Prisoners Hugh McCALLUM and George WILSON alias White 1872

Prisoner George WILSON aka WHITE
Prisoner Hugh McCALLUM
Mugshots by T. J. NEVIN used as visual STEREOTYPES of convicts
University of Tasmania's WASTE of HISTORY

Hugh McCallum and George Wilson alias White were sentenced for theft of tools and clothing at the Supreme Court Launceston in April. They were transferred to the Hobart Gaol in May 1872 where Thomas J. Nevin photographed them on being received.

Prisoner Hugh McCallum 1872

Prisoner McCULLUM [sic - McCallum], Hugh
TMAG Ref: Q15609
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin, May 1872

Prisoner Hugh McCallum 1872 verso

Verso of cdv: Prisoner McCULLUM [sic - McCallum], Hugh
Inscription: "Hugh McCullum per Ratcliffe 2 Taken at Port Arthur 1874"
TMAG Ref: Q15609
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin, May 1872

Hugh McCallum, transported 1848
Prisoner Hugh McCallum was 20 years old, a house painter, when he arrived at Hobart, VDL in November 1848, sentenced to seven (7) years for theft.



Name: McCallum, Hugh
Record Type: Convicts
Property: Port Arthur Penal Station
Departure date: 29 Jul 1848
Departure port: Spithead
Ship: Ratcliffe (2)
Place of origin: Glasgow, Lanarkshire
Origin location: Latitude and Longitude
Voyage number: 302
Police number: 21006
Index number: 44773
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1415796
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/1415796

Court Records: offences 1858 and 1864

Mccallum, Hugh
Record Type: Court
Status: Free by servitude
Trial date: 20 Sep 1858
Offense: Larceny
Verdict: Not guilty
Prosecutions Project ID: 100197
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1524939
https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/AB693-1-1/AB693-1-1_044

Name: Mccallum, Hugh
Record Type: Court
Status: Free by servitude
Trial date: 2 Aug 1864
Place of trial: Launceston
Offense: Housebreaking
Verdict: Guilty
Prosecutions Project ID: 106837
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1524147
https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/AB693-1-1/AB693-1-1_072

Police Gazette: warrant and arrest 1872



TRANSCRIPT
WARRANTS ISSUED, AND NOW IN THIS OFFICE
Launceston: - On 9th instant, by Thomas Mason, Esq., J. P., for the arrest of Hugh McCallum, charged with having on the 7th instant, at Launceston, feloniously broken and entered a detached kitchen within the curtilage of the dwelling house of one George Smart, and stolen therefrom one suit of boy's clothing, the property of the said George Smart.
Description
5 feet 7 inches, 42 years of age, stout build, fresh complexion, oval head, brown hair, sandy whiskers worn all round the face except on part of chin where there is a division, oval visage, low forehead, brown eye-brows, hazel eyes, long nose, native place Glasgow, a labourer, has a large scar and a small scar on neck. When last seen he had on a dark sacque coat, dark or moleskin trousers, black billy-cock hat, and a red comforter. Supposed to have gone westward. The property was found in the possession of McCallum's companion George Wilson, alias White, who has been arrested
.
Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime (weekly Police Gazette) 15 March 1872



Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime (weekly Police Gazette) 22 March 1872



Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime (weekly Police Gazette) 30 May 1872

Press Reports: Court sittings



TRANSCRIPT
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27. (Before T. Mason, Esq., P.M.) Drunk and Incapable. - H. J. Mitchell was fined 6s for being drunk and incapable in a street at Launceston, on the night of Monday last. Burglary.-George Wilson alias White and Hugh M'Cullum were charged, by Sergeant Wilson, with breaking and entering the dwelling house of J. G. Inall, at Westbury,. on 29th February, 1871. James Mathews deposed that he was a pawnbroker, and carried on business in this town. On Tuesday, 5th March, he took in pledge two augers precisely similar to those produced. He believed that Wilson or White was the man who pawned the augers, and he was certain that Mc'Cullum was the man who came with some women the next morning to redeem them. J. G. Inall deposed that he was a carpenter and joiner at present residing at Westbury. On, the 20th February left off work about six o'clock, and went out, locking his door. On returning, between 10 and 11 p.m., he found the door had been broken open and his blankets carried away . He also missed two towels, two shirts, one pair boots, carpenter's brace, and two auger bits belonging to Mr Ford. He did not know either of the prisoners. Maria Perhan deposed that she lived with a man named Dean in Frankland-street, in this town. She knew the wife of Owen Daly in, Wellington-street. McCullum [sic -McCallum] had given her a pawnbroker's ticket to sell. She took the ticket to Mrs Daly, but she would only buy it from the man who had pawned the articles.. McCullum, Mrs Daly, another woman, and her self went to redeem the goods. She heard the prisoner McCullum say they were two augers. Wilson and McCullum were together in the Jolly Butchers, but White was left behind, when McCullum, went with her to redeem the articles. Anstitia Daly deposed that she lived in Wellington street in this town, and kept a dealers' shop. She lately bought a pawn ticket from Mrs Dean conditionally on the release of the goods. Mrs Dean brought the prisoner McCullum with her, and they went to Matthews's. The goods were two augers. She meant when she said Mrs Dean, the woman named Maria Perhan. John Bracken deposed that he lived in Wellington-street, and kept a general dealer's shop. He knew both prisoners by appearance. They came to his shop together, but McCullum was the only one who came in; he asked him to buy some blankets which he had under his arm ; he would not buy them, and they went away. This happened in the regatta week, the day before Mrs Dean had offered to sell him a pawn ticket for two augers. Detective Sergeant Wilson deposed that the two auger bits now produced he obtained from Mrs Daly on the 15th March ; they were in the window for sale. Committed for trial on this charge, and also on the charge of housebreaking at Captain Smart's.
Source: Launceston Examiner (Tas. : 1842 - 1899), Thursday 28 March 1872, page 3
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article39686749

