Showing posts with label Soldiers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Soldiers. Show all posts

Prisoner Daniel MURPHY "without the slightest hope of mercy"

Soldierof the 94th Regiment, Daniel Murphy sentenced in India 1845
Sentence of death commuted to life for crime of "buggery" 1857
T. J. Nevin's 1875 mugshot of Daniel Murphy at 20th century national exhibitions



Prisoner MURPHY, Daniel per Gazelle
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin
Taken at the Hobart Gaol, Tasmania, January 1875

1845: sentenced at Fort St. George, India
Former soldier with 11 years' service in the 94th Regiment, 27 yr old Daniel Murphy, Roman Catholic, literate, tall and single, was charged with insubordinate conduct, striking senior officer Drum Major Cochran at Fort St. George, Chennai, India. He was tried at Madras and transported for 14 years, arriving at Hobart, VDL per the Gazelle, on 7 April 1848.



Daniel Murphy per Gazelle - indenture links:
https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/CON16-1-3/CON16-1-3P453
https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/CON16-1-3/CON16-1-3P452

Daniel Murphy's conduct record (below) states his imprisonment "not now chargeable to Indian Government - "vide letter of sect'y of government of India."

Further notes under "Offences & Sentences" on his conduct record stated:
"Tried Hobart Town S. C. 28th July 1857 Buggery. To be hanged commuted to Penal Servitude for Life at Port Arthur vide G.D. letter of C.J. of 10/8/57 filed with judges report of July 1857. The first six months of this period to be passed in the Separate Prison."



Name:Murphy, Daniel
Record Type:Convicts
Employer:Griffiths, George: 1850
Property:Port Arthur Penal Station
Ship:Gazelle
Place of origin:Cork
Police number: 1121
Index number:51629
Record ID:NAME_INDEXES:1421115
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/1421115

1857: unnatural offence
Judgment of death without the slightest hope of mercy was then passed upon Murphy.




TRANSCRIPT

SUPREME COURT
Criminal Sitting
Tuesday, 28th July, 1857
(Before His Honor Mr. Justice Horne.)
The criminal sitting open this morning.
The following is the list of prisoners for trial:
Daniel Murphy and John Protheroe - Unnatural Offence [etc etc]




TRANSCRIPT
Daniel Murphy and John Protheroe were charged with having at North West Bay committed together an unnatural offence. Protheroe was acquitted, and the prisoner Daniel Murphy was found guilty. Judgment of death without the slightest hope of mercy was then passed upon Murphy.

Source:SUPREME COURT. (1857, July 28 and 29). The Courier (Hobart, Tas.), p.3.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2460302

1857: Supreme Court records



Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/SC32-1-7/SC32-1-7_0196



June 16, 1857, tried SC Hobart
Daniel Murphy Sodomy Guilty commuted to Life imprisonment
John Protheroe Sodomy Not Guilty

Murphy, Daniel
Record Type: Court
Status: Probation
Trial date: 28 Jul 1857
Place of trial: Hobart town
Offense: Buggery
Verdict: Guilty
Prosecutions Project ID: 99772
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1502562
Link:https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/AB693-1-1/AB693-1-1_037

Fellow offender John Protheroe
John Protheroe, 29 yrs old, Protestant, single, literate and a lime burner, was transported 7 years for housebreaking, arrived Hobart, VDL per the Joseph Somes 1 on 28 May 1846.



"Tried Hobart Town S.C. 28 July 1857 Bxxxxxxy. Acquitted."
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Digital/CON33-1-77/CON33-1-77P168

1875, discharged and photographed
Government contractor T. J. Nevin photographed Daniel Murphy at the Hobart Gaol in the last week of January 1875 on Murphy's discharge. Although a small number of extant cdv's of Tasmanian "convicts" in public collections have yet to be indentified, John Protheroe's would not be among them. He was acquitted of the charge of sodomy, detained but not imprisoned.



Source: Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police (weekly police gazettes), J. Barnard Gov't printer

1875: Ticket-of-Leave with Peter Killeen
The unmounted reprint from Thomas J. Nevin's glass negative taken at his one and only sitting with prisoner Daniel Murphy was created by John Watt Beattie in the late 1890s to early 1900s for inclusion in his 1916 catalogue of convictaria. He arranged the negative prints on cardboard panels in three rows , and housed the cdv's in family albums by name in alphabetical order.  They were offered for sale during the tourism boom of the 1920s at his "Port Arthur Museum" located at 51 Murray St. Hobart (Tasmania) and at the Royal Hotel, George St, Sydney (NSW) in conjunction with convictaria exhibited on the fake prison ship Success (1900s-1916). 



Left: Print from the original glass plate negative taken by T. J. Nevin 1870s
Offered for sale by J. W. Beattie ca. 1916
QVMAG Collection: Ref : 1983_p_0163-0176

Right: Prisoner MURPHY, Daniel per Gazelle
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin
Taken at the Hobart Gaol, Tasmania January 1875
This copy was first deposited at the QVMAG in the 1930s and numbered verso "204"
Numbered recto "152" in 1983 when removed for exhibition at Port Arthur.
Now held at the TMAG Ref: Q15605

Daniel Murphy and Peter Killeen were both photographed and by Thomas J. Nevin on discharge from the Hobart Gaol with a T.L. (Ticket of Leave) during the week ending 20th January 1875:



TRANSCRIPT
TICKETS-OF-LEAVE
The Governor in Council approves of the Prisoners named hereunder being discharged on Tickets-of-Leave: -
Murphy, Daniel per Gazelle
Killeen, Peter. per M.A. Watson



Left: Mugshot of prisoner Peter Killeen
Print from the original glass plate negative taken by T. J. Nevin 1870s
Offered for sale by J. W. Beattie ca. 1916
QVMAG Collection: Ref : 1983_p_0163-0176

Right: NLA Catalogue (incorrect information)
Peter Killern [sic], per M.A. Watson, taken at Port Arthur, 1874
Part of collection: Convict portraits, Port Arthur, 1874.
Gunson Collection file 203/7/54.

