Captain Edward Goldsmith and wife Elizabeth's land deals in VDL

LAND DEALS in VDL of CAPTAIN EDWARD GOLDSMITH 1839-62
DISAMBIGUATION: Elizabeth Goldsmith 1855 and Elizabeth Goldsmith 1921



Wrest Point casino and the area behind extending up through Lord Street Sandy Bay which Captain Edward and Elizabeth Goldsmith acquired in 1840 and sold in 1852. Taken from Battery Point. Photo copyright © KLW NFC 2014

THE LIST: HISTORIC DEEDS & TITLES
Details regarding the historic deeds and titles held by Captain Edward Goldsmith and his wife Elizabeth Goldsmith nee Day between 1839 and 1862 in the colony of Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) were sourced from this document:  Historic Deeds Index Files 1827-1926 GLO-GOO. NB: to access links to the original historic documents at the LIST (see Guide in Addenda) you need to create an account at https://www.thelist.tas.gov.au



This photograph shows the extent of development in Queensborough by 1861.
Source: Archive Office Tasmania 
Abbbot Album No. 89. Sandy Bay, near Hobart Town / A.A. 1861
https://stors.tas.gov.au/AbbottAlbum

GOLDSMITH Elizabeth nee Day
Four properties were listed under the name of Elizabeth Goldsmith. The first two in the list were definitely owned by Elizabeth Goldsmith nee Day, held jointly with her husband Captain Edward Goldsmith at Queensborough, which he had acquired in 1840 and which they sold in 1852. The listing of the third and fourth properties dated 1921 and 1922 under the same name, Elizabeth Goldsmith, is more likely a simple mistake made by the Lands and Titles Registrar in 1921 and 1922: see disambiguation section below.



Source: https://www.thelist.tas.gov.au/app/content/the-list/historic-deeds/index-files/1827-1926_GLO-GOO.pdf

1850s: the Queensborough properties
NB: to access links to the historic documents below you need to create an account at https://www.thelist.tas.gov.au

* 03/6803 Queensborough. This property was located on Sandy Bay Road. Captain Edward Goldsmith bought it from Alfred Garrett (manager of the Derwent and Tamar Fire, Life and Marine Assurance Company, est. 1838) and and two others on the 20th January 1840 (dealing No. 02/3198). He registered it jointly in his wife's name. This property and another in Queensborough were conveyed in both their names in 1852, per these details: .

Conveyance with another (i.e. her husband Captain Edward Goldsmith - listed under his name as the same dealing No. 03/6803 on the same date) to William Dove, licensed victualler, registered 30th June 1852.

* 03/6803 Q'borough C with anor to Wm Dove 30.6.52
View here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kkkAKWhiloS5S-vYFbHuZIj_yjqHUZhZ/view?usp=sharing

Or view at the LIST:
https://www.thelist.tas.gov.au/app/content/property/view-historic-document?dealingNo=03/6803

* 03/7246 ditto [Q'borough C] with 3 others to N. J. D. Gresley & an 12.11.52
View here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PJ1Qif_3Y8CuCKQnDy1PLCCDP2yFoi4N/view?usp=sharing

Or view at the LIST:
https://www.thelist.tas.gov.au/app/content/property/view-historic-document?dealingNo=03/7246



View here:  this map was included in the Historic Deed 03/7246 for Elizabeth Goldsmith's Queensborough property (Sandy Bay) held jointly with her husband Captain Edward Goldsmith. It was situated on the High Road (Sandy Bay Road) between Hobart and Sandy Bay, measuring a total of 89 acres, and bounded by Lord Street in the south-west.



Photograph of Sandy Bay Road, Tasmania, c.1870.
University of Tasmania Library Special and Rare Materials Collection, Australia
https://eprints.utas.edu.au/3548/



Google maps 2018:  Lord Street, Sandy Bay Road, Marieville Esplanade, Derwentwater, and the Derwent Sailing Squadron.

1920s: disambiguation
By sheer coincidence, it seems, another Elizabeth Goldsmith, a farmer's daughter nee O'Halloran, acquired her name by marrying someone called Edward Goldsmith (a groom. i.e. of horses), at Ulverstone in northern Tasmania  on 4th August, 1880 (source: Names Index: 891485, RGD37/1/39 no 639 Archives Tas).

