Archive for the “Convicts” Category

 To mark the bicentenary of the Rum Rebellion in 1808, which deposed Governor Bligh and placed him under arrest the State Library of New South Wales has an exhibition until 27th April 2008 and a conference next Friday 14th March.

The exhibition is called Politics and Power: Bligh’s Sydney Rebellion 1808 and presents the story of the rebellion through the original pictures, manuscripts and printed works of the time.

The conference “will take a fresh look at methods of control and acts of opposition to authority. Topics include protests at ‘female factories’ and penal stations; conflict between naval and military administration of the colonies; and acts of lawlessness. Speakers include Dr Peter Stanley, Prof Richard Waterhouse, Brad Manera, Dr Grace Karskens and Paul Brunton.”

The conference costs $105, $85 (concession), includes a walking tour reconstructing the Rebellion followed by drinks in the Hyde Park Barracks on Thursday 13 March and the all day conference on Friday 14 March. Thursday program only: $30 Friday program only: $90.

I’ve been reading a classic book on the transportation of convicts to Australia called Convicts and the Colonies by A.G.L. Shaw (Melbourne University Press, 1977), who was Professor of History at Monash University in Melbourne. I’d like to share some numbers with you.

Numbers of convicts transported

From May 1787 to March 1792 4077 males and 769 females were transported from England, an average total of about 1000 per year. The transportation process was interrupted during the Napoleonic Wars, as convict labour was needed in the dockyards and in the services. Only 5263 males and 1810 females sent between 1793 and 1810, an annual average of only 292 men and 100 women over 18 years.

From 1811 to 1815 tranportation steadily rose but only after the end of the Wars in 1815 did the crime rate increased and the transportation rate likewise was increased. From 1816 to 1825 the annual average was 2600 per year. In 1827 the new Home Secretary, Sir Robert Peel, reformed the penal laws and as a result the annual average rose to 4160 per year due to more police and changes in punishments for different crimes.

Sentences

The most popular transportation sentence was for 7 years, applying to over half of all those transported. “A quarter were sentenced for life, but the proportion of lifers alowly declined as time went on. Nearly all the remainder received fourteen years until 1840; after that ten-year sentences became fairly common.” (p. 149)

Before 1818 only a third of those sentenced or respited from a death sentence to transportation were actually put on a transport ship; the rest got no further than the hulks – old, unseaworthy ships acting as prisons. In the 1820s at least two-thirds were actually transported; about three-quarters declining to two-thirds in the 1830s; and back to three-quarters in the early 1840s. “Lifers” were usually sent, as were most prisoners in their twenties. In general the old and the sick were not, although there were exceptions.

Crimes

So many crimes carried a sentence of death or transportation in those days that once one crime was proven at trial there was no real need to prove any others. So although the convict may have been “known” to local authorities and suspected of a great many crimes, only one, perhaps the easiest to prove, was needed to send him or her away. A bad reputation could result in a harsher punishment. Estimates have been made by Shaw and others that show that approximately two-thirds of convicts had had previous convictions. Before 1840 most first-offenders were sent to New South Wales with the more hardened criminals being sent to Van Diemen’s Land.

Most transported convicts came from the cities – London and Middlesex, and the industrial towns in Lancashire. The most common crime by far was larceny. A disproportionate share of first offenders came from these large cities, as an attempt to discourage this type of crime. Many rural offenders were convicted of poaching – not from threat of starvation, but well-equipped organised poaching for profit. They were often guilty, or suspected, of violence or other types of crimes such as “making free with their neighbours’ property” (p. 158). Only about 300 convicted poachers were transported during the whole period of transportation. A third of transported convicts tried in rural counties were born elsewhere, indicating a high level of wandering.

Fewer than a thousand transported convicts from England were political prisoners, including trade unionists and rioting agricultural labourers.

Women

About one-sixth of transported convicts were women. Predominantly single, from the cities, especially London and in Lancashire, and on average three years older than the men. Two-thirds were found “guilty of larceny or stealing wearing apparel” (p. 164). It is difficult to know how many were actually prostitutes, although it must be remembered that contemporary attitudes branded almost any woman a prostitute who did not conform to the strict moral standards of the day.

The Scots

“Per head of population, the Scottish rate of transportation was less than a quarter that of England between 1810 and 1821, and only about two-fifths after 1830; as a result Scottish criminals were far less common in Australia than English or Irish…” (p. 165). 85 per cent were sentenced for theft of some kind, but were, in general, more serious offenders. The Scots were first sent to the hulks at Portsmouth or Woolwich, and from there were sent together with the English to Australia.

