Prisoner Thomas RYAN 1867-1877

Tasmanian government contractors Thomas J. NEVIN and Samuel PAGE
Prisoner identification photographs, Tasmania, 1870s.

Soho Square native Thomas Ryan was 26 yrs old when he was convicted at London Central Criminal Court in 1849 to serve ten years for stealing money, so his birth date if calculated from 1849 was ca. 1823. He arrived at Hobart, Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) on board the Oriental Queen in 1853, his occupation listed as blacksmith's striker.

The weekly police gazettes have dozens of notices of arrests, convictions and discharges for men with the name "Thomas Ryan" but very few for the subject of this photograph, Thomas Ryan per Oriental Queen. He is not to be confused with a much younger offender, 16 yr old Thomas Ryan, a Queen's Asylum apprentice who absconded from the service of Edward Haley, Dromedary (Tas) on 17 April 1868 (b. 1852). Nor with another Thomas Ryan, seaman, 22 years old in 1875 (b. 1853), who served 3 months for stealing an oilskin coat, whose name appears as "Bryan" and "Bryant" in some police and press notices. Another Thomas Ryan alias Kennedy per Ratcliffe, an Irishman from Cork with no distinguishing marks was 45 yrs old in 1875 (b. 1830) when he served one month for being idle and disorderly. Questions then arise as to the identity and/or aliases of the man in prisoner clothing in this photograph, why his conviction merited a mugshot, and where and when he was photographed.

Prisoner Thomas Ryan's mugshot





Prisoner RYAN, Thomas
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin
Taken at the Hobart Gaol, 1873-4
Recto "126": Verso: Oriental Queen [ship]
TMAG Collection Ref: Q15593 ex QVMAG Beattie Collection

The recto of this mugshot was numbered "126" below the photograph on the mount when it was catalogued at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston, on accession from the estate of convictarian collector John Watt Beattie in the early 1930s. The cdv with this number is now listed as missing from Beattie's collection at the QVMAG. It was removed and taken to the Port Arthur Heritage site for an exhibition in 1983 and deposited at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, along with another fifty (50) or so of these prisoner cdv's exhibited as the work of Thomas J. Nevin at the QVMAG in 1977, instead of being re-united with the other 250 or so mugshots in Beattie's collection. Those fifty or so mugshots by Thomas Nevin now held at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery including this one of Thomas Ryan are viewable on this weblog here (but not online at the TMAG) : Rogues Gallery: the TMAG Collection

The verso states simply the name of the prisoner "Thomas Ryan" and the ship "Oriental Queen" on which he was transported. The verso of this mugshot escaped the archivist who wrote "Taken at Port Arthur 1874" in the 1900s on the backs of hundreds of these 1870s mugshots held at the National Library of Australia (NLA), the QVMAG and the TMAG (all are copies or duplicates of the single sitting with Nevin from his negative). Unlike most of these cdv's,  the inscription appears on the vertical instead of horizontal orientation of the verso. The backing shows a pattern similar to others where the photograph was removed from where it had once been pasted to carboard (the blue criminal rap sheet and photo book) or to calico which Nevin used when sending photographs through the mail.

This prisoner was photographed at the Hobart Gaol by government contractor Thomas J. Nevin in 1873-4. There is no suggestion on the markings of this photograph that the prisoner was photographed at Port Arthur, nor are there records of earnings by a prisoner named Thomas Ryan at Port Arthur in the years 1873-1876 (1873 -76 CON94-1-2 AOT) although the name appears among those who were relocated from Port Arthur back to the Hobart Gaol along with the majority of colonial prisoners from July 1873 onwards with Parliament's call for the immediate closure of Port Arthur. Is this the same prisoner?

