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Convicts in the Colonies: Transportation Tales from Britain to Australia
In the eighty years between 1787 and 1868 more than 160,000 men, women and children convicted of everything from picking pockets to murder were sentenced to be transported ‘beyond the seas’. These convicts were destined to serve out their sentences in the empire’s most remote colony: Australia. Through vivid real-life case studies and famous tales of the exceptional and extraordinary, Convicts in the Colonies narrates the history of convict transportation to Australia – from the first to the final fleet.
Using the latest original research, Lucy Williams reveals a fascinating century-long history of British convicts unlike any other. Covering everything from crime and sentencing in Britain and the perilous voyage to Australia, to life in each of the three main penal colonies – New South Wales, Van Diemen’s Land, and Western Australia – this book charts the lives and experiences of the men and women who crossed the world and underwent one of the most extraordinary punishment in history.
Using the latest original research, Lucy Williams reveals a fascinating century-long history of British convicts unlike any other. Covering everything from crime and sentencing in Britain and the perilous voyage to Australia, to life in each of the three main penal colonies – New South Wales, Van Diemen’s Land, and Western Australia – this book charts the lives and experiences of the men and women who crossed the world and underwent one of the most extraordinary punishment in history.
- GenresHistoryNonfiction
224 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
October 11, 2019
Convicts in the Colonies – Transportation Tales from Britain to Australia
Author – Lucy Williams
Lucy’s book details some of the stories and adventures of the 168,000 men, women and children that were convicted of various crimes in Great Britain between 1787 and 1868 and then exiled to Australia and the surrounding islands to serve out their sentences.
Comprised of 200 pages, all of the stories in this book are based on original stories, memoirs, letters or details from official records. Harrowing tales of confinement before, during, and after the convicts had received their sentence they were often forced to wait for weeks before sailing half-way around the world to their special spot in Hell.
When I read this book, I was genuinely surprised at the brutal conditions of confinement onboard the ships and the treatment of the convicts. When you think of these crimes and punishment from the perspective of modern criminal justice systems, it was certainly a dark period. The stories make you sit and wonder how many people were wrongly accused and then exiled for the rest of their lives!
As the author details in the introduction, the British Justice system was in flux between 1787 and 1868. Most of these convicts sent to Australia were not serious violent offenders. They were labeled as property offenders and they were normal working class people. Children as young as eight could face a full criminal trial and children as young as eleven arrived in the penal colonies where they served alongside adults in the convict system. A brutal system wherein the weak, the young, the vulnerable, the innocent…the poor, those unable to present a solid defense, were packed inside of ships under horrible conditions, and exiled. They traveled for months in dark and dirty ships where disease or disaster might kill them. These individuals defined by their convict status had years of forced labor ahead of them in the colonies.
After exiled to the colonies, the convicts also had violent clashes with the Aboriginal peoples. The convicts settled on their land and committed crime against and with these people.
The author, Lucy Williams has done a remarkable job presenting the fact and data of these stories in a professional manner. In all seriousness, what other way can you present it! As historians and professionals, story tellers and researchers must stick to the truth, fact, and data and let the reader’s imagination take flight. That is the beauty of this kind of research and story! I thought it was a fantastic and compelling read.
About the author; Lucy Williams is a writer and historian with a Ph. D from the University of Liverpool. She specializes in the history of Crime, Women and Gender, and the Social History of the nineteenth century. She has spent the last four years researching the history of convict transportation to Australia as part of the Digital Panopticon project. Her other publications include Wayward Women: Female Offending in Victorian England, and Criminal Women 1850-1920.
This book is available on Amazon.com (US), Amazon (UK) and at Pen and Sword Publishing.
Book review by Christopher (Moon) Mullins
Convicts in the Colonies: Transportation Tales from Britain to Australia
Author – Lucy Williams
Lucy’s book details some of the stories and adventures of the 168,000 men, women and children that were convicted of various crimes in Great Britain between 1787 and 1868 and then exiled to Australia and the surrounding islands to serve out their sentences.
Comprised of 200 pages, all of the stories in this book are based on original stories, memoirs, letters or details from official records. Harrowing tales of confinement before, during, and after the convicts had received their sentence they were often forced to wait for weeks before sailing half-way around the world to their special spot in Hell.
