1783 Security for trans portation. gaols. Howard. The contractors were to give security for the transportation of the convicts, and to procure certificates from the Governor, or Chief, or Custom-house Officer in the colony, of their having been duly landed. On the cessation of transportation to the American colonies, the gaols became so crowded with prisoners that active measures became necessary for the purpose of preventing the evils with which society was threatened. The condition of the gaols and the State of the sufferings of their inmates formed one of the great public questions in English politics during the last quarter of the eighteenth century. Howard's investigations on this subject extended over the years 1773-4-5, and his evidence before the House of Commons at that time led to several amendments of the existing law; but it took at least twenty years of continuous agitation to bring about the desired change for the better. During that period the state of the gaols, which threatened the community with outbreaks of pestilence as well as escapes of prisoners, formed a subject of the gravest importance, and the public interest in it seems to have reached its climax at the time when the projected expedition to Botany Bay was under consideration.* Gaol fevers and escapes. One of the first measures adopted by the Government was the Act of Parliament passed in the year 1783† for the purpose of authorising the removal of convicts from the gaols to the hulks on the Thames, pending their transportation. The system of The hulks. penal discipline known as "the hulks" was originally adopted in 1775, when an attempt was made to substitute that method of punishment for transportation. During the following fifteen years some 8,000 convicts were sentenced to hard labour on the hulks. The system was carried on by contract, the contractors providing the hulks and all necessaries for their management, as well as provisions and clothing for the convicts, at the rate of £22 16s. 3d. for each convict. Crowded gaols. The preamble of the Act referred to recited that, "from the unusually great number of offenders now under sentence or order of transportation, in the gaols within England and Wales, there is such a want of convenient and sufficient room in many of such gaols that very dangerous consequences are to be apprehended, *It was in 1789 that Howard published his principal work on prison management, The State of the Prisons in England and Wales. A fourth edition was published in 1792. † 24 Geo. III, c. 12. unless some immediate provision be made for removing such 1783-4 offenders to some other place of confinement." The Act then from gaol to ing trans empowered any three Justices of the Peace, duly authorised for the purpose, to order the removal of male prisoners, under sentence of Removal death or transportation, from any gaol to any ship or vessel in the hulk, pendThames until they could be transported. During their confine- portation. ment in that manner, prisoners were to be allowed to labour and to have half their earnings, but they were not to be forced to work, Treatment and the time of their imprisonment was to be deemed part of the term of transportation. Security was to be taken by bond from the contractors who undertook to transport the prisoners beyond the seas; and any prisoners who should return to England before their time had expired, would be liable to suffer death. on board. transport by Order-in This Act was followed by another* passed in the following year Place of for "the effectual transportation of felons and other offenders, ation to be and to authorise the removal of prisoners in certain cases." It appointed; provided that any person convicted of a crime punishable by Council. transportation might be ordered to be transported accordingly, and that his Majesty in Council might appoint to what place beyond the seas he might be sent. By the Act of 1718, transportation was confined to the colonies and plantations in America; but as they ceased to be available for that purpose after their independence had been recognised in 1783, it became necessary to make other provisions. That was effected by the Act of 1784, which why the enabled the Government to appoint any place it might think proper by an Order-in-Council. No place had been determined upon at the time the Act was passed; but the measure shows that the Government were then contemplating the foundation of a new colony in the shape of a penal settlement. Act was passed. Among the various classes of offenders for whom transportation Classes was considered an appropriate punishment during the seventeenth transported. and eighteenth centuries were 1. Quakers denying any oath to be lawful, or assembling them- Quakers. selves together under pretence of joining in religious worshipthird offence. 13 and 14 Car. II, c. 1. 2. Notorious thieves and spoil-takers-commonly called moss- Border troopers-in Northumberland and Cumberland. 18 Car. II, c. 3. * 24 Geo. III, c. 56 (1784). thieves. Cloth stealers. Rickburners. Thieves. Exporters of wool. Poachers. Perjurers 3. Persons found guilty of stealing cloth from the rack, or “imbezzelling" his Majesty's stores to the value of 20s. 22 Car. II, c. 5. 4. Persons convicted of wilfully burning ricks of corn, hay, &c., or barns, &c., in the night-time. 22 and 23 Car. II, c. 7. 5. Persons convicted of larceny and other offences, and entitled to benefit of clergy, except receivers and buyers of stolen goods, transportation for seven years; felons excluded clergy, and receivers and buyers of stolen goods, fourteen years. 4 Geo. I, c. 11; 6 Geo. I, c. 23. 6. Persons imprisoned for exporting wool, and not paying the sums recovered against them. 4 Geo. I, c. 11. 7. Persons convicted of entering into any park and killing or wounding any deer, without the consent of the owner. 5 Geo. I, c. 28. 8. Persons convicted of perjury or forgery, afterwards practising any Court as attorneys, &c., might, upon complaint to the Judge thereof in a summary way be transported to the plantations for seven years. 12 Geo. I, c. 29. and forgers. in Perjurers. Poachers. Exporters of wool. Vagrants and deserters. Linenstealers. Ecclesiastical offenders. Rebels. 9. Persons convicted of perjury or subornation. 2 Geo. II, c. 25. 10. Persons convicted of assaulting others with offensive weapons and a design to rob. 7 Geo. II, c. 21. 11. Persons convicted a second time of hunting and taking away deer out of unenclosed forests or chaces; or of coming into a forest with an intent to steal deer, and beating and wounding the keepers. 