Prisoner Thomas Ryan's transportation records
Archives Office Tasmania
https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/1431623
Ryan, Thomas
Record Type: Convicts
Employer: Hudson, Joseph: 1853; Dixon, James: 1855
Property: Port Arthur Penal Station
Departure date: 4 Nov 1852
Departure port: Plymouth
Ship: Oriental Queen
Voyage number: 360
Police number: 27779
Index number: 61843
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1431623



Source: https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON33-1-114$init=CON33-1-114p211



Source: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/CON14-1-47/CON14-1-47_00100_L
Source: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/CON14-1-47/CON14-1-47_00101_L

Prisoner Thomas Ryan's police gazette records
This offense dated 1867 is one of several short sentences of three months or less recorded in the weekly police gazettes for this individual Thomas Ryan per Oriental Queen. A conviction in the Supreme Court would likely mean a mugshot was taken, but this Thomas Ryan, sentenced only to 3 months in a regional lock-up (Ross), was not photographed there.



Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police Gov't printer J. Barnard

Thomas Ryan, native place London, 32 yrs old, 5ft 6½ins tall, wreath and bird right arm, per Oriental Queen to colony, was discharged at Launceston from a sentence of 3 months on 18 January 1867 for being idle and disorderly. He was sentenced at Ross (Tas) on 24 Oct 1866. Five years later his name appears again in the police gazettes, charged on 23 December 1870 with larceny, sentenced to three months at Longford  and discharged on 29 March 1871. His age was given as 40yrs old.



Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police Gov't printer J . Barnard

Thomas Ryan per Ol Queen [Oriental Queen] was discharged in March 1871 but just a few months later, on 1st June 1871, he was convicted at the Supreme Court Launceston for feloniously receiving. He was sentenced to 7 years.



Court record: Thomas Ryan and his accomplice Samuel Smith were tried on 22 April 1871 for housebreaking and receiving.
Guilty verdict. Thomas Ryan was sentenced to 7yrs imprisonment, Samuel Smith to 4yrs.
Archives Office Tasmania AB693-1-1 1871 - The Prosecutions Project
Source:https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/AB693-1-1/AB693-1-1_097

Details of the crime and sentence passed on Thomas Ryan and Smith were published in the Cornwall Advertiser Tuesday 6 June 1871, page 2:

HOUSEBREAKING. Thomas Ryan and Samuel Smith were charged with breaking and entering into the dwelling house of Elizabeth Stobie Pegus, in Lord street, and stealing a blanket, counterpane, a gold eye-glass and other articles; on a second count they were charged with receiving the same.
Mrs Pegus left home on the morning of 11th May, to into town, and on her return about five in the afternoon she found a pane of glass in the window broken and the window-sash up. She searched the house, and missed some of her clothes off her bed. The prisoner Smith had breakfast at her house that morning; and Ryan had been seen during the day in the vicinity of the house. A witness had seen the prisoner examining a bundle in an unfrequented street; and Prisoner Smith offered for sale property like that stolen. The jury found Smith guilty on the first count, and Ryan on the second.

Source: HOUSEBREAKING. (1871, June 6). Cornwall Advertiser (Launceston) p. 2.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article232999744

On a document dated 10 June 1873 and tabled in Parliament as "Nominal Return of all prisoners sent to Port Arthur since its transfer to the Colonial government", prisoner Thomas Ryan was listed with these details, although the date of his arrival there is not readily retrievable:

Ryan, Thomas 39 yrs old convicted on 1 June 1871 at the Supreme Court Launceston for feloniously receiving. He was sentenced to 7 years.

All sentences of longer than three months passed in Launceston meant transfer to the Hobart Gaol. The press reported Thomas Ryan's transfer from Launceston to Hobart in 1871 in the company of other prisoners, most likely on board government contractor Sam Page's Royal Mail coach, a photograph of which Nevin produced for government records (see below).

ARRIVAL OF PRISONERS - The prisoners convicted at the recent criminal sitting of the Supreme Court at Launceston arrived here by the coach last evening. Alfred Maldon, who shot Constable Eddie, at Launceston, and received sentence of ten years; Michael O'Brien, who was sentenced to two years' imprisonment, for maliciously breaking about fifty squares of of glass in Dr. Milner's house at Launceston ; Thomas Duncan, sentenced to five years for house-breaking, and Thomas Ryan, seven years for feloniously receiving, were the prisoners. By the same coach a diminutive little fellow ten years of age, who received a sentence of ten days for stealing some tobacco and 10lbs. of mutton at the West Tamar, arrived here to undergo a term of five years' detention at the reformatory.

