Author Archives: TP Publishers

Cousins Edward and Elizabeth baptised at St Mary’s Rotherhithe

Posted on May 17, 2013

First Cousins and both chidren of master mariners, Edward Goldsmith (1836-1883) and Elizabeth Rachel Day (1847-1914 ) were born in London and baptised at St Mary’s Church, Rotherhithe, known as the Mayflower Church, one decade apart. Elizabeth Rachel Day arrived in Hobart Tasmania as an infant, where her sister Mary Sophia was born in 1853, and married professional photographer Thomas J. Nevin at Kangaroo Valley, Hobart on 12 July 1871. Edward Goldsmith made several voyages to Tasmania with his father Captain Edward Goldsmith, attended the Governor’s Levee there in 1855, went to Trinity College Cambridge in 1857, married, became a surgeon, managed his father’s estates in Kent and died young at Rochester, UK, just 43 yrs old Continue reading →

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Captain Edward Goldsmith and the wreck of the James 1830

Posted on April 25, 2013

One passenger who gave Captain Goldsmith endless trouble on the voyage was an Irish soldier, Captain Theophilius Ellis of the 1st Royal Infantry (Ireland) Regiment. Against advice from Lloyds’ underwriters not to board the James, he proceeded with his plan to accompany his sister and her nine children, and arranged with Captain Goldsmith to partition the vessel to house his sister, her family, and another Irishman, Captain Francis Whitfield. When the ship sailed, Ellis found that the separate section he had requested was filled with stores and luggage belonging to the ship, and the vessel so crowded with passengers – “the class of labourers” – 84 crew, pigs, geese, sheep and water casks, there was barely enough room to stand on deck. Ellis was versed in the law sufficient to invoke The Passenger Act of 1828, which was intended to enforce sanctions against ship owners who falsely advertised luxurious accommodation, and tyrannical masters who treated passengers with total disdain. His later report to the Colonial Secretary included these vivid details of the cabin space, the toilet, and Captain Edward Goldsmith’s methods of dealing with him: Continue reading →

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Tom and May Nevin at the Union Chapel flower show 1892

Posted on April 24, 2013
7bbcb-chrysstanybrownesltas

This gallery contains 63 photos.

THE UNION CHAPEL
Samuel Clifford and partner Thomas Nevin produced this photograph as a stereograph of the Congregational Union Chapel in Bathurst Street Hobart not long after it was built by the Rev. J. W. Simmons in 1863. It was also known as “The Helping Hand Mission” . In 1892 the Congregational Union held a flower show at the Chapel to raise much needed funds for repairs to the building. Tom and May Nevin – the two eldest of Thomas and Elizabeth Nevin’s six children – entered chrysanthemums and flower arrangements as a contribution. Continue reading →

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Mr Lipscombe, Captain Goldsmith and the Mammoth Strawberry

Posted on April 21, 2013
lipscombefsltas

This gallery contains 34 photos.

MR LIPSCOMBE and CAPTAIN GOLDSMITH
Elizabeth Nevin’s uncle, Captain Edward Goldsmith, master mariner of merchant ships from London to the colony of Van Diemen’s Land from 1830-1853, and local businessman and nurseryman Frederick Lipscombe, had maintained a friendly and profitable business relationship over twenty years until one day in June 1853, they had a very public falling-out over the Mammoth Strawberry, or so it seemed at first blush. Continue reading →

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Protected: The fruitless search of wadsley-1

Posted on April 19, 2013

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

Posted in 19th Century Prison Photography, Attribution Issues, National Library of Australia, Police mugshots by Nevin

One of the last portraits by Alfred Bock in Hobart 1865

Posted on April 19, 2013
Girl with bare shoulders by Alfred Bock 1865

This gallery contains 12 photos.

This photograph of a teenage girl with bare shoulders and ringlets may be one of the very last taken by Alfred Bock in Hobart Tasmania before his departure in 1865. The design of the studio stamp on the verso was altered only minimally by his younger partner Thomas J. Nevin who bought the lease of the studio, shop, the glass house and darkroom, the stock of negatives, camera equipment, backdrops and furniture etc at auction on August 2, 1865. Thomas Nevin continued to use the stamp’s design for his commercial studio portraiture for another decade, although he used at least six other designs for various formats and clients, including the Royal Arms insignia for commissions with the Colonial government. Continue reading →

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“Securing a proper likeness”: Tasmania, NSW and Victoria from 1871

Posted on April 17, 2013
NRS 2138, Darlinghurst Gaol Photographic Description Book, Thomas Berry, [3-6040 p.93], Reel 5098

This gallery contains 17 photos.