1875- 1894: Daniel Murphy's records

1875: absconding at Cascades
In September 1875, Daniel Murphy was admitted to the Cascades Invalid Depot, Launceston, discharged on 10 December, able to work. He was admitted again in July 1877 and June 1878 when he absconded.



1877-1878: admitted and discharged Cascades, Hobart



1879, January: discharged Cascades, Hobart



1885, March-September: discharged to police



Daniel Murphy was admitted to the New Town Charitable Institution in March 1885 and released to police in September 1885. He died at New Town in 1894, of senile decay, 75 yrs old.

1894, August 31: death at New Town Charitable Institution



Death of Daniel Murphy 31 August 1894 at New Town  of senile decay, 75 yrs old.
Link: https://libraries.tas.gov.au/Record/NamesIndex/1140244

T. J. Nevin's mugshots at 20th century exhibitions
Thomas J. Nevin's photograph of prisoner Daniel MURPHY (1875) was repeatedly exhibited from the early 1900s to the early 2000s along with dozens of similar 1870s mugshots held in national public collections. Catalogued as "convict portraits" and curated as aesthetic items on gallery walls for the middle-class gaze as the 20th century progressed, the first and by far the most significant "curator" was John Watt Beattie at his "Port Arthur Museum" located at 51 Murray Street, Hobart, where he advertised reprints of the originals for sale in his 1916 Catalogue.

1916: John Watt Beattie's catalogue



Daniel Murphy, bottom row, third from right.



One of forty(40) prints of 1870s Tasmania prisoners in three panels
Prints from the original glass negatives taken by T. J. Nevin 1870s
Reprinted and offered for sale by J. W. Beattie ca. 1916
QVMAG Collection: Ref : 1983_p_0163-0176

1977: the QVMAG Exhibition
This copy of the cdv on a buff mount produced by Thomas J. Nevin was one of at least four duplicates he made for police and prison records in the 1870s. One was pasted to the prisoner's rap sheet, one was pasted into the Municipal Police Office central registry's Photo Books, and the remaining were forwarded to regional police stations wherever the prisoner was assigned employment. The verso of this copy was inscribed by Beattie in the early 1900s with the number "204", the name of the prisoner, the ship on which he was transported and the factually incorrect phrase "Taken at Port Arthur 1874" in the interest of tourism to the heritage site's ruins.

An exhibition of these 1870s prisoner photographs by T. J. Nevin was held at the QVMAG in 1977, curated by John McPhee and Special Collections Librarian (Tas) Geoff Stilwell.



Prisoner MURPHY, Daniel per Gazelle
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin
Taken at the Hobart Gaol, Tasmania January 1875
This copy was first deposited at the QVMAG in the 1930s and numbered verso "204"
Numbered recto "152" in 1983 when removed for exhibition at Port Arthur.
Now held at the TMAG Ref: Q15605



Verso:Prisoner MURPHY, Daniel per Gazelle
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin
Taken at the Hobart Gaol, Tasmania January 1875
This copy was first deposited at the QVMAG in the 1930s and numbered verso "204"
Numbered recto "152" in 1983 when removed for exhibition at Port Arthur.
Now held at the TMAG Ref: Q15605

PRESS NOTICE

TRANSCRIPT

CONVICT photos at Launceston
HISTORIC photographs showing convicts at Port Arthur in 1874 will be exhibited at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery at Launceston from tomorrow to May 2.
The work of T. J. Nevin, the photos are being shown at Launceston for the first time.
Many of the men shown in the pictures had been transported to Port Arthur as young boys 40 years earlier.
The curator of fine art at the museum, Mr. John McPhee, said yesterday that the photos had "a quality far beyond that of records".
"Just once rascally, occasionally noble, always pathetic, these photographs are among the most moving and powerful images of the human condition," he said.

Source: Convict photos at Launceston, Mercury, 10th March 1977

1983: Port Arthur Heritage site exhibition
At least fifty of these prisoner photographs from the 1870s which were originally held in the QVMAG collection were removed in 1983 for an exhibition at the Port Arthur heritage site and not returned, deposited instead at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart. Those missing on the QVMAG inventory list were inscribed with a pencilled number to keep track of them when they were physically removed from the QVMAG by the exhibitors. Only 72 cdvs of the much larger acquisition from Beattie's estate in the 1930s are now extant at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston.



Prisoner MURPHY, Daniel per Gazelle
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin
Taken at the Hobart Gaol, Tasmania January 1875
This copy was first deposited at the QVMAG in the 1930s and numbered verso "204"
Numbered recto "152" in 1983 when removed for exhibition at Port Arthur.
Now held at the TMAG Ref: Q15605

This numbered inventory devised in the 1980s of the collection of 1870s Tasmanian mugshots originally acquired by the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston from the estate of photographer and convictarian John Watt Beattie shows that the number "152" in pencil underneath Murphy's image on the mount was physically missing from the QVMAG holdings. It was removed for exhibition at the Port Arthur Development Project in the 1980s along with another 120 or so; only 72 of those listed from 1-200 remained. Those that were removed were sent to the National Library of Australia, Canberra; the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart; the Archives Office of Tasmania, Hobart; and the Port Arthur Historic Site, Tasman Peninsula. This dissemination of copies was intended to augment national and state collections and for travelling exhibitions.



The mounted cdv photograph of Daniel Murphy, numbered "152" is shown here (pencilled) as missing from the 1980s inventory of Beattie's collection of convict mugshots at the QVMAG. Those 50 os so that were instead deposited at the TMAG from the 1983 Port Arthur exhibition were then used to re-assign Thomas J. Nevin's photographer attribution to a public official, superintendent of the Port Arthur prison, A. H. Boyd, not a photographer in any genre or sense of the word, at the whim and fancy of his descendants. This fabrication then led to confusion if not downright suspicion of deliberate fakery of a photographer attribution to talk up the significance of Port Arthur as Tasmania's premier tourist attraction.

