Missing MUGSHOTS Tasmanian prisoners 1870s
B. Travers SOLLY and A. H. BOYD: the memo January 1874
As a result of their respective trials and imprisonment held in October 1870, photographs taken by T. J. Nevin for police and prison administration of two prisoners, Cornelius Hester and James Connolly, have survived and are held in public collections. A photograph of the third prisoner sentenced on the same date, Alfred Harrington, if one ever existed, is not extant, for possible reasons - see below for further discussion.
Prisoner Cornelius Hester
Prisoner HESTER, Cornelius
Photographed on discharge at Hobart (not Port Arthur) October 1874
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin, government contractor, Hobart, Tasmania
TMAG Ref: Q15581
Prisoner HESTER, Cornelius (verso)
Photographed on discharge at Hobart (not Port Arthur) October 1874
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin, government contractor, Hobart, Tasmania
TMAG Ref: Q15581
TIMELINE: prisoner Cornelius HESTER
1852: Transported to Hobart
Prisoner Cornelius Hester was 35 yrs old when he arrived at Hobart on 16 December 1852 on board the Equestrian (3). Later annotations on this record for 10 year sentence in 1876, discharged 1883:
Supreme Court Launceston 6th January 1876 Housebreaking. 10 yrs imprisonment. Discharged to freedom 5.4.83
Hester, Cornelius
Record Type: Convicts
Employer: Clark, G.C.: 1856 [at Ellinthorpe]
Departure date: 1 Sep 1852
Departure port: Plymouth
Ship: Equestrian (3)
Voyage number: 357
Index number: 32340
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1401272
Summary of trials after arrival in Tasmania:
Trial Id 582695
CORNELIUS HESTER MALE HOUSEBREAKING 1876-01-06 S. C. LAUNCESTON 10 YRS.
Trial Id 598135
CORNELIUS HESTER MALE LARCENY 1888-01-03 DELORAINE 1 MTH
Trial Id 601137
CORNELIUS HESTER MALE HOUSEBREAKING 1876-01-06 S. C. LAUNCESTON 10 YRS.
Trial Id 605875
CORNELIUS HESTER MALE LARCENY 1888-01-07 DELORAINE 1 MONTH
Trial Id 618722
CORNELIUS HESTER MALE ABSCONDING 1865-11-01 HOBART 5 YEARS
Trial Id 620427
CORNELIUS HESTER MALE LARCENY IN A DWELLING 1870-10-20 S. C. LAUNCESTON 5 YEARS
Trial Id 99704
CORNELIUS HESTER MALE LARCENY 1857-04-15 GUILTY 2 YEARS
Trial Id 112331
CORNELIUS HESTER MALE LARCENY IN A DWELLING HOUSE 1870-09-29 GUILTY 5 YEARS
Source: The Prosecution Project Search Results (griffith.edu.au)
1857: Larceny
Hester, Cornelius was sentenced to two years' imprisonment
Record Type: Court
Status: Free by servitude
Trial date: 15 Apr 1857
Offense: Larceny
Verdict: Guilty
Prosecutions Project ID: 99704
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1503755
Archive Office Tasmania. Link: https://stors.tas.gov.au/AB693-1-1$init=AB693-1-1_036
1865: absconding from the Domain
Source: WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 20. (1865, September 21). Launceston Examiner (Tas. : 1842 - 1899), p. 3 (MORNING.).
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article38662493
TRANSCRIPT
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 20.Launceston Examiner (Tas. : 1842 - 1899), Thursday 21 September 1865, page 3
(Before W. Gunn, Esq., P.M., and J. J. Hudson, Esq., J.P.
Absconding.--Cornelius Hester was charged by Detective Lanham with absconding. On 16th inst. he was brought up, charged with having on the 14th of February last absconded from the gang at work on the Domain at Hobart Town, whilst undergoing a sentence of nine months' imprisonment for larceny, and was remanded to Hobart Town for examination, Prisoner was accordingly en route for Hobart Town when he was apprehended by Detective Lanham for having absconded from Carrick Watchhouse on the 3rd June last whilst undergoing a sentence of twelve months' imprisonment for larceny. Since prisoner's absconding from Hobart Town he has suffered two sentences in the House of Correction, Launceston. The Bench sentenced prisoner to three years' hard labor in chains.