Source: Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Saturday 10 June 1871, page 2
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8867722

These four prisoners may have been photographed at the Hobart Gaol by Thomas J. Nevin in the days after their arrival in 1871, but as Nevin's commission to begin the systematic photographing of prisoners commenced six months later, in February 1872, his photographs of these men were more likely taken on their relocation back to the Hobart House of Corrections and discharge from the Mayor's Court in the mid 1870s.

Alfred Malden/Maldon's mugshot 1874
New York native Alfred Malden was one of Thomas Ryan's companions on the coach trip south from Launceston to the Hobart Gaol in June 1871 (with armed constables). The early 1900s transcription on the versos of Malden's cdv's show two versions of his name (Malden/Maldon) and his ship of arrival in Tasmania as the Tamar (mis-spelt). The transcriber's use of the generic date "1874", and the generic place of imprisonment as "Port Arthur" was written when these cdv's were removed from prisoner rap sheets and police office photo books for display and sale in the name of early 20th century dark tourism. In many, many instances, this same date and place systematically transcribed across the versos of hundreds of these prisoner cdvs forty (40) years after their original use in police hands do not reflect the facts of the prisoner's criminal history at the time he was photographed. Malden's records show he was sent to Port Arthur a month after processing at the Hobart Gaol in 1871, and returned to the Hobart Gaol in 1873 where he was discharged from the House of Corrections on 10 January 1874. His sentence of ten years passed in 1871 was reduced on discharge in 1874 on condition he leave the colony of Tasmania. Two copies of T. J. Nevin's single capture of prisoner Alfred Maldon/Malden are held at the National Library of Australia (Canberra); one is held at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (Hobart).



Prisoner Alfred Maldon [Malden]
Photographed by T. J. Nevin, Hobart, July 1873-February 1874
TMAG Ref: 15619





Two mounted cdv duplicates and versos from single sitting with prisoner Alfred Malden/Maldon
Photographed by T. J. Nevin, Hobart, July 1873-February 1874
Photo taken at the National Library of Australia, 6 Feb 2015
Photos copyright © KLW NFC 2015

As assurance to the Parliament, one hundred and nine (109) names of convicts who were sent to Port Arthur from the Hobart Gaol from the year 1871 at the discretion of the Hobart Gaol Sheriff Thomas Reidy were officially tabled in Parliament on July 15th 1873 as soon as the resolution was passed in the House of Assembly to immediately close the prison at Port Arthur and transfer the prisoners there back to the Hobart Gaol. Thomas Nevin's earlier contract with the Lands and Survey Department dating from 1868 was extended to provide the Parliament with their photographs.

Of those one hundred and nine (109) prisoners originally sent from the Hobart Gaol to Port Arthur after 1871 - the "Port Arthur convicts" as they became known in the mid 20th century - sixty (60) had already been transferred back to the Hobart Gaol by October 1873. On arrival at the Hobart Gaol, they were photographed in standard issue prison clothing by contractor T. J. Nevin on being processed or "received". His photographs of a number of these transferred prisoners taken in 1873 were duplicated and sent back to the Port Arthur prison administration during the last weeks of A. H. Boyd's incumbency as Commandant.

Many of the prisoners' names on that list, tabled in Parliament on 15th July 1873, tally with the names (and aliases) of the prisoners whose photographs survive in public collections. Many of those same names appear again on the list tabled in Parliament in 1875 as the Report of the Commission into Penal Discipline, viz. the "convict portraits" identified by name held at the National Library of Australia (84), most of which are copies and exact duplicates of the prisoner photographs by T. J. Nevin held at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery (72), the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (56), the Mitchell Library SLNSW (13), and the State Library of Tasmania (10).



Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police Gov't printer J . Barnard

Thomas Ryan was convicted of further offenses into the late 1870s, using the alias Thomas Williams when tried at Hobart on 12 January 1877 for being idle and disorderly.



Photograph by T.J. Nevin of contractor Sam Page's Royal Mail coach 1874
The figure of coach painter Tom Davis and Burdon's company name were painted out.
QMAG Collection Ref: 1987_P_0220.

The verso of this photograph carries T. J. Nevin's Royal Arms colonial warrant stamp used for government work.

RELATED POSTS main weblog

• Tasmanian crime statistics 1866-1875
• Samuel Page's Royal Mail coach
• Thomas Nevin's photographs mounted on calico 1870s
• Rogues Gallery: the QVMAG prisoner photographs collection
• Prisoner Alfred MALDEN or MALDON 1874
• Rogues Gallery: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Collection

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

• Aliases, Copies and Misattribution
• Prisoner Henry CLABBY and the TMAG frame-up
• The fruitless search of wadsley-1
• Contractors Thomas J. Nevin and "dog on the chain" James Spence 1872
• Rogues Gallery: the National Library of Australia collection

Prisoner John WILLIAMS and his scar 1874

The mugshot: positive and negative views
The photograph taken of John Williams on discharge at the Hobart Gaol for Municipal Police Office records by government contractor Thomas J. Nevin in late January 1874 is held in the Beattie Collection at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston, Tasmania. Unlike dozens of these prisoner mugshots which were removed from the QVMAG and exhibited at the Port Arthur Heritage site in 1983, this one was not chosen. There may be a reason for the oversight. This prisoner was free to the colony of Tasmania, he was not transported prior to 1853 when transportation to Tasmania ceased. He had no history of daring or blood chilling crime to titillate the tourists on their visit to Beattie's Port Arthur convictaria museum in Hobart where many of these mugshots were displayed in the 1900s. Although imprisoned eventually at Port Arthur 60 kms south of Hobart in 1871 on sentencing to three years for housebreaking and burglary at the Supreme Court Launceston, this prisoner with no known alias, John Williams, was not photographed at Port Arthur. He was photographed by Nevin on removal to the Hobart Goal (HHC - Hobart House of Corrections) on 19th January 1874 prior to discharge two weeks later.

The police gazette description on discharge of this prisoner John Williams noted a scar - "cicatrix on right side of chin". A strong black mark running from the prisoner's mouth down his chin on his left side rather than his right in the positive print looks to be an ink mark over the scar, possibly drawn by a viewer years or decades later. The scar appears on the viewer's right and therefore on the prisoner's left when facing the photograph, perhaps because the police gazette notice was written from the photograph in the absence of any prior record -  note the lack of detail on the conduct record below. Then again, the glass negative might have been used by the writer of the police gazette notice, fresh from the sitting, in which case the writer was probably the photographer Thomas Nevin or his assistant, his brother Constable John Nevin at the Hobart Gaol. The glass negative would therefore show the black mark extending from the prisoner's mouth to his chin on his right side, correctly so as the police gazette states, as in this flipped version on left:



Left:    scar on his right (glass negative view)
Right:  scar on his left   (paper print view)



Prisoner John WILLIAMS 1874
Photographed by T. J. Nevin 20-30 January 1874
QVMAG Collection
Ref: QVM 1985_P_0132
Recto inscription: "196"
Verso inscription: "63 John Williams per Tasmania Taken at Port Arthur 1874"
Plus various QVMAG accessioning numbers and dates in 1958 and 1985



Prisoner John WILLIAMS 1874
Photographed by T. J. Nevin 20-30 January 1874
QVMAG Collection
Ref: QVM 1985_P_0132


Prisoner/convict John Williams
Caption: Arrived free per Tasmania. Tried Launceston and sent to Port Arthur. Photo taken at Port Arthur by Thomas Nevin.
Ref: PH30/1/3224
Archives of Tasmania

Discharge 1874
John Williams arrived free to the colony (FC) at Launceston on the intercolonial vessel Tasmania. He was sentenced at the Supreme Court Launceston on 1 June 1871 to 3 years for house breaking and robbery. He was born in England, 43 years old, 5 feet 3 inches in height with brown hair. He had a cicatrix on the right side of his chin, and was balding on top. He was formally discharged in court at the Port Arthur prison, and removed to the Hobart Goal (HHC - Hobart House of Corrections) on 19th January. The Office of Inspector of Police, Hobart Town, gazetted his discharge on 30th January 1874.