2000: National Portrait Gallery
The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery constructed four wooden-framed collages under glass from their collection of Thomas Nevin's prisoner mugshots for an exhibition titled Mirror with a Memory at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, in 2000. Daniel Murphy's image was placed top row, centre in this frame. However, for reasons best described as blind-sided, the TMAG staff who chose these mugshots sent the four frames to Canberra, five cdvs in the first, six per frame in the other three, with labels on the back of each wooden frame stating quite clearly that the photographs were attributed to A. H. Boyd, the much despised Commandant of the Port Arthur prison who was not a photographer by any definition of the term, nor an engineer despite any pretension on his part and especially despite the social pretensions of his descendants who began circulating the photographer attribution as a rumour in the 1980s to compensate no doubt for Boyd's vile reputation.



Names as they appear on the back of the wooden frame:
Top, from left to right: John White, Daniel Murphy, James Harrison
Bottom from left to right: Daniel Davis, George Willis, James Martin
Photos recto and verso copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2014-2015
Taken at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, 10 November 2014


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In a party mood: prisoner Michael LYNCH (as Horrigan, Harrigan or Sullivan), Christmas Eve, December 24th 1881

Indecent assault charges under the Act of 1863
Court martial with transportation and DD branding

Sixty-five (65) year old cook, Michael Horrigan (or Lynch, Harrigan and Sullivan), transported as Michael Lynch per Waverley (1) in 1841, was feeling festive on Christmas Eve, 24th December 1881. He celebrated by breaking into the residence of Alexander Denholm junior at Forcett, south-east of Hobart near Sorell, helping himself to a gold watch and some very fancy clothes. In a party mood, and probably dressed to the nines in Denholm's tweeds, he then sought out and made amorous sexual advances to Robert Freeman.



Prisoner Michael LYNCH alias HORRIGAN, HARRIGAN and SULLIVAN
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin (1842-1923)
Date and Place: Hobart Supreme Court March 1882
Black and white copy of sepia print printed in cdv mount
Verso indicates alias, crime, date of transportation, photo or archival no. 466 etc
QVM:1985:P:89, QVMAG Collection, Launceston, Tasmania

This prisoner's proper or real name was Michael LYNCH alias Horrigan and Sullivan, according to the police gazette notice on his arraignment at the Supreme Court Hobart, 7 March 1882. The archivist who wrote his name on the verso on this black and white copy used the later spelling of the alias "Harrigan" which was recorded by the police gazette notices of 1884 and 1885.



Verso inscription:
"Michael Horrigan or Sullivan -
F. S. [Free by servitude]
Waverly (Irish) 13.8.41.
12 Months
466"
Ref: QVM:1985:P:89
Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston, Tasmania.
Earlier accession numbering (at top of verso) shows the date 1958.

This police photograph was numbered "466" when inscribed verso, either by police for inclusion in the Hobart Gaol Photo Book and criminal rap sheet in 1882 on the prisoner's incarceration, or by later archivists at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery on accession from the Beattie Collection for exhibition at various dates and venues between 1934 and 1983. This black and white copy was made at the QVMAG in 1985 from the sepia original for reasons best known only to the QVMAG.

The complainants, December 1881
Michael Lynch raided Alexander Denholm jnr's dressing room on Christmas Eve 1881 to steal his fine clothes, gold watch and fob chain. Denholm appears to have been an easy target. He published warnings to trespassers in the press warning them he had laid poison at his property, Woodside, Forcett.



Andrew Denholm, warning to trespassers
Notice in Mercury, 2 Sept 1882

Alexander Denholm had interests in the importation of agricultural machinery. He was also the licensee of the White Hart Hotel at Bothwell by 1884.



Andrew Denholm
Agricultural equipment brought into Sorell
Notice in Mercury 20 January 1880.

Who was Robert Freeman, the other complainant with a case against Michael Horrigan/Lynch? He brought charges of indecent assault resulting in a 12 month sentence against Horrigan. Robert Freeman's name was recorded in the Supreme Court Rough Calendar at Horrigan/Lynch's trial on 7 March 1882 but nothing was published in the press which named him as the victim of Horrigan's assault on December 24, 1881. He may have been a local Sorell lad, 21 years old, son of a labourer, who died in 1883 of a chronic abscess. If so, he would have been 19 years old at the time of Horrigan's intent to commit a homosexual act. Such acts were deemed illegal and incarceration or even death were  the only outcomes for the offender.



Deaths in the district of Sorell 1883
20 May, 1883 - Robert Freeman, 21 yrs old, son of labourer, chronic abscess
Archives Office of Tasmania Names Index RGD35-1-52P189

The Act to consolidate and amend the Legislative Enactments relating to Offences against the Person. [31 July, 1863] was presumably the Act under which Michael Horrigan/Lynch was charged. It  stipulated severe punishments ranging from death, imprisonment for life, and  imprisonment for ten years, dependent on proof of complete penetration of the [male] person. It appears, therefore, that insufficient proof was mustered agains Michael Horrigan/Lynch at trial in the Supreme Court, Hobart, on 7 March 1882 to warrant a severe sentence for indecent assault. He got off with a light sentence of 12 months' incarceration at the Hobart Gaol on the grounds of "intent".

An Act To Consolidate And Amend The Legislative Enactments Relating To Offences Against The Person, (27 Vic, No 5) 31 July, 1863

Unnatural Offences .

Sodomy.
59 Whosoever shall be convicted of the abominable crime of Buggery, committed either with mankind or with any animal, shall suffer Death as a Felon.

Attempt to commit an infamous crime.
60 Whosoever shall attempt to commit the said abominable crime, or shall be guilty of any assault with intent to commit the same, shall be guilty of Felony, and being convicted thereof shall be liable to be imprisoned for Life.

Indecent assault upon a male person.
61 Whosoever shall be convicted of any indecent assault upon any male person shall be liable to be imprisoned for Ten years.

27° VICTORIlE. No 5. 43
Carnal knowledge defined.
62 Whenever, upon the trial of any offence punishable under Carnal knowledge of this Act, it may be necessary to prove carnal knowledge, it shall not be defined necessary to prove the actual emission of seed in order to constitute a carnal knowledge, but the carnal knowledge shall be deemed complete upon proof of penetration only.

READ the FULL ACT here {pdf}
An Act To Consolidate And Amend The Legislative Enactments Relating To Offences Against The Person (27 Vic, No 5) Austlii Database.

The revised NSW Crimes Act No. 40 of 1900, items 79-81, still maintained severe penalties for indecent assault on a male. Under this Act the offense committed by Michael Horrigan would have incurred a sentence of five years:
Indecent assault on male
81. Whosoever commits an indecent assault upon a male person of whatever age, with or without consent of such person, shall be liable to penal servitude for five years.


Act No. 40, 1900.
An Act to consolidate the Statutes relating to Criminal Law. [31st October, 1900.]
Link: https://legislation.nsw.gov.au/view/pdf/asmade/act-1900-40

ASSAULT as ENTERTAINMENT on Christmas Eve
Horrigan's assault on Robert Freeman might have escaped the notice of the press but the Hull-Calder contretemps certainly did not. It was reported with relish on Christmas Eve, Saturday, the 24th December 1881, by the Hobart Mercury and Launceston Examiner. They rose to the occasion with a thrilling account of the assault between two gentlemen of the highest standing in Hobart society: Hugh Munro Hull and James Eerskine Calder.

EXTRACT
TASMANIA. (FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENTS.) HOBART, Dec. 23. At the Police Court, before Mr Tarleton, P.M., and Mr W. P. Green, J.P., Mr H. M. Hull charged Mr J. E. Calder with having unlawfully assaulted and beaten him on the 12th inst. Mr Calder pleaded not guilty, Mr Bromby appearing for him. Mr Hull deposed that on the day named, at about ten o'clock in the morning, he was proceeding to his office, when he was met by the defendant, who walked up hurriedly, and said, " Are you the writer of the letter in the Launceston Examiner signed 'Older Chum ?' " I retorted by asking him if he was the writer of the letter in the same paper reflecting upon me. Instead of replying to me he said, "I'll teach you; there, take that," and dealt me a violent blow on the side of the head with his open right hand ; I felt stunned for a moment by the violence of the blow; when I recovered I did not return the blow, as I thought it unseemly for an old magistrate of five-and-twenty years' standing to be seen fighting in the public street with a man twice his size; I told him I should summon him for assault, when he came towards me as if to repeat the blow, at the same time calling out something which I was too deafened by the blow I had received to hear distinctly; ... etc etc
Read the rest of this story here:
CITY POLICE COURT. (1881, December 24). The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), p. 3.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article9003832
TASMANIA. (1881, December 24). Launceston Examiner (Tas. : 1842 - 1899), p. 2.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article38229710

Supreme Court Record 1882

ROUGH CALENDAR (Supreme Court Hobart, 1882)



Michael Horrigan aka Harrigan and Sullivan, transported as Michael Lynch
Sentenced on 7th March 1882 to 12 months for indecent assault (homosexual act)
Supreme Court Rough Calendar Ref: GD70-1-1
Archives Office Tasmania

TRANSCRIPT
ROUGH CALENDAR [Supreme Court Hobart ]

Name and Age
Harrigan, Michael alias Sullivan alias Lynch
Committed
7.1.82
Received
10.1.82
Age 68 - 65

Number and Ship
Waverley (1) (ticked)

Original Sentence
(double ticked)

Condition & Date
F.S [free in servitude]

Plea
N.G. [not guilty]

Before whom Tried
C. J. [Chief Justice]
7/3/82

What Committed for
For that the said Michael Horrigan as Sullivan as Lynch did at Belmont in the Municipality of Sorell in this colony of Tasmania on the 24 Day of December 1881, unlawfully assault one Robert Freeman with intent feloniously, wickedly, and against the order of nature to carnally know the Robert Freeman, and perpetrate the abominable crime of Buggery.

For that the said Michael Horrigan as Sullivan as Lynch did at Forcett in Tasmania 1881 feloniously break and enter the dwelling house of Alexander Denholm Jnr there situate and then and there did feloniously steal take and carry away 1 Dark Blue Albert Coat, 1 Black Paget coat, 1 pair Tweed Trousers, 2 Tweed Vests, 1 Gold Watch and 1 Gold Albert Guard of the goods and chattels of Albert Denholm Junior of Forcett aforesaid

What Indicted for
Same

Result of Trial
Found Guilty of Indecent Assault

Sentence and Date
12 Months Imprisonment 7/3/82

Police Gazette Records

1879
On the 6 September 1879, Michael Lynch was arrested as Michael Sullivan and sentenced at the Police Office Glenorchy to six months for larceny. See this conduct record listed under the name Michael LYNCH. https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON33-1-12$init=CON33-1-12P181

1881
Details of the robbery at Andrew Denholm's property with description of suspect:



TRANSCRIPT
SORELL MUNICIPALITY
HOUSEBREAKING
BETWEEN 1 and 7 pm on the 24th instant the dwelling of Alexander Debnholm at Forcett was feloniously broken and entered, and the following propeerty stolen therefrom : - 1 blue fashionable coat; 1 black Paget coat, both nearly new; 1 pair light tweed trousers; 2 ditto vests; the property of Alexander Denholm, jun. 1 gold watch, No. 55738, W. H. Hill  & Sons makers; 1 gold twist Albert guard, with plain gold bar, value £20; the property of and identifiable by Robert Buchanan. A man of the following description is suspected: - 55 years of age, 5 feet 10 or 11 inches high, dark complexion, dark to grey hair inclined to curl, dark to grey whiskers, shaved on chin, medium build, supposed Irish, stated he was a cook; dressed in clean white mole trousers, straw hat, black pilot or saque coat; carried an untanned opossum-skin rug, a white bundle, and a red bundle. Supposed to have gone towards Clarence or Richmond.
Source: VOL. XX. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1881. No. 1171.
Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police Information Only, J. Barnard Govd't printer.



