Thomas J. Nevin | Tasmanian Photographer

On the road with Sam Clifford and Thomas J. Nevin; Bothwell 1874

TRAVELLING PHOTOGRAPHERS Samuel Clifford and Thomas J. Nevin1874
TEMPLARS at BOTHWELL, Tasmania
TRANSIT of VENUS and A. B. Biggs 1874

Countryside surrounding Melton Mowbray showing hotel and Midland Highway
Photographer(s)Samuel Clifford/Thomas J. Nevin 1874
Archives Office of Tasmania
https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/ph30-1-896

The Templars at Bothwell
Professional photographers Thomas J. Nevin and Samuel Clifford were colleagues and close friends from the 1860s until Samuel Clifford's death in 1890. On this tour, they travelled on the Midland Highway north from Hobart to Launceston (Tasmania). In the final week of September 1874, while passing through Bothwell, 45 miles north of Hobart, they were enjoined to photograph the procession of Templars attending a large meeting. The Hobart Mercury reported their arrival in the town in a long account of the meeting, published on 26 September, 1874:

Clifford and Nevin in Bothwell 26 Sept 1874

Samuel Clifford and Thomas Nevin in Bothwell
Source: GOOD TEMPLARY AT BOTHWELL. (1874, September 26). The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), p. 3./
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8932458

TRANSCRIPT extract

The members of the Order, according to their respective lodges then formed in procession outside the building, where a capital photograph was taken by Messrs Clifford and Nevin, photographers of Hobart Town, who were located in the township on a travelling tour. The township was then paraded, the band striking up some lively airs, but a smart shower coming down, the procession was speedily dispersed in every directions in quest of shelter.

The Templar procession caught in the rain
T. Nevin stereograph, Bothwell, September 1874
State Library of Tasmania Ref: LPIC147_1_126

Thomas Nevin photographed one of these Templars around the same time, a senior member wearing a Masonic medal and apron, posed with arm resting on Nevin's big tabletop stereoscopic viewer taken in his Hobart studio.

Above: Freemason posed with Thomas Nevin's tabletop stereo viewer ca 1870-1874
Copyright © The Lucy Batchelor Collection

Purposes of the Tour

PAGE'S ROYAL MAIL COACH
Both photographers and their boxes of photographic equipment travelled on Samuel Page's coach on this tour. Coach proprietor Samuel Page (1810-1878) held the government contracts for the Royal Mail coach deliveries between Hobart and Launceston from the 1850s to the 1870s before the rail link was established in 1876. As part of his commission to provide photographs of various government services, T. J. Nevin photographed the coachline in the mid 1870s. In addition to the Royal Mail, Samuel Page transported prisoners from regional stations and courts to be "received" at H.M. Gaol, Hobart, accompanied by constables. Thomas J. Nevin travelled between Hobart and Launceston on several commissions, sometimes in the company of of colleague and friend, photographer Samuel Clifford (eg. on this trip via Bothwell 1874), combining commercial photography with official photography for the Hobart Municipal Police Office and Territorial Police.

Original photograph by T.J. Nevin with the figure of Tom Davis and Burdon's company name painted out (QMAG Collection Ref: 1987_P_0220). Tom Davis was a coach painter. The verso bears T. J. Nevin's Royal Arms insignia stamp used for government commissions, in this instance for the Royal Mail coach.

Sam Page's license published in the police gazette
From Campbell Town to Fingal, 14 passengers
Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime, James Barnard Gov't Printer 1874

SCENIC VIEWS with commercial appeal
By the mid 1860s Samuel Clifford had 700 scenic views of Tasmania for sale, a prodigious output which was assisted by his young colleague Thomas J. Nevin and lasted into the mid 1870s. When Thomas J. Nevin advertised his retirement from commercial practice in the Mercury, 17th January 1875, on the eve of his appointment to civil service as Office and Hall Keeper for the Hobart City Council at the Hobart Town Hall, Samuel Clifford announced in the same advertisement that he had acquired T. J. Nevin's commercial negatives taken for private clients and would reprint them on request. Their stereoscopic views were sold with sole attribution to Samuel Clifford's name when bound in souvenir albums. Others sold separately, many of identical views, were imprinted with Nevin's own studio mark. Examples include stereographs of the River Derwent at New Norfolk, the Salmon Ponds at Plenty, and commercially appealing scenic such as this one:

Stereograph - view of Bothwell, taken from Mt Adelaide, roof of Fort Wentworth in the foreground.
https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/LPIC147-1-125/LPIC147-1-125

Stereoscopic view by T. Nevin Salmon Ponds

TMAG Ref: Q1994.56.7
MEDIUM: sepia stereoscope salt paper print ,
MAKER: T Nevin [Artist];
DATE: 1870c
DESCRIPTION : Salmon Ponds at Plenty near New Norfolk
INSCRIPTIONS & MARKS: Impressed on front: T Nevin/ photo

THE TRANSIT of VENUS
Samuel Clifford had arranged a meeting with Alfred Biggs at Campbell Town who was preparing for the visit of an American expedition to photograph the Transit of Venus in December, headed by Charles Raymond . With William Valentine who had made his home The Grange available to the expedition, school master, bank officer, astronomer and inventor Alfred Biggs would assist with the construction of the brick pier for the transit instrument and the wooden hut.

Read the original at the NY TIMES here: from the New York Times

This full-length portrait of Alfred Barrett Biggs (below) was taken by Thomas Nevin in the early 1870s at his studio, the City Photographic Establishment, 140 Elizabeth St. Hobart Town.

Alfred Barrett Biggs ca, 1872-4 (ca. 45 yrs)
Photographer : Thomas J. Nevin, City Photographic Establishment, Hobart (verso stamp)
Source: Archives Office of Tasmania
View online:https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/LMSS754-1-9/LMSS754-1-9

"Clifford & Nevin, Hobart Town"
Cdv portrait, head and shoulders cdv on plain oval mount : A young woman [unidentified] with a chin dimple, wearing an elaborately frilled bodice, brooch on a ribbon wound round her neck and chain to the waist, hair curled in layers across the top of head, her stare dramatic, solemn and strongly directed at the photographer/camera.

Studio portrait by Thomas J. Nevin ca, 1870-1875. Verso with the handwritten inscription in Samuel Clifford's orthography: "Clifford & Nevin Hobart Town". The original was taken by Thomas Nevin before 1876, and reprinted by Samuel Clifford until 1878, per his advertisement in the Mercury, 17th January 1876:

Mr T. J. Nevin's friends may depend that I will endeavour to satisfy them with any prints they may require from his negatives.
S. CLIFFORD

Photos recto and verso copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2014-2015
TMAG Ref: Q1984.294

RELATED ARTICLES main weblog

The case of prisoner Francis SHEARAN

An eventful week .... June 26, 1879

Francis Shearan Tasmanian prisoner by Nevin

Francis Shearan,
Photo by T.J. Nevin 1878

The Hobart newspaper The Mercury of June 26, 1879 was a special edition in many ways for Thomas Nevin. It contained a dramatic account of the riot at the Town Hall the previous evening, details of which may well have been supplied to the reporter by Nevin himself who was not mentioned as the Town Hall Keeper probably because he was upstairs keeping the source of the trouble, the Canadian renegade Catholic Pastor Chiniquy, hidden from view of riot leader O'Shea downstairs in the "Irish Corner" of the Hall. Chiniquy did not deliver his scheduled lecture that evening, nor the next.

The Mercury, 26 June 1879

In the very next column of the newspaper appeared a report on an inquest conducted into the death of prisoner Francis Shearan, together with an eye-witness account of his death by another prisoner Ephraim Booth. Francis Shearan and Ephraim Booth were both photographed as prisoners by T.J. Nevin at various junctures of their careers as habitual offenders. Younger brother Jack Nevin, employed on salary at the Hobart Gaol, assisted Thomas Nevin in producing these photographs for the Gaol records plus duplicates for circulation to regional police and for the central registry of criminals held in the Town Hall at the Municipal Police Office.

THE PHOTOGRAPHS

Two different photographs of Francis Shearan are held at the State Library of NSW in the David Scott Mitchell Collection. These two are among the nine catalogued photographs by T.J. Nevin of Tasmanian prisoners at PXB 274.

Prisoner photos by T.J. Nevin 1870s
SLNSW © KLW NFC 2009

The earlier one (left) is posed in similar fashion to another by Nevin of convict William Harrison (QVMAG; AOT; Kerr 1992) in which the prisoner is facing the camera with arms crossed. The darkened background of the oval vignette (on left) was used by Nevin more often than the softened edges and clear background (on right) for producing the final carte-de-visite print to be pasted to the criminal's record sheet, although both formats are common and evident in the portraits of his family members and private patrons.

The earlier photograph is a "booking photograph", the classic mugshot of today, taken on Shearan's arrest. He was still dressed in his own clothes, unshaven and in need of a haircut. He was "F.S" - free in servitude - serving an employer in the North West Bay area of the island prison which was Tasmania. Remanded and then sentenced, he was photographed again at the Hobart Gaol (aka the Campbell Street House of Correction) wearing the standard issue blue diamond patterned prison scarf. But which photograph was really taken when? The date transcribed on the verso of the booking photograph merely gives the year "1877". The date on the verso of the photograph on the right documents the date of the sentence handed down. The exact dates on which the photographs were taken cannot therefore be taken as necessarily those on the versos. The date of the sentence was transcribed from a police register or gazette, such as the police gazette records below, and probably by an archivist decades later (1900s).

Neither photograph is tinted, and neither bears any wording about "Port Arthur", a clear indication that Nevin's other cartes of prisoners which bear the inscription ""Taken at Port Arthur" on verso (QVMAG and NLA collections) were incorrectly labelled by someone in Tasmania after 1907, the year David Scott Mitchell acquired these photographs (among other items by Thomas Nevin's family) and bequeathed them to the State Library of NSW.

The photograph of Francis Shearan on the left is documented verso with the inscription:

" Francis Shearan, 'North Briton' Murder of Lawrence Fallon, 1877".

The photograph of Francis Shearan on the right is documented verso with the inscription:

" Francis Shearan, 'Murder, 8 years, 25-7-78".

Francis Shearan was transported as Francis Sheagan from Dublin, departing 20 December 1842, arriving Hobart on the convict ship North Briton, 4th April 1843, according to the convict shipping records held at the Archives Office of Tasmania:

63460
Sheaghan
Francis
04 Apr 1843
North Briton
20 Dec 1842
Dublin

It may be a coicidence that quite a few of his fellow transportees on that ship also died of "natural causes". Between 1870 and 1878, the police records show a number of inquests due to "natural causes" for North Briton convicts.

POLICE RECORDS: The Crime, The Warrant and The Sentence

Notice in the weekly police gazette, 15 February 1877.

Warrant for the arrest of Francis Shearan, 11th November 1877.

The warrant notice described Shearan much as he appeared in the booking photograph on left when arrested on 17th November 1877.

Francis Shearan was arrested on 17th November 1877. He was transferred from Kingston (a few miles south of Hobart) to the Hobart Gaol and photographed on being "received", the usual procedure for sentences longer than three months.

The police suspected Shearan aka Sheagan of deliberately setting fire to the huts with the intent of covering the death, possibly by shooting, of Lawrence Fallon, a felon with criminal records pertaining to illicit distillery. Yet Shearan had buried the body, and shooting was not established, so he was sentenced to only 8 years on a charge of manslaughter. It was Fallon who came to haunt Shearan in his dying days at the Campbell Street House of Correction 16 months later, looking at him and talking to him.

These notices appeared in the weekly police gazettes. On 15 May 1878, or thereabouts, Shearan was remanded for murder.He was 66 yrs old when sentenced for the manslaughter of Fallon.

Notice in the weekly police gazette, 2 August 1878.

Source of police records:
Tasmania Reports of Crime Information for Police, James Barnard Government Printer.

DEATH IN THE GAOL.

From The Mercury, June 26, 1879:

"An inquiry was held yesterday at noon at the Bird in-Hand Hotel, Argyle-street, before the coroner, Mr. W. Tarleton, and a jury, of which Mr. William Dove was foreman, into the circumstances attending the death of Francis Shearan, who was a prisoner serving a sentence in the Campbell-street House of Correction, and who expired in the institution on Sunday last, Shearan was sentenced In July last to eight years' imprisonment for the wilful murder of Laurence Fallon, [illegible] ... was known as the North West Bay murder. He was twice previously tried for the murder, but the juries were unable to agree.

Dr. E. O. Giblin, visiting Surgeon at the gaol, deposed to having been called in to see the deceased some six weeks since. He found him suffering from great weakness and debility, and ordered his removal to the hospital ward, where he had since remained in bed, only occasionally rising for an hour or so. He was suffering from no disease, except melancholy, being under the impression that the man he had been sentenced for killing was in the habit of coming to look and talking to him. Deceased gradually got weaker and weaker, and died on Sunday morning, the 22nd instant, from debility and old age, having had every attention and comfort that the case demanded. Deceased had only performed light work previous to his illness, and his death was from natural causes.

Ephraim Booth, a prisoner in the gaol, who waited on the deceased, also gave evidence as to his having died in his presence early on Sunday morning. Deceased was well treated, and made no complaint of any kind, though he often refused to take his food.

The Coroner said, addressing the jury, that there was one special purpose in the holding of these inquests on persons who died in gaol. It was expressed by an old author in the following terms :-" It is observable that this statute being wholly directory, and in affirmance of the common law, doth neither restrain the coroner from any branch of his power nor excuse him from the execution of any part of his duty not mentioned in it, which was incident to his office before ; and from hence it follows, that though the statute mention only his taking enquiries of the deaths of persons slain or drowned, or suddenly dead, yet he may and ought to enquire of the death of all persons whatsoever who die in prison, to the end that the public may be satisfied whether such persons came to their end by the common course of nature, or by some unlawful violence, or unreasonable hardships put on them by those under whose power they were confined." The Coroner was from this reason compelled to hold an enquiry, and had no discretionary power at all. There was in all probability not much danger now of such violence or hardships being inflicted, and the law was most likely but the remains of an ancient statute, absolutely necessary in olden times when gaols were conducted, as they knew, in a very different manner to the present custom. Although it might appear unnecessary to the jury that they should be called together in such instances, still there was the law, and it must be carried out. In this case the man's death was apparently caused by extreme old age and debility, and from the evidence it was shown that he was treated with every kindness, and furnished with due and proper nourishment. Therefore, he thought there was only one verdict he could direct them to return-that death arose from natural causes, and that there was no ground for attributing blame to anyone.