Prisoner John WILLIAMS was discharged from Port Arthur, and released free at Hobart, 30 January 1874. Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police (Police Gazette)

Conduct Record 1871-74
This page from the Hobart Gaol record is devoid of any physical descriptors of the prisoner John Williams. It simply records offences while imprisoned at Port Arthur and movements from Port Arthur. John Williams received 3 months for misconduct on 8 October 1872. On 19 January 1874 the residue of his sentence was remitted. On 24 January 1874 he was moved from Port Arthur to the House of Corrections at Hobart (Hobart Gaol). On 30 January 1874 he was discharged from Hobart. 



Williams, John
Record Type: Convicts
Ship: Tasmania
Remarks: Free to colony. Tried Launceston June 1871
Index number: 76631
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1446804
Conduct Record: CON37/1 Page 6097
CON37/1/10 Page 5829

Prisoner George GROWSETT 1860 and 1873

DUPLICATES, COPIES and DISPERSAL of 1870s MUGSHOTS
PRISONER George Growsett's THREAT of SUICIDE

George Growsett threatened suicide at trial in 1860 for armed robbery, protesting that he would rather be hanged than endure a lengthy sentence. A sentence of death was duly recorded, which he boastfully informed the court he wanted, but his sentence was commuted a few days later to 15 years in penal servitude. He was photographed by Thomas J. Nevin at the Mayor's Court, Hobart Town Hall, on discharge on September 5th, 1873. He must have committed further offences (to be included here later if found), since Nevin's original photograph of 1873, numbered "79 " in the Hobart Gaol Photo Book, was duplicated, numbered "264" for application to the prisoner's rap sheet on sentencing for further offences.

The prisoner in a most insolent manner said he knew very well that the question was only a matter of form ; he had not been tried at all, and did not consider that he had had a fair trial. The witnesses had sworn what they liked, and he had not been defended by counsel ; in fact, he had been sold like a bullock in Smithfield Market ; he knew very well that His Honor had his sentence ready written before him, and that the whole thing was a matter of form. He knew very well that he should have a long sentence, but His Honor had better sentence him to be hanged, as he should never do a long sentence ; in fact, he could not do it whether he received it or not (Mercury 7 September 1860)

The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery copy
When George Growsett was found guilty at trial of armed assault in 1860, the verdict recorded was "Death" - but he was not hanged. The sentence of "death" was commuted to 15 years of penal servitude. When he was discharged from the 15 year sentence in 1873, he was photographed by government contractor, photographer Thomas J. Nevin. Just one image of this man George Growsett is extant, duplicated several times, and copied.

Three copies from two duplicates are extant of the photograph made from Thomas J. Nevin's original glass negative taken in the one and only sitting of prisoner George Growsett in September 1873 (No. 79) on discharge from a 15 yr sentence for armed robbery. The duplicate from Nevin's original was reproduced again (No. 264) when George Growsett was committed for a further sentence (to be confirmed).

This copy held at the TMAG was originally held in a collection at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, acquired from convictarian John Watt Beattie's estate in the 1930s as government records and gaol estrays. It was removed from the QVMAG (Launceston) by Elspeth Wishart in 1983 and taken down the Port Arthur historic site as part of an exhibition. For this purpose, for its removal to the exhibition it was numbered "179" - the number written directly below the oval image on the mount. At the close of the exhibition, this mugshot and another fifty (50) and more sourced from the QVMAG were not returned to the QVMAG, deposited instead at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery in Hobart, thereby violating the integrity of Beattie's Collection. These fifty and more police mugshots of the 1870s, taken by government contractor photographer Thomas J. Nevin, should have been returned to the QVMAG in 1983.