TRANSCRIPT
Vide Crime Report,1881, page 205
Denholm's robbery - Michael Horrigan, alias Sullivan, alias Lynch, has been arrested by Supt Anderson, of the Sorell Municicpal Police, and charged with the offence. None of the property has been recovered.
Source: VOL. XXI. FRIDAY, JANUARY 6, 1882. No. 1172.
Tasmania Reports of Crime for Police Information Only, J. Barnard Govd't printer.

1882
In March 1882 Michael Horrigan, proper name Lynch as Sullivan was 65 years old when arraigned for indecent assault and sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment at the Hobart Gaol.



Horrigan, Michael, proper name Lynch, as Sullivan , 65 years old, ship Waverley 1, F. S. Indecent assault 12 months. He was discharged on 5 February 1883.
See this record: https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON33-1-12$init=CON33-1-12P181

1884


No. of Authority 117
Michael Harrigan [sic] per Waverly spent a month from 16 June 1884 to 10 July 1884 as a pauper at the Invalid Depot in Hobart.

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

1885


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

Employed as a cook in Hobart, Michael Harrigan [sic] , native of  Ireland, 71 years old, 5 ft 10 inches tall, was convicted of larceny at New Norfolk (north of Hobart) on 4th February 1885. Because of his various aliases, his prior convictions probably eluded the police gazetteer and were not recorded. He died at the New Town Charitable Institute, Hobart, on 3 May 1894 and was buried as Michael Horrigan, cook, 83 years old. The Archives Office of Tasmania holds his death record at : - https://stors.tas.gov.au/RGD35-1-14p136j2k

Transportation Records



Details on this record show Michael Lynch was single, could read, his religion was Roman Catholic, and had one brother James living in London, and two sisters Johanna and May. Desertion and branding DD. The Archives Office of Tasmania holds this record at : - https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON14-1-9$init=CON14-1-9P33



Records show that Michael Lynch, born ca. 1816 at Cork, Ireland, had served 4 years with the 22nd Regiment when he deserted for nine days. He was court martialled at Dublin on 10 September 1840 and transported for fourteen years on the Waverley 1, departing Kingston, Ireland on 25 April 1841, arriving via Bahia after 140 days at sea, at Hobart on 12 September 1841 with 176 male convicts on board. He was sent to the Longford Probate Station, Tasmania, to serve 18 months with pastoralist Edward Archer. See this appropriation record: https://stors.tas.gov.au/NI/1413162



Physical description details on this record (many are illegible) include - :
Laborer, 5'9", 23 years old, fresh complexion. oval head, black hair, no whiskers, medium height forehead, black eyebrows, brown eyes, long nose, medium mouth, mediem chin, native place Cork. Remarks: Pockpelles [?] has been a soldier branded DD on left side Crown flag harp and crown bugle 22 Reg't FR 7 stars half moon JHS? on ? right arm and hand 2 rings on fingers right hand cross Nil? Sun PW N? on left arm and hand. See this record:  https://stors.tas.gov.au/CON18-1-29P35

Branded "DD" for desertion
Michael Lynch was branded DD, court martialled as a deserter from the 22nd Regiment. When another prisoner, James Brady was discharged in late January 1874 with the residue of his sentence remitted, the police gazette ( p. 16 January 1874) noted that that he was Free to the Colony (FC) and that he was tattooed with the letter "D" on his left breast: he was a military deserter, one of several prisoners bearing the deserter tattoo who were photographed by Thomas J. Nevin, including prisoner Denis Doherty, made famous by Anthony Trollope's visit to the Port Arthur prison in 1872.



Mark of a Deserter (Army Medical Services Museum), in Chapter 3 of Hilton, P J 2010 ,
"Branded D on the left side" : a study of former soldiers and marines transported to Van Diemen's Land: 1804-1854
PhD thesis, University of Tasmania:
Link: https://eprints.utas.edu.au/17678/2/Hilton_Thesis.pdf



Barnard, Simon Convict tattoos : marked men and women of Australia.
Melbourne, Vic. The Text Publishing Company, 2016.
Website: https://www.simonbarnard.com.au/product/convict-tattoos/

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Prisoner James Martin: criminal career 1860s-1890s

THE RADCLIFFE MUSEUM Port Arthur
CONVICT TATTOOS
EXHIBITIONS and photographer misattribution

Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery copy
Number on recto: this mugshot of prisoner James Martin, mounted as a carte-de-visite, was numbered "183" underneath the image on the front when it was removed from the John Watt Beattie Collection at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston in 1983 for the Port Arthur Conservation and Development Project (PACDP), an exhibition at the Port Arthur prison heritage site on the Tasman Peninsula. It was not returned to the Beattie Collection at the QVMAG in Launceston, as it should have been, it was deposited instead at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hobart, along with at least fifty (50) more cdvs of prisoners similarly numbered on front. The original photographs of these men were taken by professional photographer Thomas J. Nevin in the 1870s on contract for daily use by police and prisons administration. The QVMAG list (2005) showed a total of 199 mugshots, but only 72 were physically held at the QVMAG when the list was devised. At least 127 mugshots were missing by 2005. See the list here.