When I read this book, I was genuinely surprised at the brutal conditions of confinement onboard the ships and the treatment of the convicts. When you think of these crimes and punishment from the perspective of modern criminal justice systems, it was certainly a dark period. The stories make you sit and wonder how many people were wrongly accused and then exiled for the rest of their lives!
As the author details in the introduction, the British Justice system was in flux between 1787 and 1868. Most of these convicts sent to Australia were not serious violent offenders. They were labeled as property offenders and they were normal working class people. Children as young as eight could face a full criminal trial and children as young as eleven arrived in the penal colonies where they served alongside adults in the convict system. A brutal system wherein the weak, the young, the vulnerable, the innocent…the poor, those unable to present a solid defense, were packed inside of ships under horrible conditions, and exiled. They traveled for months in dark and dirty ships where disease or disaster might kill them. These individuals defined by their convict status had years of forced labor ahead of them in the colonies.
After exiled to the colonies, the convicts also had violent clashes with the Aboriginal peoples. The convicts settled on their land and committed crime against and with these people.
The author, Lucy Williams has done a remarkable job presenting the fact and data of these stories in a professional manner. In all seriousness, what other way can you present it! As historians and professionals, story tellers and researchers must stick to the truth, fact, and data and let the reader’s imagination take flight. That is the beauty of this kind of research and story! I thought it was a fantastic and compelling read.
About the author; Lucy Williams is a writer and historian with a Ph. D from the University of Liverpool. She specializes in the history of Crime, Women and Gender, and the Social History of the nineteenth century. She has spent the last four years researching the history of convict transportation to Australia as part of the Digital Panopticon project. Her other publications include Wayward Women: Female Offending in Victorian England, and Criminal Women 1850-1920.
This book is available on Amazon.com (US), Amazon (UK) and at Pen and Sword Publishing.
Book review by Christopher (Moon) Mullins
Convicts in the Colonies: Transportation Tales from Britain to Australia
September 28, 2023
Great read, such a good insight into the British brutal justice system. Some fascinating peoples stories. Recommend this book very highly.
February 20, 2019
Here is a book that looks deeply into the lives of some of the convicts who were sentenced in court to be transported to Botany Bay, the first colony established in New South Wales, Australia. Through their lives we learn about criminal justice and punishment in Great Britain. We delve into the places where convicts were kept, conditions on the ships that transported them across the oceans, and the dangers they faced along the way. Readers are told about life in the different colonies that were eventually formed and how free convicts lived out their years as members of a developing country.
Our guide is an author who works on a major project to create individual histories for as many as possible of the 168,000 people transported to Australia between 1787 and 1868. In a lengthy introduction she explains her background as “a social historian of women, crime, and deviance,” (xii) and that stories of female convicts are used wherever possible. An added caution reminds readers that any implied compassion expressed for these convicts does not mean the victims of their crimes should be forgotten.
The opening chapter takes a close look at the criminal justice system. This includes information about trials, sentencing, and waiting for years before being shipped out of the country. Male criminals, including juveniles, were mostly kept in hulks, old wooden warships that had the masts and cannons removed and were modified to house prisoners in one room below the upper deck. The longer a prisoner was kept on a hulk the more their health deteriorated before the long voyage to Australia. Women were mostly kept in the same gaol they were in before trial and transported with other women on ships just for women convicts.
Next, the dangers faced on the voyage are explored. These include rampant disease and death from the conditions onboard and a diet that didn’t include fresh food or vegetables for a prolonged time. Convicts were lost in several shipwrecks and even a mutiny.
The stories of three convict women are told. One involves a lucky escape with several male convicts in an open boat. The second woman became a wealthy businesswoman. The third had twenty-one children and thousands of descendants who helped to populate the country.
There were three different colonies where convicts were shipped: Botany Bay (relocated to Sydney), Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania), and Western Australia (Freemantle). A chapter is devoted to each colony.
Conclusions are then presented by the author. These include the costs and benefits Australia experienced during the eighty years of transportation and for at least another seventy years when the last convict passed away.
One appendix features the texts of quoted letters showing the original spelling and lack of punctuation. Another appendix lists many resources that can be used to trace transported convicts and their stories.
There is a section for suggested reading and an index as well. The inset has twenty-four, mostly color, images of the places convicts were housed and some of the convicts mentioned in this book.