The QVMAG's list of their collection of 1870s mugshots, acquired here in 2005, shows that of the 200 listed in the original QVMAG collection in the 1980s, only 72 mugshots were in fact actually located there. More than 200 were originally acquired at the QVMAG, but were not listed in 1983. Not only were more than a hundred missing from Beattie's original collection, it was in 1983 when Elspeth Wishart et al at the Port Arthur exhibition fabricated an altogether impossible photographer attribution to the prison's commandant A. H. Boyd, despite clear recent and historical evidence that commercial photographer and government contractor Thomas J. Nevin was the commissioned photographer working from February 1872 to commence the photographing of prisoners at sentencing, incarceration and discharge. The misattribution to A. H. Boyd, a renowned bully and not a photographer by any definition of the term, was to pander to the fantasies of his descendants who were mindful of seeing their reviled ancestor come up from history smelling of roses. A. H. Boyd was dismissed for misogyny from the superintendent position at the Queen's Orphan School in 1864, and forced to resign from the commandant position at Port Arthur in December 1873 under allegations of fraud, corruption and misappropriation of funds.

Thomas J. Nevin's original glass negative was produced at the one and only sitting with prisoner George Growsett in September 1873. It was reproduced twice for application to Growsett's prison criminal record sheet, now missing, as are all the early rap sheets from the mid 1870s from which these mugshots were removed. As on later rap sheets, the date of sentencing was written, along with the crime, the length of sentence, the date of discharge and the number of the photograph, which was recorded in the Hobart Gaol Photo Book. The extant photograph held at the National Library of Australia bears TWO numbers: the first, no. "79" was recorded when Nevin photographed Growsett on discharge from a 14 year sentence (September 1860) for armed robbery in September 1873. The second number "264" was recorded for another sentence (date and nature of crime to be confirmed).



Prisoner GROWSETT, George
Ex QVMAG Collection, now held at the TMAG Ref: Q15611
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

This copy was printed at a slight tilt, compared with the NLA and AOT copies which were straightened when printed.



Verso of cdv of prisoner GROWSETT, George
Inscription: "79 & 264 George Growsett per Ly Montague (Taken at Port Arthur 1874)"
Ex QVMAG Collection, now held at the TMAG Ref: Q15611
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin

The National Library of Australia copy
The National Library of Australia catalogue entry is devised from the inscription on the verso of this photograph, but with the assumption that the information is correct, viz: "George Growsette, per Ly. [Lady] Montague, taken at Port Arthur, 1874 [picture]". This photograph was not taken in 1874, it taken in early September 1873 at the Hobart Municipal Police Office, Town Hall, when Growsett was discharged, free in service with a ticket of leave.



George Growsette, per Ly. [Lady] Montague, taken at Port Arthur, 1874 [picture]
National Library of Australia Call Number PIC Album 935 #P1029/22

The NLA copy bears two numbers on recto: "79 & 264" which indicate that the first, no. 79 was taken by Thomas J. Nevin in the week preceding September 5th 1873 when George Growsett was discharged (FS - free in service). The second, no. 264, was duplicated from the first, from Nevin's original glass negative, when George Growsett was sentenced again (date and nature of crime to be confirmed).

The Archives Office Tasmania copy
A hard copy is held at the Archives Office of Tasmania, and recorded online. The hard copy was most likely reproduced for reasons to do with regional exhibitions, postcard issue, or local and family history publications.



Prisoner George Growsett:
AOT Ref: PH30/1/3258
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin 1873


Webshot 2005: AOT Ref: PH30/1/3258
Caption: "George Growsett, convict transported per Lady Montague. Photograph taken at port Arthur by Thomas Nevin."

