Prisoner Henry SINGLETON aka Harry the Tinker who pinches books

Who was Henry Singleton aka Richard Pinches aka Harry the Tinker aka Henry Salterton, really? And who was his companion Elizabeth Wilder aka Mrs Poole or Singleton aka Elizabeth Singleton - his mistress, his wife or his daughter? And how old was he when Thomas Nevin photographed him twice in the 1870s?

The Photographs
According to the Tasmanian police gazette of 23 March, 1871, Henry Singleton absconded from the prison at Port Arthur, 23 March 1871, with two transport ships to his two names - as Henry Singleton per Lord Wm Bentinck, and as his alias Richard Pinches, per Lady Kennaway 2, also known with the moniker Harry the Tinker.

Thomas Nevin photographed this prisoner at least twice, in 1873 and again in 1875 producing a different image for each separate sitting. The questions posed by these two photographs centre on this man's age and name at the time of transportation, his name and age when photographed in the 1870s, and his and his female companion's literary tastes which warranted lengthy documentation when the police arrested him in a cave in May 1873 at Oatlands, Tasmania.



On Left: the NLA Catalogue notes (incorrect information
nla.pic-vn4270249 PIC P1029/42 LOC Album 935 Henry Singleton, alias Richard Pincers, per Ld. [Lord] Wm. [William] Bentinck, taken at Port Arthur, 1874 [picture] 1874. 1 photograph on carte-de-visite mount : albumen ; 9.4 x 5.6 cm., on mount 10.4 x 6.4 cm. Gunson Collection file 203/​7/​54.
Title from inscription on reverse.
Inscription: "319"--On reverse

On the left, a copy or duplicate from  Nevin's negative and cdv of a prisoner, held at the National Library of Australia, called Henry Singleton, alias Richard Pincers, per Ld. [Lord] Wm. [William] Bentinck, with verso transcriptions almost identical to the information on the verso of the different photograph on the right of the same man. On the right, another photograph of Henry Singleton, one of several of him held at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston, with the same information about the same ship and the same name, which might be a phonetic spelling of the name "Pinches" , i.e. "Pincers" with the added date of "1838" and notes about additional photographs. This archivist recorded three copies extant at the time of the transcription: No's: 318, 319, & 320".  Photograph No. 319 was the NLA photograph, so the QVMAG photograph must be the last photograph, No. 320. Where is "318" and were there more photographs of this prisoner taken over the course of Singleton's long criminal career?

More important still is the question about the source of the information written on the versos of these photographs, since no transported convict by the name of Henry Singleton or Pincers appears on the arrival lists of the ship Lord William Bentinck, 1832 or 1838, the only two possible dates. If indeed this prisoner of the 1870s called Henry Singleton arrived in 1838, and the police in 1869 recorded his age as 35 yrs old, he would have been born in 1834, and only 4 yrs old when he arrived in VDL, not as a convict but as the child of a guard perhaps. The fact that the National Library's copy bears the same information as the copy at the QVMAG suggests strongly that the QVMAG was the source of the NLA's copy of this photograph (and many others), and that the written transcription on the versos was added from just the one 1871 police gazette notice by an archivist at the QVMAG back in the years of their accession of these records from Beattie ca. 1916 and Beattie's collection in 1930. .



 Verso of No. 155
No's: 318, 319, & 320".
QVMAG Ref: QM: 1985: P: 77.

The Archives Office of Tasmania holds a copy of the QVMAG photograph but recorded Singleton with the alias of "Pinches" and the ship on which he arrived as the Lady Kennaway 2, not the Ld. [Lord] Wm. [William] Bentinck. 


Caption: "Henry Singleton (alias Richard Pinches) convict, transported per Lady Kennaway. Photograph taken at Port Arthur by Thomas Nevin." 
Archives Office of Tasmania (TAHO):
Ref: PH30/1/3248.

There are no transportation records for a convict called Henry Singleton transported later than 1842.  Who was copying what from where? The NLA and the QVMAG both document Singleton aka Pincers arriving on the Lord Wm Bentinck (1838), and the source of that inscription is probably from the police gazette of 1871 (see below), but the AOT and the Police gazettes both document Singleton aka Richard Pinches arriving on the Lady Kennaway 2 (1851). That too is unlikely, since the man described as Richard Pinches on the  Lady Kennaway 2  transportation records does not describe the younger man in these two photographs.

It is likely that the prisoner in these two photographs was neither Henry Singleton per Lady Kennaway 2 nor his alias Richard Pinches per Lord William Bentinck. The prisoner in these photographs may be Robert Bew, per Mayda , 1846, off Norfolk Island, or indeed the only recorded Henry Singleton to arrive as a transported convict - Henry Singleton, per Surry 4, aged 18, arrived 1842. Robert Bew was photographed by Nevin on 19 July 1873 when discharged with a TOL but no extant photograph carries his name and he was arrested and convicted with the Henry Singleton documented with the Richard Pinches alias in March 1870 (see police record below).The original convict transportation records for the name Pinches compound the confusion today (see more below); the police at the time were doubly confused by Henry Singleton's youthful appearance.

Singleton's Police Records 1869-1883



Henry Singleton aka Harry the Tinker, Index, police gazette called Tasmania Reports of Crime Information for Police 1869. The following records are all sourced from these police gazettes which were published weekly.

1869



Warrant for Henry Singleton 19 November 1869 with alias of Harry the Tinker, for stealing flour. The following description accompanied the warrant.



Description of Henry Singleton, 19 November 1869 -" 35 years old, appears younger", 5 feet 6 inches, a tin-plate worker, hence the moniker "Tinker".  If 35 yrs old in 1869, his DOB would be ca. 1834 (1869-35=1834).



Henry Singleton was arrested three weeks later at Oatlands, 3 December 1869. Beneath this notice, a transgendered person was arrested the same week- William McCafferty, alias Annie Lowrie Scotty.



Tradesmen by inclination and intent, Henry Singleton and an accomplice called Robert Bew (or Berr) were committed for trial on 24 December 1869 for theft of carpenter's tools.

1870



Robert Bew per Mayda and Henry Singleton alias Richard Pinches per Ly Kennaway 2 were convicted in the Supreme Court Hobart on 4 March 1870, sentenced to four and five years respectively for the offence of breaking and entering within curtilage, i.e. within the boundary of a private property. They were sent to the Port Arthur prison where one year later, Henry Singleton absconded and headed towards Oatlands. This is the first mention in the police records of the ship and the alias, Richard Pinches per Lady Kennaway 2

1871



Henry Singleton absconded from Port Arthur, 23 March 1871, with two transport ships to his two names - as Henry Singleton per Lord Wm Bentinck, and as alias Richard Pinches, per Lady Kennaway 2, known with the moniker Harry the Tinker.

1873: The Library in the Cave



Henry Singleton was arrested 30 May 1873. The police discovered quite a cache in his hideout, a cave in Oatlands,including -



TRANSCRIPT
The following is a list of articles found in a cave in the Municipality of Oatlands, recently occupied by Henry Singleton, alias Harry the Tinker (vide Crime Report, 1871, page 41), and a woman named Elizabeth Wilder, recently arrested by the Oatlands Municipal Police: - 7 vols Sir Walter Scott's novels, paper covers; 1 vol. East Lynne; 1 small vice and other small tools (carpenter's), since identified by Mr John Page, of Lemon Springs; 1 book on Electricity; 1 ditto Philosophy of Common Things; 1 vol. Popular Educator; 1 Church Lesson Book, bound in green velvet, brass edges, "Ohio Brown" written in the cover; 1 single-barreled gun, a crack in the stock where screw fastens lock; 1 small telescope, red barrel; 1 tomahawk; 3 small hammers; several files; 1 rasp; 2 dark lanterns; 8 dies; 2 tin billies; a quantity of note paper and envelopes; a revolver case; 1 bullet mould; 1 nipple-screw; a quantity of bullets; 1 blow-pipe; a quantity of flour; 23 door and drawer keys on steel ring; 14 small keys on a string; 15 ditto; 30 skeleton keys and door keys, some of them broken; 1 frying-pan; 1 pack of cards; 1 black wide-a-wake hat; 1 new Scotch twill shirt; 1 old dark moleskin trousers; 1 pair woman's stays, new; sugar, tea, caraway seeds &. The above articles with the exception of those claimed by Mr Page, are at Police Office, Oatlands, awaiting identification.
Henry Singleton's impressive stash of loot was discovered in a cave at Oatlands after his arrest, reported on 6 June 1873. He was held at the Oatlands Gaol in the Men -on-Routes room until taken on Page's coach to the Hobart Gaol. He was photographed soon after arrival by Thomas J. Nevin, the photograph (above, left) now held at the National Library of Australia. He may have been sent to the Port Arthur prison again but his name IS NOT on the lists of those 109 men who were sent there from the Hobart Gaol, and then relocated back to the Hobart Gaol by July 1873 at the request of the Parliament.