1870: Larceny at Longford
Cornelius Hester pleaded guilty to stealing goods from Mrs Brumby's hotel, Longford, on 18th September. He was remanded for sentence.Source: TELEGRAPHIC DESPATCHES. (1870, October 21). The Tasmanian Times (Hobart Town, Tas. : 1867 - 1870), p. 2.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article232960954
Cornelius Hester pleaded guilty to the charge of stealing, at Longford, on the 19th September, blankets, rings, lockets, &c., the property of Thomas Goodman. He was remanded for sentence.Source: CRIMINAL JURISDICTION. (1870, October 22). The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas. : 1835 - 1880), p. 6.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article67114781
Cornelius Hester was convicted of larceny in a dwelling house at the Supreme Court, Launceston on 20th October 1870, sentenced to five years. He was transferred to the Hobart Gaol in December 1870.
1874: Discharged
Prisoner Cornelius Hester was photographed by Thomas J. Nevin in the week prior to discharge at the Hobart Gaol, 28th October 1874.
1876: Housebreaking
Sentenced to 10 years - see trial dates above.
1888: Pauper or invalid
Hester, Cornelius
Record Type: Health & Welfare
Description: Pauper or invalid
Property: Launceston Invalid Depot
New Town Charitable Institute
Admission dates: 25 Jul 1888 to 14 Nov 1888, 02 Mar 1889 to 27 Dec 1889, 19 Jul 1890 to 28 Nov 1890, 30 Apr 1891 to 06 May 1891, 06 May 1891 to 06 Oct 1891
Ship to colony: Equestrian 3
Paupers & Invalids no.: pi0808200
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1607182
Archives Office Tasmania https://stors.tas.gov.au/NI/1607182
1893: Death
Hester Cornelius died of senility at the Invalid Depot, Launceston on 11 October1893.
Hester, Cornelius
Record Type: Deaths
Gender: Male
Age: 73
Date of death: 11 Oct 1893
Registered: Launceston
Registration year: 1893
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1241403
Resource: RGD35/1/62 no 326
Archives Office Tasmania
Link: https://stors.tas.gov.au/RGD35-1-62$init=RGD35-1-62_30
Prisoner Alfred Harrington
When Cornelius Hester was sentenced to five years' imprisonment for larceny at the Supreme Court, Hobart, on 20th October 1870, three more prisoners were convicted on the same day: William Burns for common assault on a woman ( 12 months' imprisonment); Alfred Harrington for manslaughter (10 years' imprisonment); and James Connolly for wilful murder (sentence of death).
Prisoners Hester, Harrington, Connolly, Gibbs and Smith; sentenced 20 Oct. 1870)
SENTENCES. (1870, October 25). Cornwall Advertiser (Launceston, Tas. : 1870 - 1877), p. 2.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article232998467
1870: manslaughter
Sentences for prisoner Alfred Harrington 29 Oct 1870
SUPREME COURT. (1870, October 29). The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas. : 1835 - 1880), p. 4.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article67115938
TRANSCRIPT
SENTENCES.Source: SUPREME COURT. (1870, October 29). The Cornwall Chronicle (Launceston, Tas. : 1835 - 1880), p. 4.
Cornelius Hester, who pleaded guilty on Thursday to stealing goods in a dwelling house at Longford, called on Dr Lewis to speak for him.
Dr. Lewis said that Hester had been suffering from disease of the heart when at Port Arthur.
His Honor reviewed the past career of the prisoner and sentenced him to five years' imprisonment.
William Burns convicted of a common assault on Elizabeth Maguire, was sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment.
Alfred Harrington, convicted of the manslaughter of David Johnson, at Mangana, said he was a poor unfortunate man, and he hoped his Honor would be lenient with him for the sake of his wife and children.
