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The End of Convict Transportation: Closing Stages

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Note: This post is part of a series on Convict Transportation to the American colonies.

Beginning in 1770, English courts handed out fewer transportation sentences to its convicted felons. The growing unease in the American colonies over British rule and its use as a destination for convicts probably had something to do with this trend. Rather than send convicted criminals across the ocean to America, local authorities instead started reviving the use of benefit of clergy, imposing terms of imprisonment on offenders, and instituting hard labor at home. Even so, convict transportation remained an important element of the British criminal justice system.

The Last of the Convict Merchants

John Stewart assumed the position of Contractor for Transports to the Government in 1763, but his short tenure came to an end with his death in 1772. Stewart’s business partner, Duncan Campbell, naturally applied for the vacant the post.

Duncan Campbell was descended from the Glasgow family of Scotland. With his marriage in 1753 to the daughter of a wealthy Jamaica planter, he was prominent in the West Indies trade, owning both plantations and ships. One of his ships, the Bethia was later renamed the Bounty, of Captain Bligh fame. He also served as chairman of the London merchants trading to Virginia.

Campbell assumed that he would automatically step in to the position of Contractor for Transports and continue to receive ₤5 from the government for every convict he transported to America, just as all the others who held this position had in the past.

Duncan was mistaken. Apparently, the profits that could be had by selling convicts in America were so great that a line of merchants were already lined up at the Treasury offering to transport convicts at their own expense. The Treasury no longer needed to pay any merchant to take convicts off the government’s hands, so Stewart turned out to be the last person to hold the post of Contractor for Transports.

Even though Campbell did not secure the government subsidy, he made a fortune exporting convicts and remained an influential player in the business of convict transportation.

The American Revolution

Samuel Johnson famously quipped in 1769 that the American colonists “are a race of convicts, and ought to be thankful for any thing we allow them short of hanging.” Needless to say, such a sentiment would not have sat well with the American colonists. After all, the British government was responsible for populating America with its unwanted convicted felons against the wishes of many colonists.

While convict transportation was not a direct cause of the American Revolution, it helped to validate in the minds of American colonists their status as second-class citizens under British rule. If Great Britain could forcibly dump its criminals and other undesirables on America, what did that say about how it viewed its relationship with the colonies?

Convict transportation came to an abrupt end in the spring of 1775, when the American colonies began to refuse entry to ships from England after hostilities had broken out between the two lands. On September 16, 1775, The Virginia Gazette carried a short report from London dated July 4 that a convict ship was refused entry to America and was forced to return back to England. No detail was given as to exactly why it was refused entry.

The British government at first thought that the rebellion would not last long. In May 1776, the Solicitor-General asserted before the British Parliament that “when tranquility was restored to America, the usual mode of transportation might be again adopted.” His prediction never came to pass.

The last known ship to empty its cargo of convicts on American shores successfully was the Jenny, which arrived in the James River from Newcastle in April 1776. At this point, however, well over a year had passed since any other convict ship had landed in America before it.

On December 11, 1776, after America had claimed its independence from England in July, a group of convicts who boarded the Tayloe for transportation to America were subsequently pardoned on condition that they join the British army. Rather than work for the colonists in America, now the convicts would be used to fight against them.

New Immigration Trends

After the American Revolution, Americans were forced to reconsider how they do business. Much of the American economy had relied on cheap labor provided by the forced immigration of British convicts and African slaves. The idea of equality that informed the American Revolution now conflicted with the economic structures of the past.

When immigration resumed after the war, free immigrants now dominated the numbers of those coming to America. Nearly two-thirds of all immigrants who came to America were free, compared to only about a quarter before this time. Slaves and indentured servants continued to make up the difference until importing African slaves was banned in 1808.

Even though the American Revolution put an end to the British practice of transporting convicts to America, runaway ads for convicts continued to run in American newspapers well after 1776. Despite the divorce between the American colonies and Great Britain, convicts were still bound to serve out their terms in America.

Resources for this article:

Learn More About Convict Transportation

Learn more about convict transportation to colonial America by reading my book, Bound with an Iron Chain: The Untold Story of How the British Transported 50,000 Convicts to Colonial America.

Amazon.com: Paperback ($16.99) and Kindle ($4.99).

Smashwords: All e-book formats ($4.99).

Most people know that England shipped thousands of convicts to Australia, but few are aware that colonial America was the original destination for Britain’s unwanted criminals. In the 18th century, thousands of British convicts were separated from their families, chained together in the hold of a ship, and carried off to America, sometimes for the theft of a mere handkerchief.