Title: [Oatlands Gaol]
Publisher: [Tasmania : s.n., 18--?]
Description: 1 photographic print on card : sepia toned ; 197 x 340 mm
Format: Photograph
ADRI: AUTAS001131821738
Source: Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts




Men -on-Routes room
Title: Plan - Oatlands - Plan and elevation of intended alterations in the 'Men-on-Routes' room at the Oatlands New Gaol
Description: 1 photographic print
Format: Photograph
ADRI: CSO1-1-937
Source: Archives Office of Tasmania


1875



Henry Singleton was discharged with a ticket of leave from Hobart on 21 July 1875. The police continue to document his ship as the Ly Kennaway 2.



Henry Singleton's discharge was reported again on 23 July 1875. When he was discharged with a Ticket of Leave from Hobart per this notice of 23 Juy 1875, his name was listed twice: the Port Arthur information listed his sentence as 10 years, i.e. dating from his Supreme Court conviction of 1 March 1870, but omits any physical description; the second entry lists his sentence as 5yrs, giving a physical description, and his age - 60 yrs old. If he was 35 yrs old in in November 1869, by July 1875, he would have been about 41 yrs old, not 60 yrs old. The second photograph of Singleton, held at the QVMAG, was taken by Nevin at the Hobart Municipal Police Office in July 1875 on the TOL discharge.

1883



Henry Singleton was discharged 23 May 1883, sentenced to three months in February 1883 for larceny. Here his age is listed 68 yrs old in 1883, but if he was 35 yrs old in 1869, he would have been 49 yrs old, not 68 yrs old. Was he Singleton or was he Pinches? The age discrepancy points not to aliases, but two entirely different men. Little wonder the police commented that he looked young for his age!



Warrant for the arrest of Henry Singleton 5 September 1883



Warrant for Henry Singleton on suspicion of stealing 20 yards of Crimean shirting etc, 28 September 1883



Henry Singleton and a woman called Mrs Singleton or Poole, accused of stealing a green skirt etc, was also arrested on 26 October 1883.



Henry Singleton, alias Richard Pinches, still documented with the ship the Lady Kennaway 2, now aged 71 years - and now with a new alias - "Henry Salterton" - was arraigned in the Supreme Court Launceston on 7 November 1883 with a 14 year sentence, along with Elizabeth Singleton, aged 27, a native or local, who was arrested on a count of burglary and disposed of with a Proclamation. But if he was 35 yrs old in 1869, and looked even younger to police in that year (!), by November 1883, he would have been 49 yrs old, not 71 yrs old.  Or, if he was the prisoner transported to Norfolk Island in 1851 as Pinches on the Lady Kellaway 2, aged 32 yrs, by 1883 he would be 64 yrs old, not 71 yrs old, (1851-32 = born ca.1819; 1883-1819=64). And if indeed he was transported at all, and in 1869 he was 35 yrs old, in 1851 he would have been born in 1834, transported as a child if transported at all. None of these recorded ages are consistent with the names associated, and none concord with the looks of the prisoner in Nevin's mugshots taken in the 1870s.

And so on ... more offences appear in the police gazettes for both names - Singleton and Pinches - throughout this decade.



On left, the NLA image (1873), flipped and color-corrected to compare with the QVMAG image (1875) on right. The prisoner on right looks a little older by 1875, but he does not look like a man who was supposedly born in 1819 and transported in 1851 to Norfolk Island, aged 32 yrs. He was described by the police gazettes as "35 years old, appears younger" in 1869, so in 1873, per police records, he would have been 39 yrs old, and by 1875, he would have been 41 yrs old. These look like correct ages for the man photographed, so why was he associated with the following transportation records?

TRANSPORTATION RECORDS
Too old: a man named Richard Pinches from Birmingham (UK), a glazier and plumber, was tried at the Oxford Q.S. in 1844. He was 32 years old when he arrived on Norfolk Island on 4th July 1851, so by 1873 this man would have been 54 yrs old. He was then sent to Hobart (Port Arthur) as a convict on board the Lady Kennaway 2,on 29 September 1852 per these records:

Richard Pinches per Lady Kennaway 2, 1851



TAHO Ref: CON14-1-42_00322_L;  CON14-1-42_00322_L



TAHO Ref: CON33-1-102_00185_L
Convict Details
Pinches, Richard
Convict No: 56424
Extra Identifier:
SEE Surname:
SEE Given Names:
Voyage Ship: Lady Kennaway (2)
Voyage No: 337
Arrival Date: 28 May 1851
Departure Date: 05 Feb 1851
Departure Port: Portsmouth
Conduct Record: CON33/1/102, CON37/1/ p5138
Muster Roll:
Appropriation List:
Other Records:
Indent: CON14/1/42
Description List: CON18/1/52
Remarks: Reconvicted as Henry Singleton

Robert Bew per Mayda, 1842



TAHO Ref: CON33-1-79_00018_L

Robert Bew per Mayda and Henry Singleton alias Richard Pinches per Ly Kennaway 2 were convicted in the Supreme Court Hobart on 4 March 1870, sentenced to four and five years respectively for the offence of breaking and entering within curtilage, i.e. within the boundary of a private property.

Henry Singleton per Surrey 4, 1842



TAHO Ref: CON33-1-27_00216_L

This prisoner called Henry Singleton was 18yrs old, literate and 5 ft 6 ins tall when he arrrived at Hobart, VDL in 1842 on board the Surrey 4, but was this prisoner a different man with the same name, or the same man whose alias was Richard Pinches? This man would have been 50 yrs old in 1874,

Henry Pinches per Candahar, 1842



MISSING FRIENDS
Information is requested respecting Henry Pinches, per ship Candahar, whether living or dead; if the latter, the date and place of death. Communicate with this Office.
Illiterate, too short and too old: someone was looking for a man by the name of Henry Pinches, per this missing friends notice published in the police gazette of 19 September 1879.  Henry Pinches, aged 25 years old, was illiterate and under five feet tall when he was transported on the Candahar in 1842, per this record which shows he was discharged from the Police Office Hobart Town Hall in August 1874 where he would have been photographed on discharge by Thomas Nevin, so where is his photograph? If he was born ca. 1817 (1842-1825=1817) he would have been 57 yrs old by 1874.



TAHO Ref: CON33-1-23_00168_L

Why the Infamy?
The Tasmanian tourist destination, the Port Arthur Historic Site (PAHS) (accessed April 2014) on the Tasman Peninsula, makes a great deal of this prisoner for visitors, casting him as a bad character -
... constantly in trouble for refusing to work, being dirty and disobedient, talking and having money improperly in his possession, insubordination and using threatening language. He received many short sentences of hard labour or solitary confinement. Sent to Port Arthur in 1853, he continued to refuse to work, and to be disobedient and insolent, and received more spells in solitary for his pains.



Webshot on Singleton file

The PAHS insisted (up to April 2014)  he be called Richard Pinches and not Henry Singleton, despite all the police records over decades stating clearly that the name Richard Pinches, per Ly Kennaway 2, was an alias, and despite these transportation records for Richard Pinches showing no correlation to the youngish prisoner called Henry Singleton whom Nevin photographed in the 1870s.

This is the information greeting visitors to their website up to April 2014 until their update and after viewing our post here with a thousand clicks:

PAHS publication: People of Port Arthur

Richard Pinches a.k.a Henry Singleton was a 27 year old plumber and glazier when he was transported. He was a single Roman Catholic from Birmingham who could read and write.
Pinches had made a habit out of minor crime; he had four previous convictions for stealing and housebreaking and had served short sentences. Finally the court decided that it had seen enough of him, and he was transported for 14 years for stealing linen. He arrived in mid 1851.
He was first sent to Norfolk Island and in a year he served nine and a half months hard labour in chains for being disobedient, dirty, disorderly and having money improperly in his possession.
Transferred to Port Arthur in early 1853, Pinches continued his campaign of disobedience, earning himself more time in solitary and hard labour in chains. In May 1854 he gained a pass but it seemed that he still had not developed a taste for work; three months later he absconded from his master. He was caught after some weeks and returned to Port Arthur for 18 months hard labour. This was not to his liking and two months later he bolted; he was recaptured and after serving 12 months he was again assigned to a master.
This time Pinches completed his sentence without incident. His next appearance was in Oatlands Goal under a new name, Henry Singleton, but he was still up to his old tricks. He was sentenced to four years at Port Arthur for stealing five pigs. There he got another three months hard labour for being drunk. In early 1864 Richard gained his freedom but only seven months later he was back in goal in Hobart, charged with bigamy. Marriage records cannot even verify that he was married once.
He was acquitted, so the charge against him may have been fabricated.
RICHARD PINCHES 10 15
He kept out of trouble until 1870, when he was returned to Port Arthur for five years for breaking and entering an outbuilding and stealing. He must have misbehaved at Port Arthur because four years later he was in the Separate Prison, although his offence was not recorded. Then he received another three years with hard labour, including a year in the Separate Prison, for attempting to escape.
In July 1875 and again in 1879 he was in the Prisoners’ Barracks, but we do not know why. 1883 was a bad year for Richard. He was arrested twice, once in February when he was sentenced to three months hard labour for larceny and then in November he received 14 years for burglary. We have no further records for Richard.
He was then 65 years old and had spent almost half his life in the convict system.
Note the vernacular phrasing and attitudinal markers, the intimate use of the prisoner's first name "Richard", and the closing down of the topic by affirming there are no further records for the prisoner because "we" don't have any.  The information used by the Port Arthur site was most likely sourced from Thomas Keneally's book, Australians from Eureka to the Diggers (2011, Allen & Unwin), page 2, (or vice versa) though no sources are cited.



