made straw bonnets. Source:https://tunearch.org/wiki/Dunstable_Bonnet_(The)Source for notated version: Printed sources: Thompson (Compleat Collection of 200 Favourite Country Dances, vol. 2), 1765; No. 157.

1840



Page 103: Dinner invitation sent to Captain Edward Goldsmith, 4th December 1840 which was not filled. He arrived at Hobart a week later, 10 December 1840, in command of the Wave, and departed for London on 16th March, 1841:



Sailed the barque Wave,343 tons, Edward Goldsmith, master,  for London, with oil, wool etc, 16 March 1841
Source: Colonial Times (Hobart, Tas. : 1828 - 1857) Tue 16 Mar 1841 Page 2 SHIP NEWS.

1842
Captain Goldsmith arrived back in Hobart from London as master of the Janet Izat on 26 October 1842 (Ref: TAHO MB2/39/1/6 P355). He was invited to join a small company of seven to dine with the Franklins, including Dr. Joseph Milligan, superintendent of the Aboriginal group at Oyster Cove, and the auditor George Boyes, appointed acting Colonial Secretary (2 February 1842–20 April 1843) on John Franklin's recommendation after dismissing the previous Colonial Secretary, John Montagu, who had alleged interference in government by Jane Franklin. The discussions at dinner might well have centred on John Franklin's difficulties with Montagu and other senior officials (Solicitor-General Jones and Matthew Forster, chief police magistrate) but of immediate concern to Captain Goldsmith was Sir John Franklin's arrangements for the safe return passage of gravely ill Antarctic circumnavigator Captain John Biscoe with his family on board the Janet Izat. Captain Biscoe died at sea on the Janet Izat on the return voyage for London departing 15th February 1843. On the topic of polar exploration Sir John Franklin may have foreshadowed in this company at dinner his desire to reprise a commission from the Admiralty to lead a naval expedition to the Arctic, an ambition which cost him his life in June 1847. The Franklins departed Hobart, VDL for Port Phillip, Victoria on board the Flying Fish, in November 1843.



Page 148: Top billing. Dinner invitation sent to Captain Edward Goldsmith, 1st November 1842.

Source of originals.
Franklin, Jane Dinner Engagement book, Tasmania, 1837-1843. University of Tasmania Library Special and Rare Materials Collection, Australia. (Unpublished) https://eprints.utas.edu.au/7806/; https://eprints.utas.edu.au/7806/1/rs_18_3.pdf



Plate from the dinner service used at Government House, bearing Governor Sir John Franklin's insignia.
Source: Gowans Auctions, Moonah, Tasmania: June 2016, Ref: PR39-1462326394

The Hobart Regatta
The more immediate concern for John Franklin was the appointment of Captain Goldsmith as umpire of the four oars gigs race at the upcoming Hobart Regatta to be held at Sandy Bay on 1st December, 1842. The event was marked by a protest from Mr. Hefford:

The second was that of gigs pulling four oars ; the first boat to receive fifteen sovereigns, and the second seven sovereigns. Five boats started: the " Cater- pillar," "Centipede,""Chase-all," "Gaxelle," and the "Son of the Thames." At first each seemed to maintain its place, continuing to do so as far as the outward ' buoy, when the " Gaxelle" began to creep away, and continued gradually to gain apace until she arrived at the goal, closely followed by the "Centipede." The pull was, altogether, a heavy one, and, we should say, bespoke rather the energy of muscle than a decision as to the speed of the rival crafts. The winners were- of the first prise, Mr. Bayley, owner of the" Gaxelle," and of the second, Mr. C. Lovett, by the " Centipede ;" these received their prizes, accompanied by the usual honours, at the hands of M. T. Chapman, though not without a protest on the part of Mr. J. Hefford against the bestowal of the second prize, on the ground that the " Centipede" had not properly rounded one of the buoys. The objection was done away with, as well by Mr. Kelly as by Captain Goldsmith, who had been appointed umpire, under the Impression that Mr. Hefford had publicly withdrawn his boat.
Source: LOCAL. (1842, December 2). The Courier (Hobart, Tas. : 1840 - 1859), p. 2. Retrieved August 18, 2014, from https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2953480



Captain Goldsmith, committee member at the Regatta 1847
Silk program, from TAHO at Flickr

Where have all the cabbages gone?
What did Jane Franklin serve her guests at these more intimate dinners? Theft of fruits and vegetables from the gardens which supplied Government House was proving evermore difficult to curtail. Discontent among the populace at "food rotting on the ground" was reported in the press. Even colonists caught sampling plants were threatened with police investigation.