What happened to these convicts once they arrived in America? Did they prosper in an environment of unlimited opportunity, or were they ostracized by the other colonists? Anthony Vaver tells the stories of the petty thieves and professional criminals who were punished by being sent across the ocean to work on plantations. In bringing to life this forgotten chapter in American history, he challenges the way we think about immigration to early America.

The book also includes an appendix with helpful tips for researching individual convicts who were transported to America.

Visit Pickpocket Publishing for more details.

Filed in 6. The End of Transportation | Tagged | Comments (0)

The End of Convict Transportation: Debates Back in England

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Note: This post is part of a series on Convict Transportation to the American colonies.

In 1739, Governor William Gooch of Virginia complained to the British government that “The great number of Convicts yearly Imported here, and the impossibility of ever reclaiming them from their vicious habits have occasioned a vast Charge to the Country.” Objections from the American colonies to the practice convict transportation like this one were perhaps to be expected, but convict transportation also had its critics back in Great Britain.

Almost as soon as the Transportation Act was passed in 1718 by the British Parliament, convict transportation had its doubters. While the punishment served as a popular alternative to executing petty offenders in the courts, the public generally regarded it as less humanitarian and more severe than corporal punishment, which had commonly been used to punish petty criminals before passage of the Act. Most of the critics in Great Britain, however, were less concerned with severity of the punishment and instead focused on the failure of convict transportation to accomplish its end goals.

Critiques in the Press

Critiques of convict transportation in the British press frequently claimed that convict transportation failed to reform criminals and that many of them ended up returning to England before serving out their sentence.

In Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals (1735), the author contends that convict transportation doesn’t answer the purpose of preventing crime. He maintains that within a year, many of the convicts return to England “and are Ten times more dangerous Rogues than they were before; and in the Plantations they generally behave themselves so ill, that many of them have refused to receive them.” He holds up the use of convicts to man the oars of galleys in other nations as a model that Britain should follow, since this punishment subjects prisoners to hard labor yet effectively prevents them from committing any more crimes. He goes on to admit that Great Britain has no need for galleys, but he is confident that similar laborious work could be found.

The argument that convict transportation fails to reform criminals is reinforced later in Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals by no less than Ebenezer Ellison, “a notorious Irish thief.” His biographical entry includes his last dying speech, where Ellison is reported to have said that “we generally make a Shift to return after being transported, and are ten times greater Rogues than before, and much more cunning. Besides, I know it by Experience that some Hopes we have of finding Mercy when we are tried, or after we are condemned, is always a great Encouragement to us.” It’s hard to argue with a criminal who claims that convict transportation does not have any effect on his kind.

Some critics contended that transportation did not go far enough in instilling terror into criminal offenders. George Ollyffe in 1731 was troubled by the fact that even though convict transportation was supposed to rid “the Nation of its offensive Rubbish, without taking away their Lives, greater Numbers still gather.” He proposed a more systematic application of hard labor in order to “promote the most sharp and lasting Terror.” He envisioned prisoners working to defray the costs of their confinement, while “watchful Inspectors” would “drive them on in their Work with the utmost Severity” until they determine that the convicts have been sufficiently punished for their crime. He also embraced the idea of either transporting vagrants and beggars to the colonies and then selling them off as slaves or sending them to work in galleys to help guard the British seas and forts.

In an essay added to the end of Ways and Means Whereby His Majesty May Man His Navy, Thomas Robe wonders why convicts need to be sent overseas to perform work when they could be made to do so in Great Britain. He proposes stripping those who would normally be transported down to their waste and then confining them in workhouses, where they should be made to work in iron forges or in stone quarries. He adds that at night these felons should be manacled and during the day fettered at the ankles. Female felons, on the other hand, should be kept in hospitals and treated similarly, “only not stript to the Waste as the Men,” and employed to card wool or wind yarn. Those who refused to work in such a capacity, he goes on to suggest, should be exchanged two for one to liberate fellow countrymen who have been taken as slaves in foreign countries.

Support in the Press

Despite all the criticism, convict transportation had its supporters in the press. In The Trade and Navigation of Great-Britain Considered, the merchant Joshua Gee proposes expanding convict transportation to include all people who could not find ways to support themselves in Great Britain. He supports this view by contending that many of the convicts who were transported to the American colonies have “come to severe Repentance for their past Lives, and become very industrious.”