Court and Police Records

1852:
George Growsett, from Hereford, was tried at Chelmsford Ass. (UK) on 5th March 1859. He was transported for arson, setting fire to a stack of wheat valued at £100 etc. He arrived at Hobart (Van Diemen's Land - Tasmania) the 9th December 1852 on the Lady Montague. On arrival, he was 19 years old, his religion listed as Church of England, and was able to read and write. He was issued with a Ticket of Leave in 1853, but committed further offences. He was sentenced to 15 yrs for armed assault in 1860, and released again with a TOL on 18th August 1873, gazetted on 9th September 1873.



Growsett, George
Record Type: Convicts
Departure date: 9 Aug 1852
Departure port: Plymouth
Ship: Lady Montagu
Voyage number: 356
Index number: 28764
Record ID:NAME_INDEXES:1397589
Archives Office Tasmania

1860:
The deposition recorded on 3rd August, 1860, at Hobart Town stated that George Growsett was charged with armed robbery, death recorded. The sentence of death was commuted to 15yrs in penal servitude (P.S.) on Sept 20th 1860.



Deposition: George Growsett:
Source: Archives Office Tasmania
https://stors.tas.gov.au/AB693-1-1$init=AB693-1-1_054



Tuesday 4th September 1860: Before the Chief Justice and jury, George Growsett was found guilty of assault with a pistol on John Shipley, stealing a watch and £4.
Source: Archives Office Tasmania
https://stors.tas.gov.au/SC32-1-8$init=SC32-1-8_121



Page on right:

Thursday the 6th day of September 1860 The Court met this Day at 2pm. Before His Honor The Chief Justice
The following prisoners were placed at the bar and sentenced as opposite to their names.
Patrick Glynn To be kept in P.S. for 4 years
George Growsett Death recorded [commuted to 15 yrs penal servitude]
Martin Lydon To be Hanged

Source: Archives Office Tasmania
https://stors.tas.gov.au/SC32-1-8$init=SC32-1-8_122

PRESS REPORTS 1860
The Hobart newspaper Mercury, on 7th September 1860 reported George Growsett's death-wish statements at trial.

SUPREME COURT.
CRIMINAL SITTINGS.
(AFTER SECOND TERM, 1860.) THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6.
FIRST COURT,
BEFORE His Honor Sir Valentine Fleming, Knight, Chief Justice.
The Court sat by adjournment for the purpose of passing the sentences, and His Honor took his seat at two o'clock.
SENTENCES.
George Growsett convicted of robbery under arms.
On being asked if he had anything to say why judgement should not be passed upon him.
The prisoner in a most insolent manner said he knew very well that the question was only a matter of form ; he had not been tried at all, and did not consider that he had had a fair trial. The witnesses had sworn what they liked, and he had not been defended by counsel ; in fact, he had been sold like a bullock in Smithfield Market ; he knew very well that His Honor had his sentence ready written before him, and that the whole thing was a matter of form. He knew very well that he should have a long sentence, but His Honor had better sentence him to be hanged, as he should never do a long sentence ; in fact, he could not do it whether he received it or not.
His Honor said that during the progress of the trial he thought the prisoner was a very unwise and illiterate man, and if anything was needed to confirm that opinion, it was the address which he had just uttered. The prisoner said he had not had a fair trial, or, to use his own language, that he had been sold like a bullock. Now, His Honor thought that he had a most fair and impartial trial. (The prisoner—Well, then, I don't,) His Honor begged that he might not be interrupted, That the prisoner was not defended by counsel was no fault of His Honor, nor of the Crown, but was entirely the prisoner's own fault. His Honor found that he was originally transported to this colony for a very bad offence, namely, arson, for which he received a sentence of 14 years. (The prisoner said he had been punished for that.) He arrived here in 1852, and in the condition of a pass-holder, or, in other words, he arrived here in a condition of qualified freedom. His Honor well remembered that year, and if ever there was a period in the history of the colony when a man if inclined to lead an honest and industrious life, had every inducement held out to do so it was at that time, for the colony had been deprived of labor by the emigration to the gold fields, leaving open to persons in the same situation as the prisoner the means of gaining an honest livelihood. But the prisoner had not availed himself of those means, for in 1853 he was convicted of stealing a rather large sum of money (£25) received a sentence of seven years, and was sent to a penal settlement. Here he was guilty of absconding, insubordination, and other offences, but nevertheless he obtained a ticket-of-leave in 1853, and that was his present condition. The prisoner was a young man in the enjoyment of good health and physical strength and might easily have obtained an honest living, but what did he do ? His Honor here recapitulated the particulars of the prisoner's offence, and continued :- Was it to be allowed that crimes of this kind were to be committed by lawless men ? Where, he asked, was the injustice of the trial ? Was Shipley not the witness of truth ? And had not the jury given every consideration to the case ? His Honor's experience of juries showed him that they were always impartial and considerate, and that they had invariably a leaning towards mercy. And now the prisoner was so injudicious as to address the Court as he had done. He must have known that he was on his trial for life or death, and that by his crime he had forfeited that life by the laws of the colony. (Prisoner : So much the better). Notwithstanding that boastful expression it was not His Honor's intention to pass upon the prisoner the extreme sentence of the law ; there was a point in the evidence of Mr. Shipley in the prisoner's favor, of which he did not, perhaps, perceive the benefit, and that was the impression on Mr. Shipley's mind that the prisoner did not intend to take life. His Honor would give the prisoner the benefit of this, and it would rest with the Executive to determine the duration of his punishment. (Prisoner : I would rather be hanged.) His Honor said there was only one sentence which under those circumstances, he could pass upon the prisoner, and that was to order sentence of of death to be recorded, and
Sentence of death was accordingly recorded.