On January 15, 1921, now a widow and resident of Hobart, she bought 23 acres 18 perches from farmer Richard James Backhouse of Cambridge, Tasmania - for 150 pounds - documented as dealing No. 15.1951. This sale (dealing no. 15/1951) and the transfer of the mortgage in 1922 to Philip Griffiths for 98 pounds in May 1922 -  documented as dealing no. 15/6959 - were collated at some point with the properties held at Sandy Bay, Hobart in the 1850s by both Captain Edward Goldsmith and his wife Elizabeth Goldsmith nee Day. Elizabeth Goldsmith nee O'Halloran might possibly have been a descendant by marriage of  Captain Edward Goldsmith's family, but she could not have been the Captain's wife Elizabeth Goldsmith nee Day who died in England in 1875, despite the listing together of their names. If not in any way related by inheritance, the Lands and Titles Registry mistakenly included the dealings for this sale by Elizabeth Goldsmith nee O'Halloran in 1921-22 with the dealings of the wife of merchant and master mariner, Elizabeth Goldsmith nee Day in 1852, simply because both women had a husband called "Edward Goldsmith".

* 15/1951 Parish Cambridge 23.0.18 Mortgage from Richard J. Backhouse registered 15 January 1921
View here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j0V7r_SVkjlkaQS6fIWgGK0fDmUzT3WQ/view?usp=sharing

Or view at the LIST:
https://www.thelist.tas.gov.au/app/content/property/view-historic-document?dealingNo=15/1951

* 15/6959 ditto 23.0.18 Transfer of Mortgage to Philip L. Griffiths & another, registered 1 May, 1922.
View here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/11Rx3R7CWRKldxCrX7NsVA78GgrVE9ZOU/view?usp=sharing

Or view at the LIST:
https://www.thelist.tas.gov.au/app/content/property/view-historic-document?dealingNo=15/6959

GOLDSMITH, Captain Edward
This is a brief guide to the property dealings of Captain Edward Goldsmith in the colony of Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) from 1839 to 1862, viz his construction of patent slips at Secheron Bay and the Queen's Domain, Hobart; his acquisition of acreage for timber felling and sheep pasturing in the north and south of the island; his purchase and sale of land and residences in Battery Point, Hobart, and finally the sale of his licensed premises and residence at 19 Davey Street, Hobart months before his permanent departure from the colony in 1856 with wife Elizabeth and sole surviving son Edward jnr. He retired to Gadshill House, his estate in the village of Higham, Kent, UK, where he continued land management of fifty ancestral leaseholds and plantations in the neighbouring parish of Chalk.
* 02/3002 Hobart C. with 4 ors from H.W. Mortimer & 2 ors. 12.11.39.
View here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ptnh5JgFjGr9HowgJtdeQzqKnSTSGOhv/view?usp=sharing

Or view at the LIST:
https://www.thelist.tas.gov.au/app/content/property/view-historic-document?dealingNo=02/3002<

* 02/3035 Colville St. Hobart C with 4 ors from J. Grant & anor. 22.11.39.
View here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/10NpcerEGnX6UTchf7HVnE54qdi5pzzeC/view?usp=sharing 

Or view at the LIST:
https://www.thelist.tas.gov.au/app/content/property/view-historic-document?dealingNo=02/3035

* 02/3161 Lincoln 100.0.0 C [Lake St Clair] from J. A. Wood & anor 7.1.40
View here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Dv6KNM-Da95VrfyAmd2FtMGB0ru6DlpP/view?usp=sharing

Or view at the LIST:
https://www.thelist.tas.gov.au/app/content/property/view-historic-document?dealingNo=02/3161

* 02/3198 Queensborough [Sandy Bay Road] C from A. Garrett & 2 ors 20.1.40
View here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NniuK8SYkVNmg5Pc59woyTgmIQLwT65b/view?usp=sharing

Or view at the LIST: https://www.thelist.tas.gov.au/app/content/property/view-historic-document?dealingNo=02/3198

* 02/4315 Brushy Plains Pembroke 200.0.0 M from J. Quested 31.3.41
View here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/11RIiZ33rGwUJKpRvPDfjduR3oSjnoaZ5/view?usp=sharing

Or view at the LIST:
https://www.thelist.tas.gov.au/app/content/property/view-historic-document?dealingNo=02/4315

* 02/4425 Kelly St. Hobart C with 3 ors to W. Lawrence & an. 16.5.41
View here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XetVkvT_ZSpLUTpF4J2QdWmf1e2L6UHD/view?usp=sharing

Or view at the LIST:
https://www.thelist.tas.gov.au/app/content/property/view-historic-document?dealingNo=02/4425

* 02/4763 see Mem [large file, 2746 pounds etc] with 4 ors to A. Crombie & anor. 22.9.41
View here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1op0Xju1pdHZ-gvDRXkHvOqfSTn5_3Egh/view?usp=sharing

Or view at the LIST:
https://www.thelist.tas.gov.au/app/content/property/view-historic-document?dealingNo=02/4763