Gee suggests that anyone who finishes out their term should receive 100 acres of land or more from the government and then be charged rent for the land in the form of hemp or flax, which could be used to help supply the Royal Navy. He sees his proposal as a win-win situation for both Great Britain and the convicts, since “they would marry young, increase, and multiply and supply themselves with every Thing they want from us, but their Food, by which Means those vast Tracts of Land now waste will be planted, and secured from the Danger we apprehend of the French over-running them.”

Second Thoughts

Criminal biographies that recounted the early return of transported convicts to England from America, along with debates in the British press about the efficacy of convict transportation, gave the public the impression that this experimental form of punishment was a failed policy. Despite the criticism that convict transportation received on both sides of the Atlantic, Britain continued shipping large numbers of convicts to America, and American planters continued buying them up as fast as they landed.

In 1752, the British government took some of the criticism seriously and appeared to have second thoughts about the practice of convict transportation. Parliament began exploring alternatives to sending its convicts across the ocean. Some of the proposals included making the convicts work in the dockyards, toil in the local coal mines, or repair and maintain roads. The government even considered exchanging convicts for English slaves being held in Morocco. But none of these proposals ever took hold, and arguments that some of these measures would end up displacing positions that were currently held by honest workmen prevailed.

Convict transportation, it turns out, was too convenient of a punishment for the British government to abandon it. England was about to find out, however, just how dependent it had become on convict transportation.

Resources for this article:

  • Coldham, Peter Wilson. Emigrants in Chains: A Social History of Forced Emigration to the Americas of Felons, Destitute Children, Political and Religious Non-conformists, Vagabonds, Beggars and Other Undesirables, 1607-1776. Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Pub. Co., 1992.
  • Gee, Joshua. The Trade and Navigation of Great-Britain Considered. London: Printed for Sam. Buckley, 1729. Database: Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Gale.
  • Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals. 3 vols. London: John Osborn, 1735. Database: Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Gale.
  • Mason, Polly Cary. “More About ‘Jayle Birds’ in Colonial Virginia.” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 53.1 (1945): 37-41.
  • Morgan, Gwenda and Peter Rushton. “Print Culture, Crime and Transportation in the Criminal Atlantic.” Continuity and Change 22.1 (2007): 49-71.
  • Ollyffe, George. An Essay Humbly Offer’d, for an Act of Parliament to Prevent Capital Crimes. London: Printed for J. Downing, 1731. Database: Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Gale.
  • Robe, Thomas. Ways and Means Wherby His Majesty May Man His Navy with Ten Thousand Able Sailors. Second Edition ed. London: Printed for J. Wilcox, [1726?]. Database: Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Gale.

Learn More About Convict Transportation

Learn more about convict transportation to colonial America by reading my book, Bound with an Iron Chain: The Untold Story of How the British Transported 50,000 Convicts to Colonial America.

Amazon.com: Paperback ($16.99) and Kindle ($4.99).

Smashwords: All e-book formats ($4.99).

Most people know that England shipped thousands of convicts to Australia, but few are aware that colonial America was the original destination for Britain’s unwanted criminals. In the 18th century, thousands of British convicts were separated from their families, chained together in the hold of a ship, and carried off to America, sometimes for the theft of a mere handkerchief.

What happened to these convicts once they arrived in America? Did they prosper in an environment of unlimited opportunity, or were they ostracized by the other colonists? Anthony Vaver tells the stories of the petty thieves and professional criminals who were punished by being sent across the ocean to work on plantations. In bringing to life this forgotten chapter in American history, he challenges the way we think about immigration to early America.

The book also includes an appendix with helpful tips for researching individual convicts who were transported to America.

Visit Pickpocket Publishing for more details.

Filed in 6. The End of Transportation | Tagged | Comments (0)

The End of Convict Transportation: Ex-Convicts Who Succeeded in America

Friday, August 28, 2009

Note: This post is part of a series on Convict Transportation to the American colonies.

In a letter to the Maryland Gazette on July 30, 1767, one writer defended importing convicts from Great Britain by citing how many of them reform their ways:

[A] few Gentlemen seem very angry that Convicts are imported here at all, and would, if they could, . . . prevent the People’s buying them, and then of course they would not be brought in.