Professional photographer Thomas J. Nevin was commissioned by his family solicitor, the Attorney-General W.R. Giblin, to photograph prisoners for the Colonial Government of Tasmania as early as 1871, the year the government of NSW authorised the Inspector of Prisons, Harold McClean, to commence the photographing of all prisoners convicted in the NSW Superior Courts. Continue reading →

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Disambiguation: James Day 52 yrs old and transported to VDL 1836

Posted on April 15, 2013
Hobart Courthouse June1830PWD2661578

This gallery contains 27 photos.

DISAMBIGUATION: Three James Day names
Right at the outset we stress that this James Day was not a relative of photographer Thomas Nevin’s wife Elizabeth Rachel Day, nor was he related to her father by the name of Captain James Day, master mariner, who was born on 6 June 1806 in Yorkshire and died in Hobart on 17 November 1882, nor to Captain James Day’s first cousin, Captain Henry James Day of the 99th Regiment, guard captain of the Candahar 1842.

However, while researching the name “James Day”, the Old Bailey trial records and the transportation records of another “James Day” surfaced, a Londoner aged 52yrs old, who was transported for seven years to VDL on board the ship Sarah in 1836. Not many men of his advanced years were transported. These are his records and his story up to his death in 1863. Continue reading →

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The Governor’s Levee 1855: Captain Goldsmith and son

Posted on April 11, 2013
View of Derwent from Govt House

This gallery contains 8 photos.

Wife of photographer Thomas Nevin, Elizabeth Rachel Nevin nee Day, was named after her father’s sister Elizabeth Goldsmith nee Day who married Captain Edward Goldsmith at Liverpool, UK, in 1829. Captain and Elizabeth Goldsmith had two sons: Richard Sidney, born 1830, NSW, who died aged 25yrs in Hobart, in 1854. Their second son was named after his father, Edward Goldsmith, born at Rotherhithe, UK on December 12,1836. He accompanied his parents on several voyages to Hobart from London before attending Trinity and Caius Colleges Cambridge in 1856-7. In 1855, when Edward Goldsmith jnr was 19 years old, he accompanied his father to the Governor’s Levee, a grand ball held at Government House, Hobart by the incumbent, Sir William Denison. His cousins, the Day sisters, still children, would have been deeply impressed by their older cousin’s account of this fine affair. Continue reading →

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A new site for descendants and in-laws of Thomas J. Nevin

Posted on March 23, 2013
Moran brothers1945

This gallery contains 8 photos.

In preparation (2013-2014): a separate site for the 20th Century descendants and in-laws of Thomas J. Nevin (1842-1923), including the Shelverton, Axup, Genge, Moran, Morris, Cornish, Warren, Baldwin, Davis, Williams families (and more). Continue reading →

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Captain Henry James Day of the 99th Regiment

Posted on March 21, 2013
Major Day 1855 on the Southern Cross

This gallery contains 40 photos.

Captain Henry James Day (1804-1882), first cousin of Thomas Nevin’s father-in-law, master mariner Captain James Day, was Guard Captain of the 3rd detachment of 99th Regiment of Foot on board the convict transport Candahar when it arrived in Hobart in 1842 with 60 troops under his command, and 249 male convicts. Also on board were a “lady and four children”, several soldiers’ families and government stores. The Candahar was a 4 gun barque of 642 tons built in Shields in 1840, class A1 which departed Spithead, England on the 2nd April 1842, docking in Van Dieman’s Land on the 21st July 1842. Captain Day’s arrival was noted in the Hobart Town Courier. The regiment was stationed at the Anglesea Barracks, Hobart. Continue reading →

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Mary Sophia Axup chair of the WPL 1913

Posted on March 10, 2013
WCTU convention

This gallery contains 4 photos.

Thomas Nevin’s sister-in-law Mary Sophia Axup nee Day, chaired a meeting in 1913 of the Tasmanian Workers’ Political League, the forerunner of the Australian Labor Party, seeking nominations for Labor candidates to stand for the seat of Bass in the forthcoming Federal election: Continue reading →

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Captain Edward Goldsmith and the McGregor family

Posted on March 6, 2013
The patent slip 1865

This gallery contains 29 photos.