His Honor — Alfred Harrington, yours is a very painful case. You, a young man in the prime of life, might have had to answer with your life for the offence of which you stand charged. You deprived an unfortunate man of life, and I have no doubt that every day of your future life to the last day of it you will regret the act. You come before me with high testimonials in your favour; the witnesses ' spoke very favorably of your character and kindness of disposition. I have received further testimony in your favour from the Warden of Clarence, the chaplain of Clarence, and other gentlemen. I have no doubt you dealt the fatal blows under great provocation, but finding that you had disabled the unfortunate man by one blow, was there any necessity for you to repeat that blow, not once but twice? This was far beyond what was necessary for the protection of your own life, and it is here you have gone wrong. It is this act which you must ever regret. The discretion vested in the judge with regard to the punishment of manslaughter is a very wide one ; the term of imprisonment for the offence may be made very short, or extended for the whole term of life. In your case I must take into account the seriousness of the crime, and mark it so as to induce you (and others who may be similarly situated) to be cautious not to use a weapon further than is necessary for the protection of your own life. The sentence of the Court is that you be imprisoned for eight years.
James Connolly or McArdell, convicted of the wilful murder of John Burton, at Westbury. in June last, was a venerable looking old man, with a profile very like the portrait of the Duke of Wellington towards the close of his life, said, " I hope your Lordship will look over it as I didn't know what I was going to do. I hope you will be as I favourable as possible, as I have been so unfortunate. The crime I never intended to do at all; and it was all along of my landlord who was the instigation of me doing it.'
His Honor. — James Conolly you have been convicted of the wilful murder of John Burton —
Prisoner. — Well, I'm informed so your Honor, but I did not know I was doing it.
His Honor.— It is now too late for you to address me. You are convicted of the murder of a man who did not offend you but was merely splitting a tree in obedience to his master's orders. If you had any cause of complaint it was with his master, not him, yet you deliberately went up to him and with a blow of an axe deprived him of life. For such a crime as this, deliberate murder, the law assigns but one punishment. You are a very old man, and it is my duty to advise you to make the best use of the short time that may remain to you of life. Seek for reparation for your enormous crime while it is yet time at the fountain of mercy. You will be attended by the minister of your denomination, and I implore you to attend to his guidance. His Honor then pronounced sentence of death in the usual form, and the poor dazed old man touched his forelock respectfully, and descended the steps leading from the dock.
The Court rose at 5 p.m.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article67115938
Summary of trials: Alfred Harrington
Trial Id 112303
ALFRED HARRINGTON MALE MURDER 1870-08-05 GUILTY OF MANSLAUGHTER 8 YEARS
Trial Id 620431
ALFRED HARRINGTON MALE MANSLAUGHTER 1870-10-20 S. C. LAUNCESTON 8 YEARS
Source: Search Results (griffith.edu.au)
Read more about prisoner Alfred Harrington in this post:
A missing or unidentified mugshot : prisoner Alfred HARRINGTON
Prisoner James Connolly
Government contractor Thomas J. Nevin photographed this prisoner James Connolly (or Conly) at the Hobart Gaol on the prisoner's transfer from Port Arthur on 29th November 1876 (Conduct PA Register Con 94-1-2 1873-76 State Library Tasmania).
Death sentences
Trial Id 30553
JAMES CONNOLLY MALE MURDER 1883-04-05 LAUNCESTON DOBSON GUILTY DEATH COMMUTED TO IMP. FOR LIFE
Trial Id 112288
JAMES CONNOLLY MALE MURDER 1870-06-14 GUILTY DEATH. COMMUTED TO PS FOR LIFE
Source: Search Results (griffith.edu.au)
Prisoner James Connolly was photographed in November 1876 by Thomas Nevin at the Hobart Gaol (QVMAG Collection: Ref. No.Q1985_p_0086).