Court trial record, 1872



McCallum, Hugh
Record Type: Court
Status: Free by servitude
Trial date: 6 Apr 1872
Offense: Breaking a building with intent
Verdict: Guilty
Prosecutions Project ID: 112549
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1521206
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/1521206



TRANSCRIPT
Launceston Criminal Sittings. These are fixed for Thursday next, 30th inst. The Chronicle gives the following prisoners as in gaol for trial, and says there are others out on bail : - Hugh McCullum and George Wilson, alias White, charged with burglary in breaking and entering the dwelling house of James Inall, at Westbury, on the night of the 9th February, and stealing a carpenter's brace, and a pair of trousers, two augur bits, and other articles. They further stand charged with breaking and entering a detached kitchen at the dwelling-house of Mr. George Smart, on the 24th March, and stealing a suit of boy's clothing.

Source: THE MERCURY. (1872, May 25). p. 2.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8922375

George Wilson alias White



NLA Catalogue (incorrect information)
PIC P1029/50 LOC Album 935/nla.obj-142919110
George Wilson, per Ld. [Lord] Lyndoch 3
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin. May 1872

POLICE RECORD 1872



Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police, J. Barnard Gov't printer

This police gazette notice published George Wilson's conviction on 30 May - 1 June 1872 at the Supreme Court Launceston, where he was sentenced to 12 yrs for housebreaking. It records that he was transported as White, per Ld Lyndoch, and was free in servitude when arrested and transferred to the  Hobart Gaol. Hugh McCallum per Ratcliffe 2 was sentenced in the same session to 10 years.

COURT RECORD 1872



Hugh McCallum was sentenced to 10 years, George Wilson to 12 years at Launceston 6 April 1872.

Wilson, George
Record Type: Court
Status: Free by servitude
Trial date: 6 Apr 1872
Offense: Breaking a building with intent
Verdict: Guilty
Prosecutions Project ID: 112550
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1520604
https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/AB693-1-1/AB693-1-1_100


See the Archives Office Tasmanian names index -
https://stors.tas.gov.au/NI/1447521

Mugshots used as visual stereotypes of convicts
Please note the incorrect use of this mugshot (noted 20 October 2022) at this website: -
https://www.dark-emu-exposed.org/home/call-for-submissions-to-the-risdon-cove-history-prize

Their website continues to use this mugshot of prisoner George White/Wilson taken by Thomas J. Nevin for police records in 1872 as a stereotypical image of any 19th century prisoner in Tasmania. They are messing with Nevin's legacy in this manner, and indeed with the family history of George White's or George Wilson's descendants.

The man in this mugshot was not yet even born when all four of their candidates named "Edward White" allegedly witnessed events at Risdon Cove in 1804. The man known as George White and Wilson, supposedly represented by this mugshot (i.e. nothing is certain at this distance from the 1870s), was born at Wells, Somerset UK in 1820. He was transported for stealing a leg of pork (sentenced to 7 years) per Lord Lyndoch 3 in 1842 when he was 20 years old. He was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment with hard labor in 1872 (the man is 50+ yrs old in this mugshot) for housebreaking at the Supreme Court, Launceston and transferred to the House of Corrections Hobart in 1872.

Same old, same old - more rubbish about A. H. Boyd
The University of Tasmania's Kim Shaw couldn't be bothered examining the real legal history behind the real photographer of prisoners in 1870s Tasmania, Thomas J. Nevin before she submitted her recent paper, "We are all alike" to Australian Historical Studies (9 May 2024). A librarian, a worshipper of the printed page, so of course the lack of original research is only to be expected. In this article, which incidentally shows she benefited extensively from repeated visits to our research and critique of the Exhibition at the old Hobart Penitentiary, July 2019, she parrots the same old cliches from the same old song sheet confected by fellow alumni closeted in the same silo, viz. stale old Julia Clark and her fatuous misrepresentations of photographer Thomas J. Nevin, including abuse of his descendants for good measure (2010; 2015). Little surprise Clark's promotion of A. H. Boyd (and herself, the whole point) as THE photographer of "convicts" - when no evidence of any kind has ever existed (or are they the documents she "borrowed" from the Archives Office of Tasmania, the ones ONLY SHE KNOWS are "lost in the mists of time"?) - festers along at the University of Tasmania when the skills-base of the acolyte is so wanting. Kim Shaw should take a good hard look at the motivations of the morbidly bored and arrogant Hamish Maxwell Stewart along with his saboteur, the very silly narcissist Julia Clark, and then take a harder look at the simpering thief, liar, misogynist and embezzler A. H. Boyd. There she will find a chasm of ignorance to which she has subscribed as the latest in a line-up of "all alike" sycophants.

Last update August 2024