Anyone with an interest in the development of Australia or the transportation of convicts can learn from this text and enjoy the up-close look at the individuals whose own words are used to describe what they saw and experienced.
Review published at Pirates & Privateers Website
Our guide is an author who works on a major project to create individual histories for as many as possible of the 168,000 people transported to Australia between 1787 and 1868. In a lengthy introduction she explains her background as “a social historian of women, crime, and deviance,” (xii) and that stories of female convicts are used wherever possible. An added caution reminds readers that any implied compassion expressed for these convicts does not mean the victims of their crimes should be forgotten.
The opening chapter takes a close look at the criminal justice system. This includes information about trials, sentencing, and waiting for years before being shipped out of the country. Male criminals, including juveniles, were mostly kept in hulks, old wooden warships that had the masts and cannons removed and were modified to house prisoners in one room below the upper deck. The longer a prisoner was kept on a hulk the more their health deteriorated before the long voyage to Australia. Women were mostly kept in the same gaol they were in before trial and transported with other women on ships just for women convicts.
Next, the dangers faced on the voyage are explored. These include rampant disease and death from the conditions onboard and a diet that didn’t include fresh food or vegetables for a prolonged time. Convicts were lost in several shipwrecks and even a mutiny.
The stories of three convict women are told. One involves a lucky escape with several male convicts in an open boat. The second woman became a wealthy businesswoman. The third had twenty-one children and thousands of descendants who helped to populate the country.
There were three different colonies where convicts were shipped: Botany Bay (relocated to Sydney), Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania), and Western Australia (Freemantle). A chapter is devoted to each colony.
Conclusions are then presented by the author. These include the costs and benefits Australia experienced during the eighty years of transportation and for at least another seventy years when the last convict passed away.
One appendix features the texts of quoted letters showing the original spelling and lack of punctuation. Another appendix lists many resources that can be used to trace transported convicts and their stories.
There is a section for suggested reading and an index as well. The inset has twenty-four, mostly color, images of the places convicts were housed and some of the convicts mentioned in this book.
Anyone with an interest in the development of Australia or the transportation of convicts can learn from this text and enjoy the up-close look at the individuals whose own words are used to describe what they saw and experienced.
Review published at Pirates & Privateers Website
January 7, 2019
Convicts In The Colonies: Transportation Tales From Britain To Australia is a non-fiction book.
This book covers the eighty year period from 1787 to 1868 when 168 000 convicts from Britain and Ireland were sent to Australia. This is a collection of tales about those transported; their reasons for transportation, their journeys and whether they died, survived or thrived in the harsh environment.
The author has gathered tales from men, women and children. One of my favourites was about a man who inspired Fagin, a character in Charles Dicken’s Oliver Twist. Ikey Solomon was a known troublemaker and ‘kidsman’, someone who trained young children in the art of theft. He led the authorities on quite a trail which saw him following his transported wife to Hobart, then being arrested himself, returned to England for trial, and finally being transported back to Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) as a convict.
Many of the stories were horrific, while a few had happier endings. It really was a test of character and the ability to adapt under severe circumstances. Overall, an interesting read in a period of history which saw the development of the white man in Australia.
This book covers the eighty year period from 1787 to 1868 when 168 000 convicts from Britain and Ireland were sent to Australia. This is a collection of tales about those transported; their reasons for transportation, their journeys and whether they died, survived or thrived in the harsh environment.
The author has gathered tales from men, women and children. One of my favourites was about a man who inspired Fagin, a character in Charles Dicken’s Oliver Twist. Ikey Solomon was a known troublemaker and ‘kidsman’, someone who trained young children in the art of theft. He led the authorities on quite a trail which saw him following his transported wife to Hobart, then being arrested himself, returned to England for trial, and finally being transported back to Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) as a convict.
Many of the stories were horrific, while a few had happier endings. It really was a test of character and the ability to adapt under severe circumstances. Overall, an interesting read in a period of history which saw the development of the white man in Australia.
December 3, 2018
An interesting collection of biographies as well as descriptions of the process from conviction to freedom.
January 24, 2020
Been a long time since I read a history book and I enjoyed being educated by this one!
January 7, 2022
As a descendant of a WA convict this was a great read to understand more about the trials and tribulations of the convict era in Australia.
June 25, 2023
Super dry but very informative.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews