In the 17th and earlier 18th centuries, thousands of people convicted of crimes ranging from petty to serious were shipped to British colonies in the Americas. The American Revolution brought transportation over the Atlantic to an end, but with Britain’s prisons full to bursting, the claiming of Eastern Australia by James Cook for Britain in 1770 opened up the option of sending felons west. Cook’s voyage of discovery allowed the British authorities to consult his findings and locate a suitable new penal site. Although Botany Bay was originally chosen, it was soon deemed unsuitable, and the fledgling colonies travelled to Port Jackson.

In 1788 the first fleet of 11 ships, containing around 700 convicts, plus spouses and children, arrived at Botany Bay after an arduous journey of 250 days. Many of the ‘first fleeters’ who had journeyed to the southern hemisphere did not take well to their new life. Food shortages caused by the amount of victuals that the ships could carry and the lack of people who knew how to cultivate crops meant that many died from starvation. The arrival of the second fleet brought few supplies and little solace.

By the later 18th century in Britain, population explosion and mass migration to large cities caused by the Industrial Revolution meant that many lived in poverty, squalor and a state of near-starvation. It is hardly surprising, then, that approximately 8 out of 10 people were transported for stealing even small amounts of food.

Life for the early transportees was harsh. Not only did they have to acclimatise to a new life on the other side of the world, but punishments meted out by those in charge were severe. When the Governor of the Colony of New South Wales, Sir Richard Bourke, limited the number of lashings that could be given to 50, there were protests from the early settlers who employed the convicts.

Good behaviour, though, was often rewarded. A glance through the lists of those transported in TheGenealogist.co.uk’s Transportation Records database reveals that most of those convicted of a crime received a seven-year term. Some were given 10-, 14- or 15-year sentences. After a proportion of this time, depending on behaviour, a convict could be granted a ticket of leave and a measure of freedom. After his or her full term was over, a certificate of freedom was issued. The ex-convict could now return to Britain or settle in Australia. For those who did not toe the line, secondary punishment was inevitable. Those who did not earn gradual manumission (freedom) were usually dispatched to Port Arthur, Norfolk Island or Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) for a further sentence, or even solitary confinement.

Not many convicts seem to have returned to Britain once able to do so, mainly for financial reasons. One John Tawell (1784–1845) was convicted to be transported for forgery. He must have been a model prisoner, as he served his 14-year sentence and then set up as an apothecary in Sydney, making a considerable amount of money, which enabled him to return to England. He married, but in 1845 he was convicted of murdering his mistress, Sarah Hart, with prussic acid and was hanged. If this hadn’t been enough to secure his notoriety, Tawell was also the first person to be apprehended by use of telegraph messaging.

TheGenealogist has a wealth of information for anyone with ancestors who were transported to the other side of the world, or for anyone interested in this fascinating part of British history. The first dataset is Home Office: Settlers and Convicts, New South Wales and Tasmania: Records 1787–1859. This includes lists of the male and female convicts and former convicts in the colonies, including their sentences, employment, settlement, granting of pardons and tickets of leave, and any land and cattle acquired by them. The second set, Home Office: Convict Transportation Registers 1787–1870, includes details of more than 123,000 of the estimated 160,000 convicts transported over eight decades until 1868, when transportation ended. Information available includes name, place of trial, number of years sentenced, the name of the ship travelled on and its date of departure.

Most of those listed are from England, Wales and Scotland, but some Irish convicts feature. Ned Kelly’s father, John ‘Red’ Kelly, was transported from County Tipperary in Ireland in 1841 for pig stealing. Most Irish transportees were political prisoners involved in Irish rebellions against British rule, including a number of Fenians. Other political prisoners include the Tolpuddle Martyrs from Dorset and those involved in the Swing Riots – destruction of labour-displacing agricultural machinery – in 1830.

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