This is the PAHS update (accessed 6 October 2014) which denies ever having insisted on the name Pinches instead of Singleton:



But the PAHS still insists on captioning the QVMAG copy of Nevin's photograph of Singleton with the A. H. Boyd misattribution on their fact sheet. Attributed by whom? Again, no source, no concession to the simple fact that not one photograph of a prisoner or landscape or anything else purported to be taken by the Commandant A. H. Boyd has ever existed except in the febrile minds of vested interests at the Port Arthur historic Site:



[sic] "Henry Singleton circa 1873-4, photograph attributed to Boyd
Reproduced courtesy of Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery"

Relatively speaking, compared with the murderers, child rapists, and the thousands of blood-thirsty felons who populated the prisons of Tasmania in Singleton's time, he was neither especially dangerous to people's physical safety, nor ignorant or malicious. The loot found in his cave hideout at Oatlands in 1873 gives a very clear idea of what aspirations he held, despite his circumstances. He was a tradesmen who stole tools in the hope of building himself and his female companion Elizabeth a house; he was literate with educated tastes who stole novels to read for their amusement, and religious volumes for their enlightenment, and above all, he cared and shared all this with a young woman called Elizabeth, probably his daughter, whom police disposed of with a Proclamation in 1883 rather than imprison. Why the infamy?



One of the books found in Henry Singleton's possession ...

Mrs. Henry Wood, 1814-1887
East Lynne, or, The Earl's Daughter.
Richmond: West & Johnston, 1864.



Print by Alfred Winter
Title: Photograph - View of the township of Oatlands, shown in picture are the sails on Callington Mill
Description: 1 photographic print
Format: Photograph
ADRI: PH30-1-2969
Source: Archives Office of Tasmania

Carnal knowledge of children: convictions 1860s-1880s



Jurors' entrance, Penitentiary Chapel Historic Site Campbell St Hobart
Photo copyright © KLW NFC 2011

Photographer Thomas J. Nevin was exposed to the most pitiful of criminals if not to their actual crimes when he captured their portraits for police records in Tasmania from the 1870s to the 1880s. Sexual crimes against children were prosecuted without much consistency as to the punishment or length of sentence, despite clear legislation guidelines.

The Legislation
ANNO VICESIMO-SEPTIMO 1863.
VICTORIAE REGINIAE,
No. 5.
AN ACT to consolidate and amend the Legislative
Enactments relating to Offences against the
Person. [31 July, 1863.J

WHEREAS it is expedient to consolidate and amend the Legislative PREAMBLE.
Enactments relating to Offences against the Person: Be it enacted .
by His Excellency the Governor of Tasmania, by and with the advice
and consent of the Legislative Council and House of Assembly, in Par·
liament assembled, as follows :-



Rape, Abduction, and Defilement of Women.

45 Whosoever shall be convicted of the crime of Rape shall be
guilty of Felony, and being convicted thereof shall suffer Death as a
Felon.

46 Whosoever shall, by false pretences, false representations, or
other fraudulent means, procure any woman or girl under the age of
Twenty-one years to have illicit carnal connexion with any man shall
be guilty of a Misdemeanor, and being convicted thereof shall be liable
to be imprisoned for Ten years.

47 Whosoever shall unlawfully and carnally know and abuse any
girl under the age of Ten years shall be guilty of Felony, and being
convicted thereof shall suffer Death as a Felon.

48 Whosoever shall unlawfully and carnally know and abuse any
girl being above the age of Ten years and under the age of Twelve years
shall be guilty of a Misdemeanor, and being convicted thereof shall be
liable to be imprisoned for Seven years.

49 Whosoever shall be convicted of any assault with intent to
commit Rape, or of carnally knowing and abusing any girl being above the
age of Ten years and under the age of Twelve years, or of any attempt
to have carnal knowledge of a girl under Twelve years of age, or of any
attempt to commit Rape, shall be liable to be imprisoned for Ten
years.

50 Whosoever shall be convicted of any indecent assault upon any
female shall be liable to be imprisoned for Seven years.

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

William Clemo aka "Clocky"
This 48 yr old ex convict, William Clemo was sentenced to 7 years at the Hobart Supreme Court in the July sittings of 1868. He was discharged as William Cleme (typo)  in the week ending 10th February, 1875, when government contractor T. J. Nevin photographed him in prison. Notice of the crime was published in the Hobart Mercury of 9 July, 1868, under the legally correct but socially abhorrent title -  "MISDEMEANOUR",



TRANSCRIPT
MISDEMEANOUR
William Clemo, a middle-aged man, was placed at the bar, charged with committing an assault on a little girl named Emily Mary Easton, she being at the time above ten and under twelve years of age.
His Honor having summed up the jury retired, and after a short deliberation returned a verdict of guilty.
His Honor then sentenced the man to seven years' imprisonment.
Source: LAW INTELLIGENCE. (1868, July 9). The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), p. 3. 
Link: https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8853260



Webshot 2005:Archives Office of Tasmania
William Clemo per Equestrian 3, photo by Thomas Nevin

POLICE RECORDS for Wm Clemo
These records of Clemo's Supreme Court convictions are from the weekly police gazettes, Tasmania Reports of Crime, Information for Police, 1865-1885, James Barnard, Gov't Printer.

William Clemo, transported to Tasmania on the ship Equestrian 3, was sentenced to 7 yrs for "carnally assaulting a child under 12 years".



William Clemo per Equestrian 3, carnally assaulting a child under 12 years, sentenced to seven years, Suprme Court criminal sittings, July 1868.



William Clemo was discharged and photographed by Thomas J. Nevin in the week of 10 February 1875 at the Hobart Gaol. This photograph was prepared from a negative, printed as a carte-de-visite mounted in an oval frame and pasted to Clemo's criminal record sheet. However, police records for the decade 1875-1885 show no further offences committed by William Clemo, although that may simply mean he was not caught. The number "103" on the recto is an archivist's number made during copying of the original held at the QVMAG in Launceston for inclusion in the Archives Office of Tasmania's collection housed in Hobart.



Prisoner William Clemo, photographed by T. Nevin, 10 February, 1875 at the Hobart Gaol.
Source of image: QVMAG Ref:PH_PH30-3s_30-3229c

TRANSPORTATION RECORDS (TAHO)
Clemo, William
Convict No: 12923
Voyage Ship: Equestrian (3)
Voyage No: 357
Arrival Date: 16 Dec 1852
Departure Date: 01 Sep 1852
Departure Port: Plymouth
Conduct Record: CON33/1/111,  CON94/1/1  p43
Muster Roll:
Appropriation List:
Other Records:
Indent : CON14/1/46
Description List: CON18/1/58



William Clemo was killed by a falling tree at Gladstone in 1882. An inquest was held on 9th February, and reported in the police gazette on 17 February 1882. A clockmaker by trade, hence the moniker "Clocky", Clemo was sentenced to 10yrs in 1849 and transported in 1852 for stealing a silver snuff box etc.



TRANSCRIPT
INQUESTS
An Inquest was held at Gladstone, on the 9th ultimo, upon the body of William Climo [sic], alias Clocky, 58 years of age, ship to Colony unknown. Verdict: = "Accidently killed by part of a tree falling upon him."

Capital Punishment
These two men, Henry Page (left) and Charles Downes (right) were convicted of rape of a child in separate crimes, and sentenced initially to death. When their sentences were reprieved in 1875, public outrage ensued regarding inconsistencies in sentences.



Left: Henry Page, per Phoenix 2,
Inscription: title and "297"--In ink on reverse.
Photographed by T. Nevin, 3 December 1873, Hobart Supreme Court



Capital Offence: Henry Page sentenced to death (reprieved - see letter to Editor below)
Mercury, 3 December 1873

