Obituary: John Nevin (1808–1887)
There passed away very quietly on Sunday, 9th inst., at the good old age of 79, Mr. John Nevin, who for the last 30 years has lived in the secluded shades of Kangaroo Valley, adjoining Lady Franklin’s old Museum. He lived a retired life on his pension and in working his plot of garden ground at the Wesleyan Chapel, enjoying the respect of all in the neighbourhood as a consistent Christian. His latter days were spent in quietness among his family, and he leaves a widow (a second wife) and two sons and several grandchildren in Hobart. Only a fortnight ago two friends of his, who were boys in the Royals, and had known him in Canada 50 years ago, paid him a visit, and a pleasant time was spent with him in recounting feats of valour long since almost forgotten. He was then enjoying good health, but last Wednesday, while working in his garden, he felt tired, and rested awhile on the damp ground, which caused a chill. He took to his bed, and, after three days sickness, quietly joined the majority. In his day he was a wielder of the pen as well as of the sword, and was some 50 years ago a contributor to the infant Press in London, Canada West, when the present city of that name was a struggling town of rough and rude buildings and log huts. As a soldier of the Royal Scots he served under his colonel, Sir G. A. Wetherall, and the present Sir Daniel Lyons was his ensign; and did his duty in very stirring times in the Canadian Rebellion of 1837-38. He was engaged in the storming and capture of St. Charles and St. Eustache and in engagements of St. Dennis, St. Benoit, and many other operations on the Richelieu River and adjacent country of Chambly, and at Terra-Bone he assisted in the capture of a large number of French prisoners during a severe winter campaign, often struggling with his comrades to the waist in snow in following his officers in the work of quelling the rebellion of Papineau. John Nevin’s proudest boast was that he had been a soldier of the Royals.
Original publication
Mercury (Hobart) 11 October 1887 p 2
(view original) https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article9138680
John Nevin’s Service Records (1825-1841)
At the Canadian Rebellion 1837-39
As a Chelsea Pensioner 1841
John Nevin in Tasmania (1852-1887)
Read about John Nevin …
- Obituary – John Nevin – Obituaries Australia (external link)
- “HOPE”: John Nevin’s poem on slavery 1863 and the U.S. Proclamation of Emancipation
- Lost originals: the Nevin, Genge and Chandler family photographs
- John Nevin senior’s land grant 1859 at Port Cygnet
- John Nevin and family 1851-1854: shipping documents
- John Nevin’s poem on the death of James William Chrisholm 1863
- John Nevin snr in the Royal Scots First Regiment of Foot
- John Nevin snr and the Genge family
- John Nevin in the Royal Scots at the Canadian Rebellion 1837-38
- John Nevin: My Cottage in the Wilderness 1868
- John Nevin and Gould’s white goshawk
- Wedding gift: Treaty of Paris medallion 1856
- The Nevin farm burglariously entered 1881
- Lines on the much lamented death of Rebecca Jane Nevin 1866
- John Nevin’s Wesleyan lament on the death of William Genge
Poetry by John Nevin 1860s-1880s
Poem on the death of James William Chisholm 1863
WRITTEN on the much-lamented death of the late JAMES WILLIAM CHISHOLM,
of Hobart Town, a native of Edinburgh, aged 61 years.His toils are past, his warfare o’er,
No suffering anguish heaves his breast;
Far from his own lov’d native shore
Has found a place of lasting rest.
In yonder Church-yard’s cheerless gloom.
We’ve laid him in his narrow bed,
While tear drops fell around his tomb,
In memory of the sacred dead.JAMES WILLIAM CHISHOLM honor’d name,
By all rever’d, who knew him best:
Masonic Brethren may proclaim,
Their filial grief with aching breast,
His vacant, seat, ah! Who shall fill
So wisely as our friend hath done.