*02/5895 Battery Point H'bart M with 5 ors to S. Williamson 24.1.43
View here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1w9aRs_FTkfuCrwEwwKvdLYsomFbAsB3M/view?usp=sharing

Or view at the LIST:
https://www.thelist.tas.gov.au/app/content/property/view-historic-document?dealingNo=02/5895 etc etc

* 02/6081 ditto [Battery Pt. H'bart] C with 5 ors to J. Watson & anor 10.4.43
View here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/136fToeBFSR9T4r8IWxOnaiWkebjtr7iK/view?usp=sharing

* 02/6803 Q'borough  C with anor to W. Dove 30.6.52
View here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kkkAKWhiloS5S-vYFbHuZIj_yjqHUZhZ/view?usp=sharing

* 03/7246 ditto [Q'borough] C with 3 ors to N.J.D. Gresley & anor 12.11.52
View here: NB: incorrectly listed as 02/7246
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PJ1Qif_3Y8CuCKQnDy1PLCCDP2yFoi4N/view?usp=sharing

* 03/7825 Davey St. Hobart  M with 5 ors to T. Macdowell & anor 1.4.53
View here: (NB: wrongly listed as 02/7285)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1U9GCqTqkTvqvg9bAzXOlTJ7VDru1ghY0/view?usp=sharing

* 04/1853 ditto [Davey St. Hobart] C with anor to F. Leigh 5.9.55
View here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/11GalVItndWy8jIvIW9ln2esBv2fkQVyc/view?usp=sharing

EXTRACT of Indenture No. 04/1853
Date of the said Indenture
The fourth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty five

Names and additions of the parties thereto -
Edward Goldsmith of Hobart Town in Van Diemen's Land Merchant of the first part John Leslie Stewart of Hobart Town aforesaid Brewer of the second part and Philip Leigh formerly of the Colony of Victoria and now of Hobart aforesaid Shipowner of the third part -

Description of the Land conveyed
All that allotment or parcel of land situate and being in Davey Street in Hobart Town aforesaid being part of certain land comprised in a Grant from the Crown to one Thomas Cole and his heirs and bounded on the South East or front by fifty feet and four inches or thereabouts along Davey St. On the South West side by other part of the land compromised in the said Grant heretofore belonging to Andrew Crombie and now to Douglas Thomas Kilburn. On the North East side by part of certain land hereafter granted by the Crown to John Burnett. And in the North East side by an allotment of land granted by the Crown to William Pedder and formerly occupied by William Fairlough and now belonging to Joseph Oakley to Davey Street or howsoever otherwise the said land granted and released by the new memorialising Indenture is or may be bounded described or distinguished. And also all that the capital messuages or dwelling house therein erected -

Where situated
In Davey Street Hobart Town

Names and additions of witnesses thereto
John Dobson Sol'r Hobart Town
Robert Pitcairn Sol'r Hobart Town

Consideration to whom and how paid
The consideration as appears by the new memorializing Indenture and by the receipt endorsed thereon is the sum of one thousand four hundred pounds paid by the said Philip Leigh to the said Edward Goldsmith [£1400.00] as the full consideration for the purchase of the said messuages land and hereditaments (subject as aforesaid) -

Sworn at Hobart this fifth day of September one thousand eight hundred and fifty five [etc etc]
signed Edw'd Goldsmith
[5th September 1855]

* 04/1871 Hobart Parish 3.1.0. A to A. Morrison & anor 10.9.55
View here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TRcAmU1dBhKYcVCyMkHo19R1QcFo3A5f/view?usp=sharing -

EXTRACT of Indenture 04/1871
Memorial of an Indenture to be registered pursuant to the Act of Council in such case and provided [No.4/1871]
Date -
The twenty third day of August one thousand eight hundred and fifty five

Names and additions of the parties -
Edward Goldsmith of Hobart Town in Van Diemen's Land Esquire of the one part and Askin Morrison of Hobart Town aforesaid merchant and Alexander McGregor of Hobart Town aforesaid Ship builder of the other part