The jury then returned a verdict to that effect."

[end of newspaper article, The Mercury, June 26, 1879]

THE PHOTOGRAPHERS

Thomas J. Nevin (1842-1923)

IN HIS OWN WORDS...

"T. J. NEVIN
PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTIST,
Returns his sincere thanks to his friends and the public for past favours, and having made a considerable Reduction in his Prices to suit the times, he solicits a continuance of their patronage, and invites attention to his circulars, showing particulars of the small cost for a first-class faithful Likeness.
140 ELIZABETH-STREET"
Hobart Mercury, 1st February 1873

“I hope that you have not got it in your mind that I am implicated with the ghost“.
Hobart Mercury, 4 December 1880

"Defendant said that he was the father of a large number of children, and did not know which one was referred to. (Laughter.)"
Hobart Mercury, 11 August 1886

"Mr. Thos Nevin was under the impression that the police should be under stricter supervision."
Hobart Mercury, 19 July 1888.

BIOGRAPHY: professional photographer Thomas James Nevin snr (1842-1923) produced large numbers of stereographs and cartes-de-visite within his commercial practice, and prisoner identification photographs on government contract. His career spanned nearly three decades, from the early 1860s to the late 1880s. He was one of the first photographers to work with the police in Australia, along with Charles Nettleton (Victoria) and Frazer Crawford (South Australia). His Tasmanian prisoner mugshots are among the earliest to survive in public collections, viz. the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston; the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart; the Tasmanian Heritage and Archives Office, Hobart; the Port Arthur Historic Site, Tasman Peninsula; the National Library of Australia, Canberra; and the Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW, Sydney. Thomas J. Nevin's stereographs and portraits are held in public and private collections in Australia, New Zealand, the USA, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark, France and Switzerland.

Click here for KEY DATES 1842-1923

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Important Notices

INDIGENOUS NOTICE:
lutruwita/Tasmania/Van Diemen's Land (loo-tru-wee-ta) always was, always will be Aboriginal land.

This weblog pays respect to the ancestors and elders past, present, and emerging of the first Australian peoples and acknowledges their continued connection to land, sea and culture as the traditional custodians of this country.

Irish-born Thomas J. Nevin would have been keenly aware that the residence and photographic studio he occupied at No's 138-140 Elizabeth St. Hobart in the 1870s were built on the traditional lands, nipaluna of the palawa people. It is no small irony that today, the very same property, which is renumbered as No. 198 Elizabeth St. Hobart and is occupied by the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre, has returned to its traditional owners.

Looking east from the corner of Patrick St., the Royal Standard Hotel, 142 Elizabeth St. then T. J. Nevin’s studio and residence, 140-138 Elizabeth St. Hobart, 1870s

We also acknowledge the Gadigal people of the Eora nation as the traditional custodians of the City of Sydney, and the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples, the traditional custodians of the Kamberri/Canberra region on whose lands this site is maintained.

PLEASE NOTE: images on this weblog represent deceased people, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Viewing such images may cause sadness and distress.

DISCLAIMER: We have not voluntarily contributed to any publication which supports the misattribution of T. J. Nevin's prisoner/convict photographs (300+ extant) to the non-photographer A. H. Boyd, nor do we condone any attempts by public institutions or private individuals to co-opt the work on these Thomas J. Nevin weblogs and associated sites to apply the misattribution.

Our 21st Anniversary 2005-2026

Anthony Trollope at Port Arthur

Thomas Nevin's VIP commission 1872

VISIT TO PORT ARTHUR.- Mr. Trollope and the Hon. Howard Spensly, Esq., Solicitor-General of Victoria, accompanied the Hon. the Premier, J.M. Wilson, Esq., and the Hon. the Attorney-General, W.R. Giblin, Esq., embarked in the Government schooner late last night, some time after Mr. Trollope had concluded his lecture on "Modern Fiction, as a recreation for young people," and left for Port Arthur. Their visit to the Peninsula will be a very hurried one, and will afford them only scant opportunity of inspecting the penal establishment, it being the intention of Messrs. Trollope and Spensly to leave Hobart Town for the North, en route for Victoria in a few days ...

Source: The Mercury 2 February 1872