Prisoner James MORGAN alias Morgan the Poet who sings in pubs





Records Source:
National Library of Australia TROVE and State Library of Tasmania record of the police identity photograph of James Morgan, taken by commercial and police photographer T.J. Nevin at the Municipal Police Office, Hobart Town Hall on or about 20th December 1876, the date of James Morgan's discharge, and the year - 1876 - when Thomas J. Nevin took the residential position of keeper of the Hobart Town Hall;  was also photographer for the Mayor's Court police records held in the Municipal Police Office housed within the Town Hall; and office record keeper for the Hobart City Corporation.




Older webshot of the mugshot of James Morgan at the Archives Office of Tasmania

TRANSPORTATION RECORDS

James Morgan was 22 years old when he was tried at the Gloucester Assizes in 1844 for burglary and transported for 15 years, first to Norfolk Island in 1845 and then to VDL in 1847.



This part of Morgan's record is underscored on the conduct register:

"Tried Hobart Town S.C [Supreme Court} 11 December 1855 Buggery with James Rowe To be Hanged Mercy extended To be kept in Penal Servitude fo the term of his natural Life and to be sent to Port Arthur ..."



State Library of Tasmania Archives (TAHO)

Morgan, James
Convict No: 50625
Extra Identifier:
SEE Surname:
SEE Given Names:
Voyage Ship: Hyderabad
Voyage No: 368
Arrival Date: 19 Feb 1845
Departure Date: 21 Oct 1844
Departure Port: Downs
Conduct Record: CON33/1/86
Muster Roll:
Appropriation List:
Other Records:
Indent: CON14/1/29 p226c
Description List:
Remarks: Off Norfolk Island per Tory May 1847

POLICE RECORDS

Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime (Police Gazettes) Govt Printer James Barnard



".. known as Morgan the Poet. Sings in public-houses."

James Morgan was arrested on the 16th August 1872 for assault; notice of the arrest was printed in the police gazette on 23 August 1872. In 1872 he was listed as 50 years old.

The Conduct Record (above) notes in the right hand column;



On 3 March 1872,someone wrote on the Conduct Register:

"At the expiration of 4 yrs from 4/12/72 being 21 yrs from Life sentence without offence T of L to be granted ...11/12/76 To be enlarged wth T.L. "

And so Morgan the Poet was discharged of 20 December 1876, per this notice in the police gazette:



James Morgan's crime was listed "Unnatural  Offences" for which he was sentenced in 1855 for life,  discharged 20 December 1876



In this extract from the NSW Police Gazette of 27 March, 1878, (reprinted in the Tasmanian police gazettes on 5 April 1878) ) James Morgan was reported as missing by a relative, possibly a wife or sister-in-law, or mother, Mrs Caroline Morgan, resident of New Zealand. The information contained in this notice correctly identifies his physical features - 55 years old, medium build, fair complexion, and had left England in 1849. It would appear that Mrs Caroline Morgan believed he had settled in Victoria ca. 1865, 13 years previously. However, his transportation records show he left England in 1844, arrived on Norfolk Island and arrived in VDL off Norfolk Island in 1847.

James Morgan didn't remain at large for long.



James Morgan alias The Poet was arrested on the 2 August by the Kingston (Tas) Territorial Police, and the notice was published on 30 August 1878. What was the crime?

QVMAG RECORDS







Above: Verso of the carte-de-visite photograph of James Morgan, which was inscribed in the early 1900s to include details of the convict's date of arrival and name of ship, and the date "1874", a year in which T.J. Nevin was commissioned by the Municipal Police Office to visit Port Arthur to collate records and take photographs of prisoners whom he had not previously photographed at the Hobart Gaol, the central gaol for all offenders with sentences of longer than 3 months.

Taken at the Municipal Police Office, Hobart Town Hall by Thomas J. Nevin on or about 20th December 1876, the date of James Morgan's discharge.


First published on
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Australia's FIRST MUGSHOTS

PLEASE NOTE: Below each image held at the National Library of Australia is their catalogue batch edit which gives the false impression that all these "convict portraits" were taken solely because these men were transported convicts per se (i.e before cessation in 1853), and that they might have been photographed as a one-off amateur portfolio by a prison official at the Port Arthur prison in 1874, which they were not. Any reference to the Port Arthur prison official A. H. Boyd on the NLA catalogue records is an error, a PARASITIC ATTRIBUTION with no basis in fact. The men in these images were photographed in the 1870s-1880s because they were repeatedly sentenced as habitual offenders whose mugshots were taken on arrest, trial, arraignment, incarceration and/or discharge by government contractor, police and prisons photographer T. J. Nevin at the Supreme Court and adjoining Hobart Gaol with his brother Constable John Nevin, and at the Municipal Police Office, Hobart Town Hall when appearing at The Mayor's Court. The Nevin brothers produced over a thousand originals and duplicates of Tasmanian prisoners, the bulk now lost or destroyed. The three hundred extant mugshots were the random estrays salvaged - and reproduced in many instances- for sale at Beattie's local convictaria museum in Hobart and at interstate exhibitions associated with the fake convict ship Success in the early 1900s. The mugshots were selected on the basis of the prisoner's notoriety from the Supreme Court trial registers (Rough Calendar), the Habitual Criminals Registers (Gaol Photo Books), warrant forms, and police gazettes records of the 1870s-1880s. The earliest taken on government contract by T. J. Nevin date from 1872. The police records sourced here are from the weekly police gazettes which were called (until 1884) Tasmania Reports of Crime Information for Police 1871-1885. J. Barnard, Gov't Printer.