Names and additions of the Witnesses -
Jsh Allport Solicitor Hobart Town

Nature and object -
The new Memorializing Indenture cites that by an Indenture dated thirtieth December one thousand eight hundred and fifty three made between Robert Power of Hobart Town aforesaid Esquire Surveyor General of Van Diemen's Land and Lessor of Crown Lands of the one part and the said Edward Goldsmith of the other part the said Lessee of Crown Lands leased and granted unto the said Edward Goldsmith his executors administrators and assigns the allotment of Land hereinafter described with such right as hereinafter are mentioned for the term of ninety nine years to be continued con [...?] from the first day of December then the last at the yearly rent of one shilling payable yearly and by the said Indenture of Lease [...?] amongst other things provided that a patent slip of each dimensions and power as are therein mentioned should be completed and finished upon the said demised Land and the bed of the river Derwent adjoining the same within two years from the first day of December then instant that by an Indenture dated twelfth May last past made between the said Lessor of Crown Lands of the one part and the said Edward Goldsmith of the other part the time allowed in the said Indenture of Lease for the erection and completion of the said Patent slip was extended until the first day of December one thousand eight hundred and fifty six that the said Edward Goldsmith had imported certain Iron work and machinery for the construction of a patent slip and deposited the same in a part thereof upon the Land demised by the said Indenture of Lease and the said Edward Goldsmith also deposited certain Piles and other Timber upon the said Land and caused certain jetties and warves to be erected which extend from the said demised Land into the river Derwent and the said Edward Goldsmith also erected certain houses sheds and other buildings upon the said demised Land That the said Edward Goldsmith had lately contracted with the said Askin Morrison and Alexander McGregor for the sale to them of his terms of his estate [?] in the said allotment or piece of Land and of the said Iron work and machinery imported by him for the construction of a patent slip and of all such piles Timber and buildings as hereinbefore mentioned at the price [?] of Four thousand five hundred pounds and the new Memorializing Indenture is as assignment by the said Edward Goldsmith of the allotment or piece of land messuaged hereditaments and premises hereinafter described and all Jetties warves buildings piles and other erections or structures built made constructed or set up by the said Edward Goldsmith upon the said piece of land unto the said Askin Morrison and Alexander McGregor as Tenants in common and to their respective executors administrators and assigns for the residue and remainder of the said Term of ninety nine years created by the Indenture of Lease subject to the payment of the said yearly rent of one shilling and to the performance the said several covenants and agreements therein contained.

Description -
All that allotment or piece of land situate and being in the Queens Park in the Parish of Hobart and County of Buckingham in Van Diemen's Land aforesaid containing by admeasurement three acres and one perch or thereabout and bounded as follows (that is to say) on the Northern side by one chain and twenty seven links Westerley along the Queens Park commencing at the river Derwent at a point distant twenty five chains and eighty links or thereabout in a South Easterly direction from the eastern angle of the Powder magazine on the Western side by seven chains five links and one quarter of a link Southerly in two bearings also along the Queens Park to the river Derwent aforesaid and thence by that River to the point of commencement . Together with full and free liberty ??? and authority for the said Edward Goldsmith his executors administrators and assigns and his and their servants and workmen to break up and remove earth gravel and soil upon the said Land and to contruct warves and Jetties thereon and to extend the same into the River Derwent opposite to the said demised Land and to construct upon the said demised Land and upon the bed of the River Derwent adjoining or near to a patent slip or patent slips and certain other erections and structures with liberty to anchor and moor vessels in the River Derwent aforesaid opposite or near to the said Land and together also with the full use and enjoyment of a right of carriage and drift way over certain Roads which in the said Lease are mentioned.

Where situate -
In the parish of Hobart and County of Buckingham

Consideration -
The sum of Four thousand Two hundred pounds by the said Askin Morrison and Alexander McGregor paid to the said Edward Goldsmith on the execution of the new Memorializing Indenture
Robert John Parker Clerk to Messrs Allport Roberts & Allport Solicitors Hobart herein maketh oath in faith [?] that the above written Memorial contains a Just and True Account of the several particulars therein set forth
Robert Parker
Sworn at Hobart Town this tenth day of September one thousand eight hundred and fifty five before me
W. [?]
Registrar of Deeds  and Signed Alexander McGregor
Rec'/d 10/9/55 at 1pm Verified by R. John Parker Clerk to Messrs Allport Roberts & Allport of Hobart Town Solicitors - Reg/s of Deeds No. 4/1871

* 05/1310 Salisbury 626.0.0 C with anor to Jas. Rigny 12.9.62
View here:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/18LIhJFA23jN6wYw3jNyWSN61sVDcEz9R/view?usp=sharing

More about each of these Tasmanian property titles in a future post. Some are examined in detail in the related posts (below).



Source: https://www.thelist.tas.gov.au/app/content/the-list/historic-deeds/index-files/1827-1926_GLO-GOO.pdf

Addenda: Guide to the LIST
The LIST: Registry of Deeds (General Law) in Tasmania between 1827 and 1972
Link: www.thelist.tas.gov.au
NB: you need to login to access the links to the historic documents cited above.

Column Headings and Abbreviations
Source: Historic Deeds General Law Guide (pdf)

Column 1 and Column 2: Reference number to the Deed Memorial
Column 3 and Column 4: Situation of property and area
Column 5: Type of document e.g. abbreviations such as -
  • C or Con = Conveyance, that is, the transfer of title
  • M = Mortgage
  • A = Assignment
  • T/M = Transfer of Mortgage. A transfer of the mortgagee's right under the mortgage to a third party
Column 6: Parties, other parties to the Memorial: ors = others; anor = another
Column 7: Date received by the Registry of Deeds

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Thomas Nevin's photographic reductions of large documents 1870s

FIRE BELL SIGNALS Tasmania
MERCURY front page on micro cdv 1874
T. J. NEVIN and C. A. WOOLLEY photographers
MICROPHOTOGRAPHY microcards

Thomas Nevin's photographic reductions of large printed documents to the size of a carte-de-visite  - 54.0 mm (2.125 in) × 89 mm (3.5 in) mounted on a card sized 64 mm (2.5 in) × 100 mm (4 in) - "evoked much admiration" when reported in the press. His first noted experiment in 1870 was the replication to a pocket sized card of the Town Clerk's poster which provided the public with information on how to interpret fire bell alarms. The second was the reduction of the front page of the Mercury a day before the Christmas Eve edition, 23rd December 1874, printed as a gift card. Although examples of these photographic reductions might be read with the naked eye, some experiments, such as those by Nevin's more senior contemporary, Charles A. Woolley, which required viewing with a magnifying glass, would more likely be described as microform cards, using the methods of microphotography pioneered by John Benjamin Dancer (1812–1887). Dancer's miniaturized photographs of texts in 1857 heralded the use of microphotography for the storage of large documents and records held in the archives of courts, libraries, and government departments. The reverse photographic method, enlarging microscopic material such as bacteria, is more precisely termed photomicrography (pp 925-928 Encyclopedia of Nineteenth-Century Photography Chapman and Hall, 1968, edited by John Hannavy 2008) - see ADDENDA below.

Thomas Nevin's cdv of the fire bell poster



Group portrait of the New Town Division of the Hobart Fire Brigade, including horse drawn Fire Cart c 1900
Item Number PH30/1/1641 Archives Office Tasmania

Not just a novelty, Thomas Nevin's cdv of Hobart's fire bell signals provided a handy reference for interpreting the sequences of sounds. He photographed and reduced to a pocket-sized card the large bills posted to walls around the city, signed by the Town Clerk, which indicated in a diagram the location of the fire according to the number of strokes of the fire bell. In some contemporary pamphlets of the period, the signals were also printed as a series of Morse code dots and dashes.



TRANSCRIPT
FIRE SIGNALS: - There are many of our citizens who are not conversant with the different strokes rung out by the firebell on the outbreak of a fire indicating in which part of the city the alarm has arisen. We should call attention to a photographic code of signals issued by Mr. Nevin the photographer of upper Elizabeth-street. It is in carte size and therefore especially convenient for the pocket, and we believe the price is sixpence. The photograph is cleverly executed especially the signature of the Town Clerk which though diminished to a microscopical magnitude still remains as legible and clear as its original on the large bills. A specimen of this delicate work is on view at our office and has already evoked much admiration from visitors.
Source: Tasmanian Times (Hobart Town, Tas. : 1867 - 1870) Fri 18 Nov 1870 Page 2 No Title
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/232961438?

A week later, on the 24th November 1870, three fires were reported in Hobart, a reminder to the public, and perhaps not by coincidence, of the public's need to carry a ready reference such as Thomas Nevin's cdv of the fire bell code, costing just sixpence :



TRANSCRIPT
Hobart Town was visited by three fires within 20 hours. A farm hut at Providence Valley was burnt down; also the Florence Nightingale Inn, Franklin Wharf; and two stables behind the place of Mr. Sherwin, the tanner, Collins-street.
Source: Illustrated Sydney News (NSW : 1853 - 1872) Thu 24 Nov 1870 Page 7 TASMANIA.

Neither the Council's fire bell poster nor Thomas Nevin's reduction of it to a cdv appears extant in public collections at this juncture, although the diagram (below) published in in 1877 and 1878 gives some idea of what information might have been presented on the 1870s poster.

The Great Fire of Hobart, Friday 8th March 1878
Originally a fire alarm was raised by roving watchmen ringing hand bells, by church sextons ringing church bells or by factory steam whistles. The Tasmanian Fire Museum holds a hand-drawn manual fire pump dated 1826, the first fire-appliance in Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania). The first Hobart Fire station was built in 1859 at the junction of Bathurst and Watchorn Streets. Presumably, the electric telegraph system was used to wire up boxes in the municipality from the head station no later than the late 1860s (?). This familiar facade of the head station (photo below), built in 1911 and operational until 2003 in Argyle Street, Hobart, now fronts the three engine bays used by the Tasmania Fire Museum.



The Hobart Fire Brigade, Argyle St. Hobart, 1911
Source: Tasmanian Fire Museum History

With the invention of Samuel Morse's dots and dashes code in the 1840s -
William Channing, a young doctor and avid fire buff, and Moses G. Farmer convinced the city of Boston in March 1851 to install their version of a municipal alarm system using Samuel Morse's printing register as a major component of the system. The system consisted of 40 miles of wire to connect the central station to 40 signal boxes and 19 bells in churches, schools and fire engine houses. The system had some technical flaws but after these were resolved, the system would transmit an electric impulse from a code wheel breaking the circuit and record a Morse code dot or dash on the printing register. On April 30, 1852, within 24 hours of being placed in service, a fire alarm was transmitted for a fire on Causeway Street.
Source: Fire alarm signaling systems / Richard W. Bukowski, Wayne D. Moore. Quincy, Mass. : National Fire Protection Association ; Bethesda, Md. : Society of Fire Protection Engineers, c2003

Walch's Almanac 1877



Walch's Tasmanian Sixpenny Almanac 1877 [NLA online}
The City of Hobart Town
Members of the Municipality administration, pp 42-43



Walch's Tasmanian Sixpenny Almanac 1877, page 43.
Hall Keeper, Thomas Nevin.
Fire bell signals for the five parts of Hobart Town

Even though the electric alarm system might have been in operation in Hobart by the late 1870s, Mr. H. Wilkinson, Town Clerk, and Thomas J. Nevin, Office-keeper of the Hobart Municipal Council, considered it a necessary public service to publish a diagram in both Walch's Tasmanian Sixpenny Almanac of 1877 p.43 and the Mercury Almanac for 1878 on New Year's Day, January 1st, 1878, showing the number of strokes of the fire bell for each sequence signifying the fire's location, viz:from the intersection of Liverpool and Harrington streets in the north (2 strokes) and west (3 strokes), to the intersection of Harrington Street and Montepellier Road, i.e. Montepellier Retreat, to the south (4 strokes) and east (1 stroke) rising from New Wharf (now Salamanca Place) to Battery Point (5 strokes).



TRANSCRIPT
FIRE BELL SIGNALS, HOBART TOWN.
The city is divided into five parts, as shown below. After the general alarm for a fire has been rung, the proper signal will be given, being repeated five times, with an interval of one minute between each : -
West 3 Strokes.
North 2 Strokes.
Liverpool Street - Harrington Street
South 4 Strokes.
East 1 Stroke.
Montpellier-road
Battery Point and New Wharf;
5 Strokes.
On the same page of this special supplement to the Mercury, Thomas Nevin's designated position was Office-keeper of the Municipality of Hobart Town, located at the Hobart Town Hall.



Source: Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), Tuesday 1 January 1878, page 1
Supplement: Mercury Almanac for 1878

TRANSCRIPT
MUNICIPALITY OF HOBART TOWN
Mayor, W. P. Green. Aldermen: W. H. Burgess, jun., F. J. Pike, E. Maher, E. Espie, J. Harcourt, John Watchorn, J. E. Addison, M.F. Daly. Auditors, A. T. Stuart and W. F. Brownell. Town Clerk and Treasurer, H. Wilkinson. Accountant, W.H. Smith. Municipal Clerk, W. T. Birch. City Surveyor J. Rait. Director of Water Works W. C. Christopherson. Health Officer, E. S. Hall. Collectors, F. H. Piesse and W. Brundle. City Inspector and Inspector of Weights and Measures, W. Mason. Lessee of Old Market, J. G. Turner; New Market, T. H. Turner. Inspector of Stock, G. Propsting; assistant to Inspector of Stock, Joseph Turner. Office-keeper, Thomas Nevin; messenger, L. Marks.
POLICE - Superintendent, Richard Propsting; clerk, S. W. Rheuben. Sub-inspectors, W. McConnell, C. Pitman; Detectives, W. Simpson, J. Connors. Summoning Officer, John Dorsett.
"Office-keeper, Thomas Nevin"
Source: The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954)Tue 1 Jan 1878 Page 1 MUNICIPALITY OF HOBART TOWN. The Mercury Almanac for 1878

Less than 10 weeks after the diagram was published on New Year's Day 1878, a fire broke out at Franklin Wharf which engulfed Risby's timber yard and destroyed businesses in surrounding buildings. The summary printed by the Bendigo Advertiser (referring to Hobart's Tribune account of 11 March) reported the catastrophe as the most extensive since the great fire in Liverpool Street in 1854.


The Great Fire at Hobart Town
Bendigo Advertiser (Vic. : 1855 - 1918), Wednesday 13 March 1878, page 3

TRANSCRIPT
THE GREAT FIRE AT HOBART TOWN.
From the Hobart Town Tribune we learn some particulars of the disastrous fire which occurred at Hobart Town on the night o£ the 8th instant, the most extensive since the great fire in Liverpool-street in 1854. About a quarter-past ten shouts were heard in the streets, which arose high above the N. W. gale which was blowing, and immediately all eyes were turned in the direction of Franklin Wharf, and it was seen that the fire was amongst the mills and timber yards of that quarter of the city. Soon ten thousand people thronged the hill at the back of the Franklin-square. For a long time people were compelled to abstain from passing the Elizabeth-street front of the fire, for the broad flames were blowing right across the roadway. The gallant seamen were landed with great celerity under the command of Lieutenant Still, of H.M.S. Sappho, and rendered signal service in saving property. We regret that two of them, in their anxiety to render help, were injured. The citizens generally exerted themselves to the uttermost in saving property. From what we can gather it appears that the smell of fire was apparent to the watchman on board the S.S. Easby, lying at the Elizabeth-street pier, for an hour before the flames issued from Messrs. Grubb's bark mill, which, after burning furiously for a short time, collapsed with a tremendous report. Risby's saw mills was the next place to go, and in consequence of the inflammable materials scattered around, together with the immense range of buildings, caused a terrific conflagration. The loss on this place alone is from £5,000 to £7,000. Fisher and Facy's followed, next, being totally destroyed, the loss being estimated at £650. Then came Tolman's wood and coal depot, which holding 300 tons of coal and 200 tons of firewood, burnt furiously and defied all the efforts of the firemen. Rex's, chandler, was the next building, and this was almost destroyed, £1,500 worth of damage being done. Had the fire passed this building nothing would have saved the whole block. Errson's flour mills next to Rex's escaped, the only damage done being in the removal of wheat and other produce. Some of the opposite buildings, including the Marine Board buildings and T.S.N. Company's office had to be constantly saturated with water, whilst it was feared at one time that the shipping at the wharf would have to be cut adrift. The fire burnt all night despite heavy streams of water, and a constant watch had to be kept for fear of another outbreak.
Source: Bendigo Advertiser (Vic. : 1855 - 1918) Wed 13 Mar 1878 Page 3 THE GREAT FIRE AT HOBART TOWN.Read the original report here from the Tribune, 11th March 1878.



Risby Bros. timber yard showing Secheron House in background 1870s
Source: Archives Office of Tasmania
Item Number: NS3121/1/395

The Mercury front page reduced to a cdv, 1874
On Christmas Day, 25th December 1874, The Mercury newspaper (Tasmania) published a notice which served the dual purpose of praising Thomas Nevin's photographic talents and suggesting by way of praise that the "literary curiosity" would make a great gift as a Christmas card:

Thos Nevin photographic feat Mercury 24 Dec 1874

T. J. Nevin's photographic feat, The Mercury 25 December 1874

TRANSCRIPT
A PHOTOGRAPHIC FEAT. - Mr T. J. Nevin, of Elizabeth-street, has performed a feat in photography which may be justly regarded as a literary curiosity. He has succeeded in legibly producing the front page of The Mercury of Wednesday, the 23 inst., on a card three inches by two inches. Many of the advertisements could be read without the aid of a glass, and the seven columns admit of a margin all round the card.
Below is a microfiche scan of the front page of The Mercury, Wednesday 23rd December 1874. It is a poor reproduction despite our 21st century technology, yet Thomas Nevin managed to photograph the full broadsheet onto a 3 x 2 inch card without sacrificing margins or legibility.

Front page Mercury Tas 23 Dec 1874

Scan of front page The Mercury 23rd December 1874
See the full page open the PDF here Nevin front page Mercury 23 December 1874

Five of the seven columns on the front page carried advertisements for sales and special offers by retailers for goods as diverse as Christmas cards, cakes, imported confectionery, Japanese silks, chaise carts, guns and "real turtle soup" made from "one of the finest and largest turtles ever imported into Tasmania" and only available at Webb's Hotel.

This card and its duplicates may not have survived or even appear to be extant in public collections for several reasons: it would have been displayed in the windows of the Mercury newspaper offices, as well as in Nevin's studio window, and as a result may have deteriorated to a state not fit to be assessed as either valuable or collectable by the narrowly-defined aesthetic standards of museums. It most certainly carried verso Nevin's government contractor stamp current by 1874, the only one of his stamps bearing his full initials - " T. J. Nevin" above the Royal Arms government insignia - since the journalist in his report used the name with these initials. Nevin used this stamp for commissions from the Land and Survey Department to photograph flood damaged areas and mining sites (TMAG collection), and from the Municipal Police Office (HCC), he used the same stamp on examples to obtain his commission for photographing prisoners at the Port Arthur and Hobart Gaols (QVMAG, NLA and SLNSW collections). Duplicates of these same photographs were NOT stamped verso, for several reasons: mounting on calico to send via mail delivery to the client or purchaser was certainly one consideration; another was the pasting to prison records, whether parchment or paper, his identification photographs of prisoners, among other official uses. The use of his government contractor stamp was unnecessary once he was selected to full-time civil service with the HCC in 1876.

Charles Woolley's Microphotography
In 1879, Tasmanian photographer Charles A. Woolley produced photographic copies of the London Times of 3 October, 1798, noted by the author of this letter to the Mercury, J. E. Calder (former Surveyor-General and Sergeant-at-Arms in 1876), as two and a half times less the size of the Mercury,viz.1806 square inches versus 753½ for the London Times. The historical subject of these pages was Nelson's account of the battle of the Nile. Calder remarked that with the aid of a magnifying glass, the print on Mr. Wooley's [sic] photograph was "beautifully distinct".



The London Times 1798 and Charles Wooley [sic]
The Mercury, 8th January 1879.

TRANSCRIPT excerpt
...To the naked eye, the photograph is too small for perusal, but with the assistance of a magnifying glass, the print is beautifully distinct. Photographic copies of this rare old paper, will I suppose be obtainable from Mr. Wooley.
Faithfully yours
J.E. CALDER
179 Macquarie-street, Hobart Town,
8th January, 1879.
Addenda
MICROFORM
Using the daguerreotype process, John Benjamin Dancer was one of the first to produce microphotographs, in 1839.[1] He achieved a reduction ratio of 160:1. Dancer perfected his reduction procedures with Frederick Scott Archer's wet collodion process, developed in 1850–51, but he dismissed his decades-long work on microphotographs as a personal hobby, and did not document his procedures. The idea that microphotography could be no more than a novelty was an opinion shared by the 1858 Dictionary of Photography, which called the process "somewhat trifling and childish".[2]
Microphotography was first suggested as a document preservation method in 1851 by James Glaisher, an astronomer, and in 1853 by John Herschel. Both men attended the 1851 Great Exhibition in London, where the exhibit on photography greatly influenced Glaisher. He called it "the most remarkable discovery of modern times", and argued in his official report for using microphotography to preserve documents.[3]

FOOTNOTES
1. Lance Day & Ian McNeil (1998). Biographical Dictionary of the History of Technology. Taylor & Francis. pp. 333–334. ISBN 9780415193993.
2. Sutton, Thomas (1976). "Microphotography". In Veaner, Allen B. Studies in micropublishing, 1853–1976: documentary sources. Westport, Conn: Microform Review Inc. p. 88. ISBN 0-913672-07-6. Originally published in Dictionary of Photography (1858).

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microform
This article, written for UNESCO in 1962, includes an interesting use of microphotography by R. Dragon for his pigeon post during the siege of Paris, 1870.
In 1853 Sir John Herschel suggested ‘the publication of concentrated microscopic editions of works of reference-maps, atlases, logarithmic tables, or the concentration for pocket use of private notes and manuscripts, [6] and R. Dagron was the first to use microphotography in quantity for his pigeon post during the siege of Paris in 1870 [7]. After the discovery, in 1871, by R. L. Maddox, of the ‘dry plate’ with its silver bromide gelatine emulsion, modern photographic techniques could develop. In 1887 H. Goodwin produced the first photographic film on celluloid base, and in 1889 T. A. Edison developed the 35 mm. cine film as it is still used today.

FOOTNOTES
6. HERSCHEL, J. F. W. New photographic process. Athenaeum, no. 1341, 1853, p. 831.
7. DAGRON, R. La poste par bigeons voyageurs. Tours, I 870-7 I.
Source: MICROPHOTOGRAPHY IN THE LIBRARY
by ALFRED GUNTHER
Scientific Information Service
European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)
Reprinted from Unesco Bulletin for Libraries
Vol. XVI, No. I, January-February 1962 (Item .I)
https://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0008/000876/087612eo.pdf

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