10 Geo. II, c. 32; 31 Geo. II, c. 42. 12. Persons resisting officers in seizing wool unlawfully exported. 12 Geo. II, c. 21. 13. Vagrants or vagabonds escaping from house of correction, or from service in the Army or Navy. 17 Geo. II, c. 5. 14. Persons convicted of stealing any linen, &c., laid to be printed, bleached, &c.—death, or transportation for fourteen years. 18 Geo. II, c. 27. 15. Ministers of the Episcopal Church of Scotland exercising their functions in any Episcopal meeting-house in Scotland, without having registered their letters of orders, and taken all oaths required by law, and prayed for his Majesty and the Royal Family by name. First offence, six months' imprisonment; second, transportation for life. 19 Geo. II, c. 38. 16. Rebels returning from transportation without license, or voluntarily going into France or Spain-death, without benefit of clergy. 20 Geo. II, c. 46. 17. Persons convicted of entering mines of black-lead with intent Blackleadto steal, or hiring persons to do so. 25 Geo. II, c. 10. stealers. 18. Persons convicted of assaulting any magistrate or officer Wreckers. engaged in the salvage of ships or goods from wreck. 26 Geo. II, c. 19. 19. Persons convicted of solemnising matrimony without banns Ecclesias or license. 26 Geo. II, c. 33. tical offenders. 20. Persons convicted of stealing fish in any water within a Poachers. park, paddock, orchard, or yard, or receiving, aiding, and abetting. 5 Geo. III, c. 14. ORDER-IN-COUNCIL. 1786 Ir was under the provisions of the statute passed in 1784 that, by an Order-in-Council made on the 6th December, 1786, "the eastern coast of New South Wales" was declared and appointed to be the place to which certain offenders, named in two lists annexed to the Order, should be transported. Some historical interest consequently attaches to it, seeing that it contains the New South fiat by which New South Wales was created a penal station. clared a At a Council held at the Court of St. James's, on 6 December, ment. 1786, the following Order was made :— Wales de penal settle Whereas by the Act passed in the twenty-fourth year of the 24 Geo. III, reign of his present Majesty, intituled An Act for the Effectual c. 56. Transportation of Felons and other offenders, and to authorise the Removal of Prisoners in certain cases, and for other purposes therein mentioned, it is enacted that from and after the passing of the said Act, when any person or persons at any session of Oyer and Terminer or Gaol Delivery, or at any Quarter or other General Session of the peace, to be holden for any county, riding, division, city, town, borough, liberty, or place within that part of Great Britain called England, or at any great session to be holden for the County Palatine of Chester, or within the Principality of Wales, shall be convicted of fraud or petty larceny, or any other offence for which such person or persons shall be liable by the laws of this realm to be transported, it shall and may be lawful for the Court before which any such person or persons shall be so convicted as aforesaid, or any subsequent Court holden at any place for the said county, riding, division, city, town, borough, liberty, or place, respectively, with like authority, to order and adjudge Court may that such person or persons so convicted as aforesaid shall be transported beyond the seas for any term of years, not exceeding the order transportation. 1786 Order-in appoint place of transporta tion. number of years or term for which such person or persons is or are or shall be liable by any law to be transported; and in every such Council may case it shall and may be lawful for his Majesty, by and with the advice of his Privy Council, to declare and appoint to what place or places, part or parts, beyond the seas, either within his Majesty's dominions, or elsewhere out of his Majesty's dominions, such felons or other offenders shall be conveyed or transported: And such Court as aforesaid is thereby authorised and empowered to order such offenders to be transported to the use of any person or persons, and his or their assigns, who shall contract for the due performance of such transportation : Court may order trans fer of convicts to contractor. New South Wales appointed. And when his Majesty, his heirs and successors, shall be pleased to extend mercy to any offender or offenders who hath or have been or shall be convicted of any crime or crimes for which he, she, or they is, are, or shall be by law excluded from the benefit of clergy, upon condition of transportation to any place or places, part or parts beyond the seas, either for term of life, or any number of years, and such intention of mercy shall be signified by one of his Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, it shall be lawful for any Court having proper authority to allow such offender or offenders the benefit of a conditional pardon, and (except in cases where such offender or offenders shall be authorised by his Majesty to transport himself, herself, or themselves) to order the transfer of such offender or offenders to any person or persons who shall contract for the due performance of such transportation, and his or their assigns, for such and the same terms of years for which such offender or offenders shall have been ordered to be transported, or for such term of life or years as shall be specified in such condition of transportation as aforesaid: And whereas it hath been represented to his Majesty that the several offenders whose names are contained in the list hereunto annexed have been transported, or ordered to be transported, to parts beyond the seas, his Majesty doth hereby judge fit, by and with the advice of his Privy Council, to declare and appoint the place to which the several offenders shall be transported for the term or terms in their several sentences mentioned, to be the eastern coast of New South Wales, or some one or other of the islands adjacent; and all persons whom it may concern are to give the necessary directions for causing the said several offenders to be conveyed or transported to the eastern coast of New South Wales, or some one or other of the islands adjacent, in the manner directed by the said Act.* * At a Council held at the Court of St. James's on December 22, 1786, a similar order was made, referring to females only. These, and other convicts previously sentenced to be transported to America, were directed to be transported to the eastern coast of New South Wales, or some one or other of the islands adjacent." |