TRANSCRIPT
LAW INTELLIGENCE.
SUPREME COURT.
CRIMINAL SESSIONS.
The Criminal Sittings of Oyer and Terminer were commenced yesterday in Hobart Town.
FIRST COURT. Before Mr. Justice Dobson.
A capital offence.
Henry Page, a baldheaded old man, about 70 years of age, was charged with a capital offence on a little girl named Fannie Bransfield, under 10 years old, at East Bay Neck.
-The Attorney-General prosecuted ; and Mr. J. W. Graves defended the prisoner.
The little girl (who gave her evidence in a very straightforward manner) detailed the particulars of her seduction, which occurred while she was out in the bush with the prisoner sorting wool. She also spoke to frequent acts subsequently, but in reply to Mr. Graves, admitted that she had not said anything to her mother about the assault for two Sundays after she was taken home.
Dr. Blyth, of Sorell, gave evidence of his examination of the little girl, strongly supporting the theory of the prosecution.
The child's mother, Anne Bransfield, said the girl made complaints to her on the third day after she was brought home. She further stated that when, a short time before last Christmas, she visited the child, the prisoner interfered, and prevented the child from seeing her on her way home.
Mr. Graves, for the defence, called a witness, who had known the prisoner for 20 years. He said he had never heard anything against his reputation during the whole of that period, until his arrest on the present charge.
His Honor carefully summed op the evidence, and the jury, at a few minutes past one, retired to consult their verdict.
The jury's verdict and the prisoner's response:
THE RAPE CASE -SENTENCE OF DEATH RECORDED.
The jury empanelled to try the charge against Henry Page, then brought in their verdict.
The Clerk of Arraigns asked if they were all agreed upon their verdict ?
The Foreman : We are.
The Clerk of Arraigns : How say you, do you find the prisoner guilty or not guilty.
The Foreman : Guilty, with a strong recommendation to mercy.
His Honor : I will take care that your recommendation is forwarded to the proper quarter. But it would be as well, perhaps, that you should state the ground of your recommendation.
The Foreman : On the ground of age and previous good character.
The Clerk of Arraigns (To the Prisoner) : Have you anything to say why judgment of death should not be recorded against you according to law ?
The Prisoner (who appeared not to understand his terrible position) replied after a pause : Bless my soul ! I did nothing to deserve death, nor anything else. I am as innocent as anybody can be of what she says. Prisoner then spoke most disrespectfully of the prosecuting witness, and added, I deserve no punishment.
His Honor said the prisoner had been found guilty, the victim being a child living under prisoner's roof, and who ought to have received his protection.
The prisoner (interrupting) : No one ever protected her more than I have done in every shape and way ; and I can stand here before this Court and my God, and say my conscience is clear of what she says of me. I have kept myself as respectable as anyone in the island in my circumstances could do, for the last 30 years ; and I have done nothing to deserve death or any other punishment. God knows I have not.
His Honor said the jury had found him guilty on evidence which he was sure could not fail to satisfy most reasonable minds. Not only did the evidence prove the fact that he committed a gross outrage on this girl, but that moreover he had subjected her to habitual ill-treatment.
The Prisoner : It's false, Sir, every word of it.
His Honor said the jury had found him guilty, with a recommendation to mercy. A few years ago this offence would have had but one result, and though it still remained a capital offence, he felt in some degree justified, after the jury's recommendation, and bearing in mind the merciful clemency of the executive in the present day, not to pass upon him the extreme sentence. However it would be in the power of the Executive, if they think fit, to have the capital punishment carried out. The sentence of the Court was that the sentence of death be recorded against the prisoner, and it would be for the Executive to say what period of punishment he would have to undergo.
The prisoner was then removed.
Source: LAW INTELLIGENCE. (1873, December 3). The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), p. 2. Retrieved April 19, 2014, from https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8914823

Right: Charles Dawnes, per Rodney 2,
Inscription: "286"--On reverse.
Photographed by Nevin, Thomas J.



NLA Catalogue 2005 with correct attribution to Thomas J. Nevin.



The Mercury 15 February 1872
Charles Downes was found guilty on a charge of feloniously assaulting Dorothy Smith, aged 9 years, in Stacey's revolving circus in the Queen's Domain, and remanded for sentence.
Public outrage at capital punishment, sparked by the execution of Job Smith whom Nevin had photographed under the alias of William Campbell (NLA and TMAG Collections), referred to the reprieve granted to Charles Downes, as well as Marsh and Henry Page, in letters to The Mercury, May 29th 1875. This letter expressed disbelief in the inconsistencies of the sentences:



Capital Punishment: Marsh, Page and Downes reprieved,
Job Smith executed.
The Mercury 29 May 1875

TRANSCRIPT
TO THE EDITOR OF THE MERCURY
Sir,-Since the Executive have shut their ears to all appeals to spare the life of the condemned Job Smith, I cannot refrain from asking, upon what principles the death penalty has been, and is to be hereafter, inflicted, or commuted, in Tasmania. The man Marsh, who was tried on the same day as Smith, and found guilty of the same offence, has been reprieved-not for any extenuating circumstances in connection with his crime, but, apparently, because no great amount of violence was used by him, the fear of his victim having rendered it unnecessary. In December, 1873, Henry Page was tried and found guilty of rape upon a child under age, under circumstances the most horrible and revolting that ever came before a Tasmanian jury. This inhuman monster was sentenced to death, but was reprieved on account of his great age, and is now confined at Port Arthur. In February, 1872, Charles Downes was tried and found guilty of carnally knowing a child under ten years of age, under circumstances which amounted to nothing short of a violent rape. This man was also, after being sentenced to death, reprieved.