Number on verso: this cdv was numbered "224" on the verso much earlier, in the early 1900s when it was removed from the Hobart Gaol and Municipal Police Office registry and inscribed verso by Beattie et al with the wording "Taken at Port Arthur 1874" along with 300 hundred more of these original mugshots taken by government contractor T. J. Nevin in the 1870s. J. W. Beattie, as the government photographer by 1900 who was commissioned to promote Tasmania's penal heritage, sent this mugshot of James Martin among dozens more cdv's for inclusion in travelling exhibitions associated with the fake convict hulk Success at Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart and Adelaide. On Beattie's death in 1930, the QVMAG acquired this travelling set of Tasmanian mugshots, removed each from the cardboard to which they were pasted, and exhibited them in 1934 at Launceston as part of the estate of John Watt Beattie's convictaria collection.



Prisoner James MARTIN
Photographed on 24th October 1874 at the H.M. Goal, Hobart
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin
Numbered "183" on recto in 1983
Numbered "224" on verso in 1915
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery:
TMAG Ref: Q15614



Verso: Prisoner James MARTIN
Photographed on 24th October 1874 at the H.M. Goal, Hobart
Photographer: Thomas J. Nevin
Numbered "183" on recto in 1983
Numbered "224" on verso in 1915
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery:
TMAG Ref: Q15614

The verso of this cdv shows evidence of removal from thick grey paper or board. Transcribed subsequently over the grey scraps with "James Martin per Ld Petre, Taken at Port Arthur 1874" is incorrect information, written ca. 1900s-1916 after this cdv of Martin was exhibited by Beattie, using the terms "Types of Imperial Convicts", "Port Arthur" and the date "1874" to appeal to local and interstate tourists by association with Marcus Clarke's novel of 1874, For the Term of His Natural Life, which was filmed at the Port Arthur prison site (1927). Renamed as Carnarvon, the old prison grounds and buildings were promoted as Tasmania's premier tourist destination, then as now. In short, the transcription of the verso of this prisoner mugshot, as with hundreds more from Beattie's estate acquired by the QVMAG on his death in 1930, is tourism propaganda which reflects neither the actual place and date of the photographic capture nor the individual prisoner's criminal history.

Archives Office of Tasmania copy
This paper copy is held at the Archives Office of Tasmania, Hobart, photocopied in the 1970s from the 200 or so cdv's held in the John Watt Beattie Collection, QVMAG, Launceston.


Photographic portrait of James Martin, copy at Archives Office of Tasmania, dated incorrectly as 1870 for no apparent reason, possibly inscribed for display at the Radcliffe Museum.



PH30/1/2023
Title: Portrait of James Martin
Subject: convicts, people, portraits
Locality: not identified
Date: 1870
Photographic portrait of JAMES, Martin

In the letter (below) addressed to the National Library of Australia from the Archives Office of Tasmania, dated 3rd December 1982, this black and white copy of T. J. Nevin's portrait of prisoner James Martin was mentioned as one of a set of ten mounted photographs "which came from the Ratcliffe [sic - Radcliffe] Museum at Port Arthur" [held in NEVIN file, NLA - see link below].

The Archives Office of Tasmania recorded the acquisition of ten mounted cdvs of prisoners ca. 1975 from William Radcliffe's convictaria museum called The Old Curiosity Shop, which was located at Port Arthur in the 1930s. The ten cdvs were mugshots of prisoners George Willis, James Merchant, George Leathley, Daniel Murphy, Alfred Doran, Ephraim Booth, James Martin, Henry Sweet, William Harrison and Alfred Maldon. William Radcliffe may have salvaged as much as was possible from John Watt Beattie's museum prior to Beattie's death in 1930 in order to set up his own convictaria museum, naming it with a Dickensian flourish no less.

The Archives Office of Tasmania gives this information:
Agency Number: NG946
Title: WILLIAM MONTAGUE RADCLIFFE AND FAMILY (COLLECTORS)
Start Date: 01 Jan 1920
End Date: 01 Jan 1970
Description:
The Radcliffe family ran a museum at Port Arthur that contained a collection of Tasmanian memorabilia and records. It was known as 'The Old Curiosity Shop'. The 'Radcliffe Collection' was acquired by the National Parks & Wildlife Service in the 1970s. William Radcliffe died in September 1943.
Information Sources: Glover Papers Vol 1 Page 66



Photo © KLW NFC 2010 ARR with callout corrections.

This is a letter from the Archives Office of Tasmania, Hobart to the National Library, Canberra in response to the NLA's query about the whereabouts of T. J. Nevin's photograph of convict James Martin. The typing errors are numerous, and the information about the photographer is misleading: T. J. Nevin was not a "convict photographer", he was a free settler arriving at Hobart with his parents and three siblings as a 10 year old child in 1852. The letter is one of several accession records held at the National Library of Australia which has correctly attributed T. J. Nevin as the photographer of their collection of 84 cdvs, catalogued as "Convict portraits, Port Arthur 1874". The recent prevarications regarding Nevin's attribution by a former employee at the PAHSMA who begged the NLA to cite her "essay" about the Port Arthur commandant A. H. Boyd, are best ignored as fantasy.

TRANSCRIPT
Ref: 450/2/182
Archives Office of Tasmania
91 Murray Street
Hobart 7000

3 December 1982

Mrs Barbara Perry
Pictorial Librarian for Principal Librarian
Australian Reference
National library of Australia
CANBERRA  A.C.T.  2600

Dear Mrs Perry
Your enquiry to the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts has been referred to our office as the photograph of James Martin is located in the Archives Office of Tasmania Collection (see reference to acknowledgements under Archives).
It has been mistakenly entered also among the Allport references.
The photograph of James Martin is part of a set of ten mounted photographs which came from the Ratcliffe [sic - Radcliffe] Museum at Port Arthur. Copies of these photographs are [located?] at 52/11/1-10 and include photographs of George Willis, James Merchant, George Teatbley [sic- Leathley], Daniel Murphy, Alfred Dovan [sic - Doran] Epheian [sic - Ephraim] Booth, James Martin, Henry Sweet, William Harrison and Alfred Waldon [sic - Malden or Maldon]. The photographs are dated between 1872-1874.
I also enclose a list of archive photographs reference 30/3184-3263 which are copies of T. J. Nairn [sic - Nevin] convict photographer held at the Queen Victoria Museum, Launceston. Further copies from this photographer, provenance not known, are at archives reference 30/4111-30/4116. I enclose brief notes on the photographer T. J. Nairn [sic - Nevin] compiled by a researcher Chris Long who visited our office last month. I have no additional information to add to these notes.