The Irish

The Irish convicts are given a whole chapter in Shaw’s book. I will only give a few details. Nearly 30,000 men and 9000 women were transported directly from Ireland, about a quarter of the total numbers. In general they were two years older than British convicts; more were married; less were juveniles; and far more were from the country rather than the cities. Far more were first offenders except for those from Dublin and Cork. Probably one-fifth were nationalists and social rebels fighting against English domination. In addition about 6000 had settled in England and been convicted of similar crimes to the native English offenders – namely larceny.

That’s enough for today. I highly recommend this book to you if you want to know more about the convict system in NSW.

This is the final part of my brief overview of the available convict records in NSW. It has been necessarily brief and simplified – a whole book could be written on this topic, and State Records already has done; see Sources below. I highly recommend this book if you are interested in NSW convict research.

Permission to Marry

Marriage was seen as an indulgence for convicts still serving their sentence, and permission had to be sought from the Governor if one or both parties were still serving their sentences. Marriage usually meant better living and working conditions for the convict. Permission was not always granted. If granted and the spouse was free, the convict may then be assigned to the spouse.

The record of the marriage itself can usually be found in parish and civil registers with the statement “married with permission of the Governor”. Records of requests for permission to marry and the granting or refusal of that permission are available in most cases in NSW. Indexes for the Colonial Secretary’s Correspondence are available on the State Records New South Wales website; and from 1826 to 1851 on a CD – Convicts Permissions to Marry 1826-1851, Lesley Uebel, published by the author, 2000, which is in some libraries and can be purchased here. The correspondence and registers themselves are available on microfilm to 1825 and at the State Records NSW Western Sydney Records Centre after 1825.

Families

Convicts could apply to have their families brought out at the expense of the government, and had to show that they could support their families. A minimum of a ticket of leave was required to be able to support a family, as a ticket of leave meant that the convict could work for themselves instead of someone else. There is no specific index for these records, but a general search for correspondence to the Colonial Secretary to 1825 on the State Records New South Wales website will turn up any relevant documents. Correspondence after 1825 has been indexed on microfiche by Joan Reese, Index to Convicts and Others Extracted from the Colonial Secretary’s In Letters at the Archives Office of New South Wales, W & F Pascoe, Balgowlah NSW, 1994-2001, which is available in the State Records Reading Rooms and some libraries.

A Register of Applications for Passages to the Colonies for Convicts’ Families 1848-1873 has been microfilmed as part of the Australian Joint Copying Project, where British records pertaining to Australia and New Zealand have been progressively microfilmed and distributed.

State Records NSW Wives and Families of Convicts on Bounty Ships 1849-1855 is available on microfiche and lists the families on the ships they arrived on.

Punishment

A convict who committed a crime in the Colony was punished, and there were many ways of doing this, from revoking a ticket of leave, to transportation to Norfolk Island or Van Dieman’s Land.

Records of the trial in front of a magistrate or Quarter Sessions court can give interesting information on the accused and accuser, and the nature of the offence. The Bench of Magistrates heard civil and lesser criminal charges, as well as issuing publicans licenses, appointing constables, etc. An index to the Bench of Magistrates cases 1788-1820 shows all cases heard and is being progressively updated. The actual records from the various benches around the state have been microfilmed and are available at State Records NSW.

Quarter Sessions cases (for more serious crimes) from 1824-1837 have been indexed and the index is available online at the State Records New South Wales website. indexes for Colonial Secretary’s correspondence mentioned above should also be checked. Some records have been microfilmed, and the others are available at the Western Sydney Records Centre. The depositions of the accused and witnesses are often included in the papers.

Gaol records may also be available. Sydney Gaol was replaced in 1841 by Darlinghurst Gaol, and Parramatta Gaol, destroyed by fire in 1799, was rebuilt in 1802 and rebuilt again by 1842. Records include entrance books, description books, discharge books, daily occurance books, weekly and monthly statements and returns, and contain information such as physical description, crime, sentence, discharge details. These, too, are available at State Records, and the indexes mentioned above should be checked.

And then there are the penal settlements, where misbehaving convicts were sent for most punishment short of execution. Norfolk Island, Newcastle, Port Macquarie, Cockatoo Island were used in turn, as well as Moreton Bay and Van Diemen’s Land. Indexes to Colonial Secretary’s correspondence can give names of convicts moved to penal settlements.

Sources

State Records New South Wales, Guide to New South Wales State Archives relating to Convicts and Convict Administration. Sydney: State Records Authority of New South Wales, 2006.

Cora Num, Convict Records in Australia. ACT:Â Cora Num, 2003.