The Colonial Times, Sept 18, 1834
Royal Botanical Gardens, Hobart Tasmania
Photos © KLW NFC 2014 ARR



Royal Botanical Gardens, Hobart Tasmania
Photos © KLW NFC 2014 ARR

A display board in the Gardener's Cottage, Royal Botanical Gardens informs visitors that:-

The Govt garden is an area of 15 acres & has about as many gardeners or labouring men (for they are all London pickpockets) under a chief who has a good salary ...Lady Jane Franklin, wife of the Governor Sir John Franklin, letter to her sister - 1842 
Cabbages claim second scalp
The first superintendent of the Gardens was dismissed by Governor Arthur for supplying cabbages to the wrong people. But cabbages continued to cause controversy into Sir John Franklin's tenure.
Lady Jane Franklin had started to notice a gradual decline in the amount of produce that arrived at her table. She noted that there were many people better supplied than they were. The housekeeper later warned her of growing discontent in the servants quarters because they had nearly no vegetables at all. Lady Franklin was convinced that either theft or bribery was to blame, so she came down to the Gardens to complain to the gardener.
At first he tried to blame drought, but soon admitted that certain men of rank and privilege were increasingly sending ...
Sir John Franklin's nephew, William Porden Kay, was appointed to redesign the Gardens in 1842. The intention was to include areas for public enjoyment beyond the purely economic and scientific purposes the gardens already served.



William Porden Kay1842
Royal Botanical Gardens, Hobart Tasmania
Photos © KLW NFC 2014 ARR

 Imported Fruits



Apples and Pears
Royal Botanical Gardens, Hobart Tasmania
Photos © KLW NFC 2014 ARR



Government House Hobart 1847
Lantern slide reproduced by J. W. Beattie Tasmanian Series from an unattributed early photograph
University of Tasmania eprints Special Collections



Jane, Lady Franklin ca. 1838, by Thomas Bock
Sir John Franklin ca. 1845 by E. P. Hardy
National Portrait Gallery of Australia collection

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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

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The Mayor's Court and the Hobart Town Hall Keeper

Meet Mr Mike Lonergan, present Keeper of the exquisite Faranese Palace miniature, the Hobart Town Hall, Tasmania (erected in 1866). His impromptu guided tour of his ground floor offices and the Mayor's Court room was a revelation. To the left of the main entrance, Mr Lonergan pointed firstly to his office which had always been occupied by the Keeper, and where Thomas J. Nevin had sat at a desk during his incumbency in the position as both the Town Hall Keeper, and as the official police photographer for the Municipal Police Office, also housed in the Town Hall in those years, between his appointment to the civil service in 1875 and his dismissal in 1880.

Here, inside the room which had functioned as the Mayor's Court Room - "the Mayor also being the Chief Magistrate" - Mr Lonergan stood on the exact spot where the Police Office cells were formerly located below, in the basement. That area, he explained, was now just a room for electric cables etc, but in Thomas Nevin's time, it was the place where prisoners (i.e. "convicts") were brought up from the Port Arthur penitentiary as the site there devolved, and incarcerated until commanded up the now-demolished stairway into this room.  On incarceration, the prisoner was photographed by Thomas Nevin prior to appearing before the Magistrate.The prisoner was then either sentenced to a further term at the Hobart Gaol, or discharged with various conditions.

In this south-east corner of the Mayor's Court room, on Mr Lonergan's left, was once the doorway where the prisoner entered from the stairway and cells below. It is now a wall decorated with mid-20th century paintings.

Mr Mike Lonergan Hobart Town Hall keeper 2012

Mr Mike Lonergan Hobart Town Hall keeper 2012
Photo posterized © KLW NFC Imprint 2012 ARR

Located in the building is the Keeper's apartment, also used by Mr Lonergan, where Thomas Nevin, his wife Elizabeth Rachel nee Day and their first five children resided. A son - Sydney John - died there on 28 January, 1877, aged 4 months. Their children would have played on the original tiles at the main entrance and around the main chamber upstairs.



The Launceston Town Hall Keeper



The Launceston Town Hall keeper, Edward Hooper Dix 1895
Photo copyright© KLW NFC 2012 ARR
E.H. Dix, Town Hall Keeper 1895. Unattributed. QVMAG 1994 LCC
QVM: 2005: POOO2

Published in McPhee, John A. (John Alexander) & Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery (Launceston, Tas.) (2007). The painted portrait photograph in Tasmania : 1850 - 1900. Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston, Tas

Update 25 October 2012



The Hobart City Council plans to restore the police cells in the basement of the Hobart Town Hall. Article published in The Mercury 24 October 2012. Photo © KLW NFC Imprint 2012.

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