I CONFESS, I am one of those who think a young Country cannot be settled, cultivated, and improved, without People of some Sort, and that it is much better for the Country to receive Convicts than Slaves . . . The wicked and bad of them that come into this Province, mostly run away to the Northward, mix with their People, and pass for honest Men; whilst those, more innocent, and who came for very small Offenses, serve their Times out here, behave well, and become useful People.

While the writer fancifully contends that bad convicts are spontaneously siphoned off to the north by running away, thereby leaving the good convicts behind in the Chesapeake, he is correct in asserting that some convicts managed to become productive members of society.

Anthony Lamb was one convict who managed to find success in America after being transported to Maryland in 1724 for burglary. Once a member of Jack Sheppard’s gang back in London, Lamb eventually left Maryland and set up a highly profitable business making mathematical instruments–northward in New York!

Lamb was not the only transported convict to establish roots in America, but tracking the fates of other transported convicts like him can be quite difficult. Many of the convicts were illiterate and left behind few documents to chronicle their lives. They were also eager to shed their criminal past, so they often changed their names and moved away from where they served. Even so, as the subject of convict transportation to America has garnered more interest, research into the identities and fates of transported convicts has begun to yield results, thanks especially to the work of genealogists.

Convicts Transported on the Pretty Patsy

If the fate of several convicts who were transported together on the Pretty Patsy in 1737 is any indication, transported convicts may have been more successful in establishing lives in America after serving out their terms than previously thought.

Jonthan Ady, Nicholas Baker, and George Gew were all convicted of theft back in England and transported to Maryland in 1737 on the Pretty Patsy. Jonathan Ady was found guilty of stealing money and a few assorted goods from Isaac Hone. At his trial, Ady pleaded, “I am a poor young Fellow, come out of the Country, and have not any one to stand my Friend. It will go hard with me I know: I beg for Transportation, though it should be for all my Life.” Despite Ady’s request, he was sentenced to death. While being held in Newgate Prison, the Ordinary reported that “Jonathan Adey was most of the Time sick, weak and infirm, complaining of Pains and Fevers, yet, excepting once or twice, he came constantly to Chapel.” Five days before he was scheduled to be executed, Adey got his wish and was instead transported to America for a term of 14 years after receiving a royal reprieve.

Nicholas Baker was indicted for stealing a pair of women’s shoes and some black lace from Benjamin Noble. The jury devalued the goods to 10 shillings, so that he would receive a reduced sentence of transportation. George Gew was also found guilty along with James Moulding for stealing a pig and a sack, presumably in which to carry off the pig, from the stable of John Scot. Both Gew and Moulding received a sentence of transportation, and Moulding joined the other three on the Pretty Patsy.

Ady, Baker, and Gew all managed to live out prosperous lives in America after being transported. Jonathan Ady married Rebecca York on March 27, 1743, most likely after finishing out his term of service, and settled in Baltimore County, Maryland. Eight months after marrying, he leased 60 acres from My Lady’s Manor, which he in turn mortgaged out to someone else two years later. At this point, he was identified as a cooper and signed his own name on the mortgage document. He served as a private during the American Revolution and had 11 children. Ady died in 1801 at the ripe old age of 82.

Nicholas Baker married Martha Wood on January 4, 1741 in Baltimore County, and they had seven children. Martha died by 1764, after which time Nicholas married his second wife, Mary Gilbert. The two of them had two daughters together. In 1768, Baker was listed as a planter and leased 125 acres of the Hall’s Plains plantation from William Horton for ten years. Baker died by May 6, 1774 in Harford County, Maryland. George Gew settled in present-day Montgomery County, and by 1747 he was married with children and owned a small farm. He died in 1772 and at that point had had eight or nine children.

Women Transported on the Loyal Margaret

Some convicts had inauspicious beginnings in America, but later managed to get their lives back on track. Mary Slider was transported on the Loyal Margaret in 1726 for stealing two shirts from Thomas Shelton. One year after arriving in Maryland, she had a son born out of wedlock and was tried for bastardy. Apparently, this experience wasn’t enough to dissuade her from such behavior, because she bore another child, a daughter, one year before her marriage in 1730 to Peter Majors. Together, the two had 3 or 4 children, including the daughter born out of wedlock.

