Update: August 2009
Another poem written by John Nevin in 1868, titled “My Cottage in the Wilderness”, is held at the Mitchell Library, SLNSW, in the David Scott Mitchell Collection. See this article: John Nevin’s “My Cottage in the Wilderness” 1868.
John Nevin, Wesleyan, father of Thomas, Mary Anne, Rebecca Jane and Jack Nevin …
John Nevin from the scrapbook of George Nevin
Photo by Thomas Nevin ca 1874
© The Private Collection of Denis Shelverton 2006 -2007 ARR.
Thomas Nevin took this photo of his father John Nevin (1808 Ireland -1887 Hobart) in the studio at 140 Elizabeth Street, Hobart Town, ca. 1874. He must have decided it appropriate to capture his father in the pose of writing.
John Nevin was indeed a writer, and a Wesleyan. He penned the “Lines written on the sudden and much lamented death of Mr William Genge who died at the Wesleyan Chapel, Melville-street, Hobart on the morning of 17th January 1881, in the 73rd year of his age” as a ten stanza lament:
Copy courtesy of the State Library of Tasmania 2006
Click on image for readable version
John Nevin’s occupation upon migration from Ireland in 1852 was with the Imperial Forces, since he worked for the British as a warden of convicts on board the convict transport Fairlie to pay for his family’s passage. In addition to the 292 male convicts on board were 32 exiled boys from the Parkhurst prison on the Isle of Wight. His job may have included religious pastoral care. All three of his own children were under the age of 12 years. Thomas was ten years old when he arrived in Hobart. Soon after settling at Kangaroo Valley, John Nevin became the keeper and school master on the property owned by the Trustees of the Wesleyan Chapel (1 acre), and established a farm and orchard in a garden (1 acre) on an adjoining property owned by Mary Nairn:
John Nevin, occupier of the Wesleyan Chapel, school house, dwelling, and garden
Source: Hobart Town Gazette, November 26, 1872.
John Nevin’s first wife Mary, mother of Thomas, Mary Anne, Rebecca Jane and William John (Jack), died in Hobart in 1875.
The Electoral Rolls for the district of Glenorchy, Tasmania 1875-1879 show John Nevin occupying the School House and dwelling at Kangaroo Valley, so he must have been the district teacher, a background detail which explains the numerous stereographs of the school house at New Town taken by Thomas Nevin, held at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, e.g. :
Q16826.1.2 ITEM
NAME: photograph:
MEDIUM: albumen silver print sepia toned stereoscope,
MAKER: T Nevin ? [Artist];
TITLE: ‘SchoolHouseKangarooValley’
DATE: 1860s
DESCRIPTION : This photo depicts three adults and four children at Kangaroo Valley (LenahValley)
INSCRIPTIONS & MARKS: A Pedder
occupancy of the School House and dwelling at Kangaroo Valley
The Tasmanian Pioneer Index lists a second marriage for the father, John Nevin. At the age of 71 yrs old, he married Martha Salter, aged 46 yrs, in Hobart, on the 23rd October, 1879
(Source: Tasmanian Pioneer Index: 711/1879/RGD:37)
The Nevin family were key members of the Wesleyan Chapel congregation of Kangaroo Valley near Hobart. Thomas Nevin married Elizabeth Rachel Day there in 1871, and her sister Mary Sophia Day married Hector Axup there in 1878. They also had strong affiliations with the Wesleyan Chapel at Melville Street, Hobart, where William Genge was a lay preacher. John Nevin’s second wife, Martha Salter, was the daughter of William Genge. The discrepancy between their ages at the time of their marriage in 1879 – John Nevin was 71, Martha Salter was 46 – may indicate an in loco parentis gesture on his part towards Martha, and her children by her first marriage to a Mr Salter, if indeed there were any (no information yet available). Martha died in Hobart in 1925, born Martha Genge, 1833, Somerset, England. She married John Nevin in 1879 with the name Martha Salter. Her gravestone at Cornelian Bay (Southern Regional Cemetery Trust) reads: Martha Nevin, daughter of William and Mary Genge.
This photograph (below) is of Martha’s parents, Wesleyan preacher William Genge (1808-1881), the subject of John Nevin’s lament, taken with wife Mary Slade (d. 1891) in Hobart. It possibly dates to the late 1870s, and is unattributed. Genealogical information on the Genge family and photo is provided by Louise Genge (November 2007).
William Genge and Mary Genge nee Slade late 1870s
Hobart, Tasmania. Unattributed.
Photo courtesy of the Genge family
Southern Regional Cemetery Trust burial record for John Nevin (1808-1887)
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