Yours sincerely
[signature]

IAN PEARCE
ACTING PRINCIPAL ARCHIVIST
Source: National Library of Australia
Nevin, T. J. : photography related ephemera material collected by the National Library of Australia.
Physical Description 1 folder of miscellaneous pieces.
Series Australian photographer files
Contents File contains material such as accession sheets, listings of works biographical material and correspondence related to convict portraits.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/25412530

Court records and press reports

1857: transportation record and freedom
James Martin was convicted at the Barbados Court Martial, transported for 14 years, departing on the Lord Petre on 3 July 1843, arriving at Hobart, Van Diemen's Land, on 15th October 1843 in the company of 237 other convicts.

The record below is an odd document as all the details pertaining to the prisoner James Martin's date of conviction, date of arrival at Hobart, and physical description are missing. On the top right-hand corner to the right of the words "Transported for" is a sketch of a bird pecking at crumbs on the ground, and below it, the letter "D" enclosing a cross and diamond, signifying James Martin was a (Catholic?) deserter from the army. The note on his Port Arthur record of earnings (see below - CON94/1/1 Folio 143) records the date of his desertion, 8 November 1842, the place, Barbados, and the sentence, court martial, 14 years. But what does the bird signify? Details of his various offences  in Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), mostly for absconding, theft and insolence, terminate on this record in 1857 when he was granted freedom.



Detail of record below: top right-hand corner, "Transported for" and sketch of a bird pecking at crumbs on the ground. Below the wording, the letter "D" enclosing a cross and diamond, sign of a Catholic [?] deserter.



CON33-1-45_00243
Archives Office Tasmania

According to Simon Barnard, illustrator of Convict Tattoos (2016), "of the 1051 deserters transported to Van Diemen's Land, 800 are recorded as branded".



Barnard, Simon Convict tattoos : marked men and women of Australia.Melbourne, Vic.
The Text Publishing Company, 2016.
Website: https://www.simonbarnard.com.au/product/convict-tattoos/

1865: fresh from Port Arthur
BELLERIVE POLICE COURT.
SATURDAY, 30th SEPTEMBER, 1865.

There were present at the sitting of the Court the Warden, and Messrs. Strachan, Maum, Stanfield, Young, and Morrisby.

The following was the only case to be brought before the Bench:--

Housebreaking.-James Martin was charged by Mr. Bellette, Superintendent of Police, with having, on the 26th day of September, feloniously broken into the dwelling-house of Charles Jones, and stealing thereout a pair of boots, a coat, a pair of trowsers, one pair of blankets, two pairs of socks, and other articles, his property.

Charles Jones, the prosecutor, stated that he was in the service of Mr. Josephs, Single Hill, and resided in a hut on his master's premises. On the night of the 25th instant, the prisoner, by the permission of his master, slept in the hut, and left the next morning after breakfast, and just before sunrise ; witness then went to work, and saw a man soon afterwards whom he took to be prisoner about the hut ; witness then went to his master in the garden, and they both noticed the man about the hut, who "planted'' himself behind some trees, and appeared to be watching their movements. Witness went down to the hut, which he found had been broken into. The flannel blankets produced were lying at the front of the hut, and the other articles mentioned had been taken from the inside with a shilling in money. Witness next saw the man almost immediately afterwards in the custody of his master.

Mr. George Joseph stated, that on the day named he saw a man walking about near the prosecutor's hut ; witness fetched his gun and accompanied by a man named Brindley went down to the hut; the man witness had seen came out of the hut and then went into the stable; the man came out of the stable shortly after, with a bundle ; he looked up and down the road, and then came away trying to hide himself in the bushes, and after coming a short distance laid down ; witness went up and took hold of him; prisoner at that time had prosecutor's coat on ; witness also took from prisoner the other property produced; witness gave the prisoner and property into the custody of Constable Swifte.

James Brindley, carpenter gave evidence corroborative of that of last witness.

Constable Swifte, in the municipal police, stated that he received the prisoner in custody with the articles produced ; on examining the hut he found the staple on the door check twisted and the padlock produced lying broken on the floor ; on the road to the station the prisoner said, " I came up from Port Arthur on the 6th of this month from doing eight years; I am a miserable man and the devil must have tempted me to commit this crime."
The prisoner made no defence.
Committed for trial.
The Court then rose.
Source: Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954) Mon 2 Oct 1865 Page 2 BELLERIVE POLICE COURT.

1865: back to Port Arthur
For the theft of flannel blankets etc James Martin was tried at the Supreme Court, Hobart, on 24 October 1865 and returned to the Port Arthur prison on 26 November 1865 to serve a sentence of ten years. This document states that earlier he was transported for 14 years on 8th November 1842 for "Breach of Articles of War", i.e. he was court martialled for desertion.