Anne Ambrose, who was also transported on the Loyal Margaret, had an experience similar to Mary Slider. Ambrose, who was transported for theft, had a son, William Ambrose, out of wedlock c1725. She was charged with bastardy in 1731 and in 1737. No father was named in any of these cases, but Charles Motherby, who was transported in 1723, was said to be the father of her son William (although if he truly were the father, William’s birth year would have had to be much later than 1725). In 1749, William Ambrose was called to testify in proceedings against Charles Motherby, but he failed to appear and was found in contempt of authority. In 1774, William purchased the Rocky Point plantation in Baltimore County. At one point he moved away from Maryland, and he died in 1802 in Bracken County, Kentucky.

Note: Click here to read more about Anthony Lamb in an article I wrote for the Readex Report eNewsletter.

Resources for this article:

  • Andrews, Matthew Page. “Additional Data on the Importation of Convicts.” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 53.1 (1945): 41-42.
  • Barnes, Robert W. Colonial Families of Maryland: Bound and Determined to Succeed. Baltimore, MD: Clearfield, 2007.
  • Bedini, Silvio A. “At the Sign of the Compass and Quadrant: The Life and Times of Anthony Lamb.” Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 74.1 (1984).
  • Old Bailey Proceedings. (www.oldbaileyonline.org, 26 August 2009) Ordinary of Newgate’s Account, June 1737 (OA17370629).
  • Old Bailey Proceedings Online. (www.oldbaileyonline.org, 25 August 2009) March 1726, trial of Mary Slider (t17260302-72).
  • —. (www.oldbaileyonline.org, 25 August 2009) April 1726, trial of Ann Ambrose (t17260420-47).
  • —. (www.oldbaileyonline.org, 25 August 2009) January 1737, trial of James Moulding and George Gew (t17370114-19).
  • —. (www.oldbaileyonline.org, 25 August 2009) April 1737, trial of Jonathan Adey (t17370420-38).
  • —. (www.oldbaileyonline.org, 25 August 2009) May 1737, trial of Nicholas Baker (t17370526-5).
  • “Pretty Patsie.” Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild (Website), 2 September 1737. (Accessed: 25 August 2009).

Learn More About Convict Transportation

Learn more about convict transportation to colonial America by reading my book, Bound with an Iron Chain: The Untold Story of How the British Transported 50,000 Convicts to Colonial America.

Amazon.com: Paperback ($16.99) and Kindle ($4.99).

Smashwords: All e-book formats ($4.99).

Most people know that England shipped thousands of convicts to Australia, but few are aware that colonial America was the original destination for Britain’s unwanted criminals. In the 18th century, thousands of British convicts were separated from their families, chained together in the hold of a ship, and carried off to America, sometimes for the theft of a mere handkerchief.

What happened to these convicts once they arrived in America? Did they prosper in an environment of unlimited opportunity, or were they ostracized by the other colonists? Anthony Vaver tells the stories of the petty thieves and professional criminals who were punished by being sent across the ocean to work on plantations. In bringing to life this forgotten chapter in American history, he challenges the way we think about immigration to early America.

The book also includes an appendix with helpful tips for researching individual convicts who were transported to America.

Visit Pickpocket Publishing for more details.

Filed in 6. The End of Transportation | Tagged , , , , | Comments (36)

The End of Convict Transportation: After Servitude

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Note: This post is part of a series on Convict Transportation to the American colonies.

Most transported convicts did not make it back to England. Escape was difficult, and the passage back to England was expensive. Even if some convicts were able to return to England after serving out their 7- or 14- year term, they would have found it a very different place from when they were first transported. With few to no connections left in England, and a reputation that would have followed them back, they would have had a difficult time finding employment and restarting their lives.

Freedom Dues

Convict transportation was modeled after indentured servitude, which was an attractive option for those who could not find work in England during times of falling wages and bad harvests. Up until 1660, a young man who was able to complete his indentured servitude in America had a good chance of creating a comfortable life for himself. After this time, however, as America became more populated and the price of land began to rise, a person with limited means found it more difficult to develop a prosperous independent existence.

Indentured servants who completed their terms were entitled to “freedom dues,” in the form of goods or money, to help them become planters themselves or to establish their own business once they left the plantation. These dues could be negotiated as part of the signed contract between the indentured servant and the plantation owner, although in Virginia indentured servants who completed their terms of service were entitled by law to a musket, ten bushels of corn, and 30 shillings (or the equivalent value in goods). Women were entitled to fifteen bushels of corn and 40 shillings. In 1748, the Virginia legislature set freedom dues at a standard rate of ₤3.10s for both men and women.

The question of whether convict servants were entitled to the same freedom dues as indentured servants was an open question in most colonies. During the first period of convict transportation, convict servants who served out their terms generally enjoyed the same right to collect freedom dues as indentured servants.