In the presence of these three reprievals, I look in vain for the principle upon which the Executive have decided to hang Job Smith. If in anyone, of the four cases now under notice, so far as they are to be compared with each other, there was any palliating circumstances, it was surely in the case of Smith. He had been removed by the strong arm of the law from all the opportunities left open to the other three of sinning at pleasure without rendering themselves liable to arrest for crime. It must also be confessed that had strict discipline been in force in regard to Smith, the offence for which he is about to suffer would not have been committed.
What then is the particularly dark feature in the case of Smith for which the Executive have determined that he shall die? Is it because he struck his victim on the arm with a piece of batten? Then it is not the rape for which they are punishing him. Or, are the Executive carrying out the extreme penalty of the law in the present instance because the Judge who tried the case thought fit to say, that if ever there was a case in which it was proper to do so, this was one? Then the Executive had better, for the future, resign their prerogative into the hands of the Chief Justice. But until they think fit to do so, it is to be demanded of them that they mete out to all persons who come under their jurisdiction an equal administration of the law; but how the reprieving of Downes, Page, and Marsh, and the hanging of Job Smith, can be proved to be that, I, for one, cannot see.
I am, yours truly,
EQUITY.
Source: CAPITAL PUNISHMENT. (1875, May 29). The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 - 1954), p. 3. Retrieved April 16, 2014, from https://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8937571

Charles Downes was granted a reprieve. He died in custody at the Hobart Gaol. The inquest into his death was published in The Mercury 13 August 1878.

And the rest ...
Thomas Nevin photographed a number of prisoners convicted of carnal knowledge of a child. This list is randomly generated from the search term "carnally" in the police gazettes from 1866 to 1885. Insert the word "rape" and the results proliferate, so this list is far from complete:

1866 Convictions
William Smith alias Lee Death
1868 Convictions
Patrick Cavanagh 7yrs
1869 Warrants
Thomas Smith alias Bentley
Thomas Fowler or Fynn
1871 Convictions
John Oakley 4 yrs (see below)
George Brown Death
1872 Convictions
Philip Aylward 2 yrs
1873 Convictions
James Bryant 10 days and 2 yrs Training School
Robert Innes 2 yrs
Edwin Adams 2yrs
1878 Warrants
Warrant John Rheuben
Warrant William Wilson
1881 Convictions
James Kirle 9yrs
1884 Emanuel Vera Remanded
1885 Convictions
John Coote 3yrs



Prisoner John Oakley per Mt. St. Elphinstone 1 was sentenced to 4 years for assault with intent to commit a rape of a child at the Supreme Court Hobart on 4th July 1871. He was discharged from Port Arthur on 11 June 1873, residue of sentence remitted. He was 48 yrs old, and a little over 5 feet in height.



Philip Aylward, photographed by T. J. Nevin on 18th February, 1874.

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PLEASE NOTE: Below each image held at the National Library of Australia is their catalogue batch edit which gives the false impression that all these "convict portraits" were taken solely because these men were transported convicts per se (i.e before cessation in 1853), and that they might have been photographed as a one-off amateur portfolio by a prison official at the Port Arthur prison in 1874, which they were not. Any reference to the Port Arthur prison official A. H. Boyd on the NLA catalogue records is an error, a PARASITIC ATTRIBUTION with no basis in fact. The men in these images were photographed in the 1870s-1880s because they were repeatedly sentenced as habitual offenders whose mugshots were taken on arrest, trial, arraignment, incarceration and/or discharge by government contractor, police and prisons photographer T. J. Nevin at the Supreme Court and adjoining Hobart Gaol with his brother Constable John Nevin, and at the Municipal Police Office, Hobart Town Hall when appearing at The Mayor's Court. The Nevin brothers produced over a thousand originals and duplicates of Tasmanian prisoners, the bulk now lost or destroyed. The three hundred extant mugshots were the random estrays salvaged - and reproduced in many instances- for sale at Beattie's local convictaria museum in Hobart and at interstate exhibitions associated with the fake convict ship Success in the early 1900s. The mugshots were selected on the basis of the prisoner's notoriety from the Supreme Court trial registers (Rough Calendar), the Habitual Criminals Registers (Gaol Photo Books), warrant forms, and police gazettes records of the 1870s-1880s. The earliest taken on government contract by T. J. Nevin date from 1872. The police records sourced here are from the weekly police gazettes which were called (until 1884) Tasmania Reports of Crime Information for Police 1871-1885. J. Barnard, Gov't Printer.