The patent slip at the Queen’s Domain in Hobart was established by Elizabeth Rachel Nevin’s uncle, Captain Edward Goldsmith, in 1854 from machinery he brought out from London on his favorite trading barque The Rattler. He obtained a long lease on the foreshore of the Domain to lay the slip on the condition that the terms of the lease were fulfilled. When he withdrew from the lease in 1855 due to the death of his 25 yr old son Richard Goldsmith only months earlier, among other reasons to do with costs and prison labor, Captain Alexander McGregor bought Captain Goldsmith’s interest. Continue reading →

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Hector Axup’s donation to The Boys’ Home for a ship 1887

Posted on February 23, 2013
Vernon 1839

This gallery contains 17 photos.

In the same issue of the Hobart newspaper, The Mercury, October 10, 1887, in which the “old boys” of the Royal Scots had placed an affectionate obituary to John Nevin (1808-1887), Thomas Nevin’s father, Hector Axup was mentioned in the following article. His donation to the Boys’ Home was enclosed in a letter expressing his regret that a training ship was not available. No doubt his wish was informed by knowledge of the Vernon, established in 1867 on Sydney Harbor as a reformatory industrial school for vagrant, destitute or juvenile offenders, which provided boys with moral training, nautical and industrial training and instruction, and elementary schooling. Continue reading →

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Testimonial to Captain Edward Goldsmith 1849

Posted on February 17, 2013
Cpt Goldsmith signature 1841

This gallery contains 29 photos.

-Upon receiving the cup, Capt. Goldsmith remarked that he would retain the token until death ; and, with reference to some observations made by Mr. Carter, intimated it was not improbable he should next year, by settling in Van Diemen’s Land with Mrs. Goldsmith, become a fellow-colonist.

-The goblet, which was manufactured by Mr. C. Jones, of Liverpool-street, bears the following inscription:-”Presented to Captain Goldsmith, of the ship Rattler, as a slight testimonial for having introduced many rare and valuable plants into Van Diemen’s Land. January, 1849.” The body has a surrounding circlet of vine leaves in relief. The inscription occupies the place of quarterings in a shield supported the emu and kangaroo in bas relief, surmounting a riband scroll with the Tasmanian motto-” Sic fortis Hobartia crevit.” The foot has a richly chased border of fruit and flowers. In the manufacture of this cup, for the first time in this colony, the inside has undergone the process of gilding. Continue reading →

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Alfred Bock’s other apprentice: William Bock

Posted on February 8, 2013
bockspencer1845nga200333_b

This gallery contains 14 photos.

WILLIAM BOCK left Tasmania in 1868, returned in 1874 to marry his fiance Rebecca Finlay, and returned to Wellington New Zealand where he thrived as an engraver, lithographic printer,medallist, stamp designer, and illuminator. William Bock is considered the most important and innovative contributor to the development of New Zealand stamp production from 1875 to 1931, He died in 1932. Continue reading →

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The Master Mariner in-laws: Captains Goldsmith, Day and Axup

Posted on January 30, 2013

This gallery contains 31 photos.

Photographer Thomas J. Nevin’s father-in-law was Captain James Day (1804-1882), father of his wife Elizabeth Rachel Day and her younger sister Mary Sophia Day (m. Axup). Thomas Nevin’s wife Elizabeth Rachel Day was named after Captain James Day’s sister, Elizabeth Day, who had married master mariner Captain Edward Goldsmith in 1829 at St George, Liverpool, England. Continue reading →

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At the Henry Jones & Co. IXL Factory

Posted on January 26, 2013
ixlgirls1946

This gallery contains 1 photo.

Generations of the Nevin family worked at the Henry Jones & co. IXL factory during the lean years of the 1890s, 1920s and 1940s. Continue reading →

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Convict James Morgan alias Morgan the Poet who sings in pubs

Posted on January 24, 2013
Morgan, James at QVMAG

This gallery contains 16 photos.

“.. 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. Continue reading →

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John Nevin snr Service Record in the First or Royal Regiment 1825-1841

Posted on January 2, 2013
WO97-0233-086-009-NEVIN_JOHN

This gallery contains 30 photos.

John Nevin, father of Tasmanian photographer Thomas J. Nevin, was born in 1808 at Grey Abbey, County Down, a small town east of Belfast on the coast of Ireland. At that period the region was the centre of Irish cotton … Continue reading →

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