Your welfare was his object still,
Until his earthly race was run.Full thirty years, with ardent zeal,
He mix’d amongst the Brotherhood,
And aim’d at every brother’s weal ,-
Still nobly for your cause he stood.
His birth-place was old Scotia’s shore,
That land he ever lov’d so well;
But when he join’d the Royal Corps.
To that dear land he bade farewell.A faithful partner left her home,
Alike from friends and kindred dear,
To cross the Ocean’s billowy foam,
To far Canadian forest drear,
And there his joys and griefs to share;
And oft to lift his aching head,
To pour the balm of comfort there,
When none but strangers round his bed.His manly soul would still disdain,
To shrink from contending foe;
As oft we cross’d the slippery plain,
Or sinking to the waist in snow.*
With noble fortitude he bore
Each keen distress with Christian mind;
But, in affliction would implore
Strength from on high to be resigned.He saw one flow’ret droop and fade,
By the St. Lawrence’s mighty tide;
‘Tis there his own dear babe is laid,
‘Twas there his little Janet died.
Again he cross’d the Atlantic’s wave,
To sultry Indies’ feverish soil.
Where the emancipated slave
Beneath the lash no longer toil.Where Orange blossoms scent the air,
And wafts sweet odours all around,
And flowers of deepest hues are there,
And birds of gayest plumage found.
Back to Canadian streams and lakes,
From sunny skies to snowy dells;
Once more the dreary voyage makes.
To hear again the tinkling bells.But not to where his fathers sleep –
He never saw that spot again;
He thought of other lands the while,
To rest in his declining years.
And sought thy shores, fair Tasman’s isle,
Now witness of his widow’s tears.Two daughters weep in weeds of woes,
Three sons now mourn a parent gone,
And friends a tear of grief bestow,
To honor the departed one;
And while we mourn our friend’s decease,
The generous, noble, and the kind,
He died, as he had lived, in peace,
We trust with God and all mankind.J. NEVIN
Kangaroo Valley
*He served as Armorer in the Royal Regiment, with the Author, in the Canadian Rebellion of 1839, it was a very severe winter.
Download the rest of this poem here from TROVE NLA:
https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article233621241
Weekly Times (Hobart Town, Tas. : 1863), Saturday 29 August 1863, page 6
John Nevin’s poem on slavery 1863 and the U.S. Proclamation of Emancipation
HOPE
Hope, bright ray of heavenly birth,
To toiling mortals given,
To cheer the fainting sons of Earth,
And upwards point to heaven :
It soothes, it checks the rising sigh ;
No creature shares beside,
To man alone the boon is nigh ;
To friends is still denied.Go ask the fettered galley-slave,
What cheers his manly mind.
To tug and toil through wind and wave,
Yet seems to be resign’d :
He’ll tell thee there is still a ray
Of sacred hope, impress’d
(As on he drags from day to day)
Within that aching breast.Ask him who ploughs the treacherous main,
When wave on wave is hurl’d,
And nought but fearful terrors reign
Upon the watery world;
What nerves his arm amid the gale,
Tho’ death his in the blast;
He’ll tell thee, he yet hopes to hail
His native home at last.But what must cheer the Infidel ?
Oh ! where is then his hope ?
Go ask him, but he cannot tell,
What bears his spirits up.
When the pale horse to him appears,
With ghastly rider on ;
To him the awful summons bears,
His earthly race is run.Then ask the christian where is his ;
He’ll point thee to the skies ;
He looks by faith to future bliss,
To which he hopes to rise.
Hope brightens as he nears the tomb,
It whispers soft and sweet;
He looks and longs to be at home,
Where parted friends he’ll meet.J. NEVIN.
Kangaroo Valley.
Source: John Nevin, Original Poetry
HOPE. (1863, September 12). The Weekly Times (Hobart Town, Tas. : 1863), p. 3.
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article233621295
John Nevin’s poems original format 1860s-1880s
Tasmanian photographer | Thomas J. Nevin (1842-1923) 
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