57
Courts and Criminal Justice – Convict Records
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Convicts as referred to in this PROVguide are those
people convicted of an offence in Britain, or a British colony, whose sentence
was to be transported to New South Wales, Tasmania or Western Australia.
Transportation officially ceased in New South Wales and Tasmania in 1853 and in
Western Australia in 1868. Strictly speaking, no convicts were
transported directly to the Port Phillip District of New South Wales. However
convicts did find their way to the District, and this generally happened in one
of three ways: a convict from Sydney could be assigned to a work gang in Port
Phillip; a ticket of leave holder might enter Port Phillip from either New
South Wales or Tasmania to work and was required to register with the
authorities; or the convict may have been an Exile.
A select list of convict records held at PROV
The following records are available on microfiche or
microfilm through PROV's reading rooms and do not have to be ordered.
Registers and indexes
Details recorded are:
·
assigned servants
·
nominal list of ticket of leave holders in Port Phillip District
1843-1848
·
applications for ticket of leave commencing 1 Jan 1843
·
applications for pardons Feb 1845 – May 1854
·
certificates of freedom delivered Jul 1848 – Dec 1851
·
fees received
VPRS
4323 Convict Indents: New South Wales 1788 – 1842, a microfilm copy
of records relating to convicts transported to New South Wales. To
access these records researchers can consult the microfiche Index to New South
Wales Convict Indents 1788 – 1842, published by the Genealogical Society
of Victoria. The original convict indents are held by State Records New
South Wales.
VPRS
2148 Microfilm Copy of Letter Book- Letters Outward (Melbourne Court of Petty
Sessions) 1843 – 1852. This letter book contains an
alphabetical name index to hearings and cases.
VPRS 108/P0 Register, Police Magistrate, Portland,
1840-1853, available online.
This volume contains entries relating to police and
sheriffs' salaries, register of arms, and lists of ticket of leave holders.
Correspondence
Unless mentioned otherwise, the following records are
original records and can be ordered on PROV's online catalogue for viewing at
the Victorian Archives Centre reading room.
VPRS
4729 Inward Registered Correspondence (Police Magistrate, Port Phillip
District) 1836 – 1839 Use VPRS
6920 Inward Correspondence Register 1836 – 1839, to identify relevant
records.
VPRS
19 Inward Registered Correspondence (Superintendent, Port Phillip District)
1839 – 1851
Use the following microfilm records to identify relevant
records in VPRS 19:
VPRS
2138 Index to Inward Correspondence 1839 - 1843
VPRS
2139 Registers of Inward Correspondence 1839 - 1851
VPRS 44 Inward
Registered and Unregistered Correspondence 1839 - 1896
A list of records in this series is available online.
For example, Unit 504 of this series contains Robert Hoddle’s return of
convicts employed by the Survey Branch around 1844.
Victorian Parliament
VPRS
2599 Original Papers Tabled in the Legislative Council c1851 – ct
Units 500 and 502 contain documents relating to the Influx
of Criminals Prevention Bill and various Select Committee Reports.
Please note: To access records created by the Legislative
Assembly or the Legislative Council of the Victorian Parliament, written
permission from the Clerk of the Legislative Council or Legislative Assembly, must
first be obtained. Once permission has been granted, written approval
must be presented at the Victorian Archives Centre reading room before the
records will be made available. Consult the Parliament of Victoria website
for contact details: www.parliament.vic.gov.au.
A select list of records relating to Exiles
Exiles were people who had been convicted of an offence in Britain
and were serving their sentence in an English prison, and who were then
transported to the Australian colonies. Certain prisoners, depending on
their crime, who were seen as being well behaved while serving the early part
of their sentence were given an option of being sent to the Australian
colonies, and on arrival being given a conditional pardon. The condition
of the pardon was that the person remained in the colony for the duration of
the unexpired part of their sentence. In effect they were exiled to Australia.
VPRS
89 Notification of Pardon of Exiles (Superintendent, Port Phillip District)
1844 – 1849
This series lists prisoners under sentence of
transportation, including their name and the date and place of their conviction.
Use Index to
Registers of Assisted Immigrants from UK 1839 – 1871, available online,
to access references to passenger lists from VPRS 7310 Registers of Assisted
Immigrants from UK 1839 – 1871, available on microfiche. VPRS 7310
records the arrival of passenger ships to Port Phillip and Victoria. The
ships carrying exiles are:
|
|
Vessel
|
Arrived
|
Port
|
No of Exiles
|
|
|
Royal George
|
16 Nov 1844
|
Melbourne
|
21
|
|
|
Sir George Seymour
|
Mar 1845
|
Geelong
|
176
|
|
|
Stratheden
|
27 Jan 1846
|
Melbourne
|
51
|
|
|
Maitland
|
10 Jan 1847
|
Melbourne
|
291
|
|
|
Thomas Arbuthnot
|
4 May
1847
|
Melbourne
|
289
|
|
|
Joseph Somes
|
24 Sep 1847
|
Geelong
|
248
|
|
|
Marion
|
27 Jan
1848
|
Melbourne
|
292
|
|
|
Anna Maria
|
23 Jun
1848
|
Geelong
|
156
|
|
|
Eden
|
21 Feb
1849
|
Geelong
|
199
|
Microform resources
See PROV's guides to Microfilm,
Microfiche and Online Resources at the Victorian Archives Centre, and Microfilm,
Microfiche and Online Resources at the Ballarat Archives Centre for more
information about accessing records about convicts on microfilm and
microfiche. Records on microfiche and microfilm are available through
PROV's reading rooms and do not have to be ordered.
Further information
See PROVguide 58
Prison Records for information about researching prison and
prisoner-related records.