Prisoner John F. MORRIS 1875

Murder of his wife's seducer
American legal precedent

NLA Catalogue (incorrect information)
nla.pic-an24612762 PIC P1029/36 LOC Album 935
John F. Morris, per P. [i.e. Pestonjee] Bomanjee 2, taken at Port Arthur, 1874
1 photograph on carte-de-visite mount : albumen ; 9.3 x 5.6 cm.

TRANSPORTATION RECORD: John F. MORRIS
Morris, John Frederick
Record Type: Convicts
Property: Port Arthur Penal Station
Departure date: 20 Sep 1848
Departure port: Dublin
Ship: Pestongee Bomangee (3)
Place of origin: Antrim
Origin location: Latitude and Longitude
Voyage number: 305
Remarks: Transported as John Morrison
Police number: 21306
Index number: 50861
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1420329
Conduct Record: CON33/1/92
Archives Office Tasmania: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/1420439

PRESS REPORTS: John F. MORRIS
In 1861 John Morris shot dead a man called John Glann who seduced his wife and paraded her in the streets of New Norfolk. He absconded and was apprehended in October 1861.

Hobart Town Advertiser : Weekly Edt. (Tas. : 1859 - 1865), Saturday 20 April 1861, page 2
Source: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article264717617

TRANSCRIPT

THE UNFORTUNATE MAN MORRIS.
To the Editor of the Advertiser.
SIR.-You will oblige me by your inserting in your journal the following case tried in. merica about twelve months ago, in every particular the same as the case of the unhappy man John Morris, under sentence of Death for the murder of John Glann. There were two members of the bar, and intimate friends, one married. The other," unmarried, seduces the wife of his friend. " The husband in return for his treachery, waits for the seducer, and in one of the public streets of America shoots him dead. He is apprehended, tried by a jury of his own countrymen, and after a trial of two or three days is Acquitted. In the case of Morris he seducer Glann was not content after seducing the wife of Morris, but openly paraded the wife and children in the public streets of New Norfolk repeatedly in sight of the unfortunate man; and up to within half an hour of the time Glann was shot he was driving the wife and family in a chaise cart, and within a mile where the deed was committed, and in my opinion, in sight of the unfortunate man Morris. I am no advocate in defending a murderer, but from the provocations and the ruin of wife and family, and the man's happiness, I think the Gentlemen of the Executive Council will pause before they consign the unhappy man to an ignominious death.
I am. Sir,
Your obedient servant,
A. SMITH
New Norfolk, 20th April, 1861.

John F. Morris absconded with three other prisoners from the prison at Port Arthur on 20 September were apprehended on 5 October 1861.

TRANSCRIPT

THE PORT ARTHUR ABSCONDERS.
The four escaped convicts, George Fisher, John F. Morris, Daniel Ennis, and John S. Blaxland, who have been for some time past at large on the Peninsula, (viz., since the 20th ultimo) have been apprehended by the Port Arthur police near the Eagle Hawk Neck.

Mercury (Hobart, Tas.), Saturday 5 October 1861, page 2
Source: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8801482

POLICE RECORDS: John F. MORRIS

John F. Morris, transported on Pestongee Bomangee (3) on the 20 September 1848, was tried at Supreme Court Hobart 9 April 1861 for murder, sentenced to life in prison. He was 48 years old, 5 feet 8 ins tall when he was photographed by government contractor Thomas J. Nevin on discharge from the Municipal Police Office, Hobart Town Hall, 28 April, 1875, the residue of his sentence remitted.

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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.

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THE MUGSHOTS:Thomas Nevin's extant prisoner identification prints and cartes-de-visite in oval mounts - "mugshots" - were taken between 1871 and 1888. The public collections consists of 350+ estrays from more than 2000 photographs taken of prisoners in Tasmania by Thomas Nevin and his brother Constable John Nevin. The National Library of Australia currently holds 87 photographs, the State Library of NSW holds 13 photographs, the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery holds 112 photographs, the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery holds more than 50, and the Archives Office of Tasmania holds 10 originals and 100 or so paper copies of the QVMAG collections. A dozen or so are held in Private Collections.

DISCLAIMER: We have not voluntarily contributed to any publication which supports the misattribution of 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 Nevin weblogs to apply the misattribution.

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 nipaluna, the traditional lands 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.

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Prisoner John F. MORRIS 1875

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