Photocopy of the QVMAG cdv held at the Archives Office Tasmania, Hobart, of prisoner James Connolly, photographed in November 1876 by Thomas Nevin at the Hobart Gaol (P30/1/3231).
Read more about prisoner James Connolly in this post:
Hobart Gaol camera and mugshot books 1891-1901
C. S. Travers Solly & missing mugshot of Alfred Harrington
Photographs taken by T. J. Nevin for police and prison administration of two prisoners, Cornelius Hester and James Connolly have survived and are held in public collections. A photograph of Alfred Harrington, if one ever existed, is not extant. It might never have existed since Harrington served out his sentence at Port Arthur. He was not transferred to the Hobart Gaol with the first group of 60 prisoners from Port Arthur who were photographed by Nevin on being received at Hobart between 1872 and early 1873; nor was he included in the second group of 109 prisoners whose names were tabled in Parliament on 23 July 1873 to be relocated to the Hobart Gaol as a matter of some urgency with calls from both members of Parliament and the public at large to close down the Port Arthur prison.
The Colonial Secretary B. Travers Solly requested a photograph of prisoner Alfred Harrington and two other absconders in January 1874 from the Port Arthur prison commandant, A. H. Boyd, as none were extant. A. H. Boyd, however, had already vacated the post under allegations of corruption, although he was paid until March 1874 when Dr. Coverdale assumed the position. The Colonial Secretary's simple request in a memo to A. H. Boyd dated January 4, 1874, for prisoners' photographs has been touted (by Reeder 1992, Long 1995, Clark 2010) as evidence that it was none other than A. H. Boyd himself who was personally undertaking the process of photographing each and every prisoner, even though he was absent from the post by January 1874, and no photograph in any genre, least of all portraits, has ever surfaced from his own family let alone on official records: none has ever been validated in any way creditable as an authentic work by A. H. Boyd. His accreditation has simply grown out of a desire at the Port Arthur Historic Site to impress tourists. It is a fabrication which has since grown into a full-blown personal fantasy paraded as research (Clark, 2015). Professional photographer Thomas J. Nevin was and still is the only fully-accredited government contractor on record who photographed Tasmanian prisoners ("Port Arthur convicts" is the phrase in touristic spin) at Port Arthur from 1872 through to the mid 1880s.
The letter of 7 January 1874
The letter (below) was sent by Colonial Secretary B. Travers Solly (1820-1902) from his office at Government House on the Queen's Domain, Hobart, Tasmania, dated 7th January 1874 to the former Commandant of the Port Arthur prison, A.H. Boyd. The letter asks Boyd to send 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. There is NOTHING in this document that suggests the photographer was or would be Boyd himself. Yet this one document has spawned the personal ambitions of Boyd's descendants and his apologists in the tourism business in the 20th century to claim that here is proof enough to claim Boyd was THE photographer of more than 300 mugshots extant in public collections of Tasmanian prisoners. There were cameras and photographic equipment belonging to professional photographers Samuel Clifford and Thomas Nevin 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, but none belonged to Boyd nor were they used by Boyd to photograph prison inmates.
TRANSCRIPT
D. 14 0
C.S.O.
7th January 1874
My dear Sir, Will you be good enough, by return of post, to send up half a dozen copies of photographs of the two "Greigson's" who absconded yesterday from the Gang employed
A. H. Boyd Esq.
Civil Commandant
employed in the Domain.
It will be a good plan to send up photographs of all prisoners transferred to Hobart Town, and I should esteem it a favor if you will do so at your early convenience.
I remain etc
B. Travers Solly
Source: Archives Office Tasmania
Colonial Secretary's Office 1869-1874
CSD7/1/60 file 1470 (not online)
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- Hobart Gaol camera and mugshot books 1891-1901
- A missing or unidentified mugshot : prisoner Alfred HARRINGTON
- Rogues Gallery: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery Collection
- Prisoner Cornelius GLEESON 1873 and 1916
- T. J. NEVIN's cdv's of Wm PRICE and Wm YEOMANS; A. H. BOYD's testimony 1875