Conduct register - Port Arthur
Item Number: CON94/1/1 Start Date: 01 Jan 1868 End Date: 31 Dec 1869
James Martin per Lord Petre, Folio 143

1870: absconded



TRANSCRIPT
PENAL ESTABLISHMENT
Secretary's Office, 4th April, 1870.
ABSCONDER. for whose apprehension in the Colony within a period of twelve months from the date of his absconding a Reward of Two Pounds or such lesser sum a may be awarded by the convicting Magistrate, will be paid: -
From Port Arthur, under sentence, on the 29th March, 1870.
James Martin, per Lord Petre, tried S. C. Hobart Town, 24th October, 1865, 10 years imprisonment, trade, stonemason, complexion fresh, hair dark brown, eyes dark brown, height 5 feet 7½ inches, eyes dark brown. Remarks - Marks of punishment, slightly pockpitted on face, scar on thumb and forefinger left hand, scar right side of nose
C. T. BELSTEAD, Secretary

1875: discharged and photographed
This discharge notice of 1875 relates to the original Supreme Court conviction of 1865 when James Martin was sentenced to ten years for breaking and entering a dwelling house. In October 1874, when his record was reviewed, he was photographed by Thomas J. Nevin pending discharge a few months later, in January 1875, having served his full term. When he was discharged during the week ending 6th January 1875 from Hobart Town, James Martin per Ld Petre, native place County Meath, was 55 yrs old, 5ft 8 inches tall, with brown hair and a mole in the corner of his left eye.



Prisoner James MARTIN per Lord Petre was discharged from H. M. Gaol, Hobart during the week ending 6th January 1875.
Source: Tasmania Information for Police J. Barnard Gov't printer

1876: second thoughts about being a constable
Apparently James Martin did not like the job of police constable or he was forced to resign. He joined the constabulary in April 1876, and resigned three months later, in August. However, there were many men called James Martin in Tasmania in these decades, so this record might not pertain to the James Martin who arrived in VDL on the Lord Petre, the prisoner T. J. Nevin photographed in 1874.



TRANSCRIPT
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION
RETURN of Appointments, &c. in the Police Force: -
Municipal. - Richmond
James Martin, to be a Constable from the 1st instant, vice William Brooks, resigned.
Source: Police gazette notice of 28 April 1876



TRANSCRIPT
MISCELLANEOUS INFORMATION
RETURN of Appointments, &c. in the Police Force: -
Municipal. - Richmond.
Peter Smith, Constable, from the 15th ultimo, vice James Martin, resigned.
Source: Police gazette notice of 4 August 1876

1876-1884: housebreaking



Rough Calendar Hobart Supreme Court GD70-1-1 1870-82
TAHO Ref: GD70-1-1 James Martin
Rough Calendar for the Supreme Court for 1876: guilty, ten years with hard labour.

On the 6 June, 1876 James Martin was tried at the Supreme Court, Hobart for housebreaking and larceny, sentenced to another ten years, and discharged in the week ending 6 February 1884.



James Martin was discharged from another lengthy sentence for housebreaking in 1884, now 63 yrs old, and one whole inch taller at 5'9" (ha ha, that's a joke, see discharge notice above, for 1875, but thanks Hamish Maxwell-Stewart all the same). He re-offended again soon after release and was incarcerated once more at the Hobart Gaol where he died in 1892.

1892:death
James Martin died at the Hobart Gaol, Campbell Street, while still under sentence in 1892. He was 72 years old, born ca. 1820. He was buried in a pauper's grave, Catholic Section. Supposed cause of death was senility.



AF70-1-18 (BU 8966)
Cornelian Bay, Pauper, Section A, Number 232
Martin, James
Record Type: Deaths
Age: 72
Description: Last known residence: H. M. Gaol, Hobart
Property: Cornelian Bay Cemetery
Date of burial: 23 Aug 1892
File number: BU 8966
Record ID: NAME_INDEXES:1557291

Exhibitions 1983 and 2000



Top, from left to right: John White, Daniel Murphy, James Harrison
Bottom from left to right: Daniel Davis, George Willis, James Martin
Photos recto and verso copyright © KLW NFC Imprint 2014-2015
Taken at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, 10 November 2014

The Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery constructed four wooden-framed collages under glass from their collection of Thomas J. Nevin's prisoner mugshots for an exhibition titled Mirror with a Memory, held at the National Portrait Gallery, Canberra, in 2000. James Martin's image was placed bottom row, extreme right in this frame. However, for reasons best described as blind-sided, the TMAG staff who chose these mugshots sent the four frames to Canberra, five cdvs in the first, six per frame in the other three, with labels on the back of each wooden frame stating quite clearly that the photographs were attributed to A. H. Boyd, the much despised Commandant of the Port Arthur prison who was not a photographer by any definition of the term, nor an engineer despite any pretension on his part and especially despite the social pretensions of his descendants who began circulating the photographer attribution at the Port Arthur prison tourist site as a rumour in the 1980s to compensate no doubt for Boyd's vile reputation.

Numbers on the back of each cdv and the phrase "Taken at Port Arthur 1874" were added ca. 1890s-1900s by Beattie an assistants for exhibition and sale as tourist souvenirs at his "Port Arthur Museum" located at 51 Murray St. Hobart, some arranged alphabetically in albums, others pasted to carboard wall mounts. Numbers on the front of the mount were devised for an inventory list in the 1970s-1980s before they were removed and dispersed from the QVMAG's collection. Although every cdv up to 200 was numbered, 50 or so of those that were listed as missing (a total of 127) were taken south for the Port Arthur Conservation and Development Project (PACDP) exhibition. They were returned to the Archives Office of Tasmania collections stored at Rosny, Hobart. When the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery moved into the Rosny site, the museum acquired this particular collection (50 or so) which should have been returned to the QVMAG with the rest of the prisoner mugshots collected by John Watt Beattie from Hobart Gaol prisoner rap sheets and Municipal Police Office Photo Books. Those PO Photo Books from the 1870s have not survived, either because the photos were removed by Beattie for display and sale in the 1900s, or because of sensitivities about the "convict stain" resulted in their destruction during the Lyons period of government. References to numbered photographs in some of the MPO Photo Books are to be found on prisoner's rap sheets, especially the later rap sheets wherever the photos are still attached. Read more in these related posts ...

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