Source: Mercury (Hobart, Tas), Friday 7 September 1860, page 3

The Launceston Examiner on Wednesday, 20th September 1860 reported on Page 2 that the "death recorded against George Growsett for robbery under arms has been commuted to fifteen years penal servitude."

1871:



TRANSCRIPT

OFFENCES AT PORT ARTHUR.-From the Mercury we learn that two constables, named respectively Elliott and Rogers, have been dismissed for the offence of purchasing pigs and potatoes from two prisoners named respectively George Grossett and Moses Cochrane. The prisoners were also punished, Grossett being sent to an outstation, and Cochrane sentenced to 6 month's hard labor.

Source: Launceston Examiner Tue 21 Feb 1871 Page 5 OUR MONTHLY SUMMARY.

1873:
This record of discharge from the Tasmanian Police Gazette, dated 5th September 1873, lists George Growsett twice; the first entry shows no personal information such as age, height and hair colouring, simply that he was received from the Port Arthur prison minus this information. The second entry shows his alias as Grossett, that he was 40yrs old, and that his height was 5 ft 8 ins., almost 3 inches taller than when his height was recorded as 5ft 5ins at 19yrs old on arrival, a mistake by the police gazette, possibly. He was received at Hobart from the Port Arthur prison and photographed at the Municipal Police Office, Hobart Town Hall by Thomas J. Nevin on discharge from the Mayor's Court with a ticket of leave.



George Growsett, discharged 5th September 1873
Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police J. Barnard Gov't printer

Ticket of Leave
Fellow prisoner William Smith, transported on the Rodney 3 was granted a Ticket of Leave on the same day as George Growsett: his discharge was gazetted one week later, on 10th September 1873.



Recto and verso of photograph of prisoner Wm Smith per Gilmore (3)
Verso with T. J. Nevin's government contractor stamp printed with the Royal Arms insignia.
Carte numbered "199" on recto
QVMAG Ref: 1985.p.131

Thomas J. Nevin's two different prisoner identification photographs of William Smith per Rodney 3 taken in 1873 and again in 1875 both bear his government contractor stamp on verso. This one, taken in 1873, is held at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston, Tasmania; the second, taken in 1875 is held in the Mitchell Collection, State Library of NSW.  Read more about William Smith per Rodney 3 here.



George Growsett per Lady Montagu and William Smith per Gilmore 3 each issued with ticket of leave 12 September 1873.
Source:Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police J. Barnard Gov't printer

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