In 1749, the Virginia legislature formally decided that convict servants were indeed entitled to the same freedom dues as indentured servants. Four years later in 1753, the legislature reversed its decision and specifically excluded convict servants from the legal right to receive freedom dues. This action made it much more difficult for convicts to start new lives. It also removed one of the few incentives for them to serve out their terms and not run away.

What Happened to the Convicts?

A few of the convict servants who completed their terms of service soon after convict transportation began in 1718 managed to take advantage of cheap land and any freedom dues they were afforded to purchase seed and tools and become planters themselves. They even hired indentured servants and convicts. As one contemporary observer noted,

The Convicts that are transported here [Maryland], sometimes prove very worthy Creatures, and entirely forsake their former Follies; . . . Several of the best Planters, or their Ancestors, have, in the two Colonies [Maryland and Virginia], been originally of the Convict Class, and therefore, are much to be prais’d and esteem’d for forsaking their old Courses” (“Observations in Several Voyages and Travels in America,” 1746).

Ex-convicts who joined the elite planters were the exception, though, and only those transported early on would have been able to enjoy such success.

As land in the Chesapeake tidewaters became scarcer and fewer resources were given to convicts to begin anew, many of them headed for new frontiers, which were increasingly being settled by poorer people. White laborers generally left the Chesapeake area as soon as they got the chance, so laboring jobs came to be associated more and more with slaves, who were increasingly brought in to fill the labor gap. The association between heavy labor and slaves became so strong that even the poorest whites would not consider working such labor-intensive jobs.

The lack of opportunities and the degrading of laboring jobs meant that a white, agricultural proletariat–where convicts presumably would have ended up after their terms ran out–never developed in Maryland or Virginia. Most poor whites moved on to settle in other areas of the country that offered more opportunity.

Convicts who finished their terms were eager to leave their wretched past behind them. They often changed their names and moved to other parts of the country, so tracking their subsequent fates is quite difficult. However, a few contemporary accounts give some indication of what happened to convicts after they finished their sentence. One letter from Maryland printed in the Pennsylvania Gazette in 1751 claims that “I believe we have every Year three or four Hundred Felons imported here from London; and if, when their Times are out, or before, they were not many of them to move away to the Northward, and elsewhere, we should be over-run with them” (italics in the original).

Most likely, convicts who served out their terms headed for the pine barrens or west to the backcountry. Here, they faced few questions about their past and could set up their lives as they wished, even though the land was not as rich or as useful as in the tidewaters. Other convicts headed south to the Carolinas. A French traveler in 1765 noted that the area around Edenton, North Carolina “is the azilum of the Convicts that have served their time in virginia and maryland. when at liberty they all (or great part) Come to this part where they are not Known and setle here. it is a fine Country for poor people, but not for the rich.”

Few convicts who finished their terms would have been willing to stay on and hire themselves out to their old master, or to anyone else for that matter. With few opportunities available to them in the Chesapeake region, ex-convicts would have had to leave the area by necessity. Planters with convicts who served out their terms would have had to replace them either with slaves, who were quite expensive, or with transported convicts newly arrived from Great Britain.

Resources for this article:

  • Atkinson, Alan. “The Free-Born Englishman Transported Convict Rights as a Measure of Eighteenth-Century Empire.” Past and Present 144 (1994): 88-115.
  • Coldham, Peter Wilson. Emigrants in Chains: A Social History of Forced Emigration to the Americas of Felons, Destitute Children, Political and Religious Non-conformists, Vagabonds, Beggars and Other Undesirables, 1607-1776. Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Pub. Co., 1992.
  • Eddis, William. Letters from America, Historical and Descriptive, Comprising Occurrences from 1769 to 1777, Inclusive. London: William Eddis, 1792. Database: Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Gale.
  • Ekirch, A. Roger. Bound for America: The Transportation of British Convicts to the Colonies, 1718-1775. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.
  • Fogleman, Aaron S. “From Slaves, Convicts, and Servants to Free Passengers: The Transformation of Immigration in the Era of the American Revolution.” The Journal of American History 85.1 (1998): 43-76.
  • “Journal of a French Traveller in the Colonies, 1765, I.” The American Historical Review 26.4 (1921): 726-47.
  • Kaminkow, Marion J., and Jack Kaminkow. Original Lists of Emigrants in Bondage from London to the American Colonies, 1719-1744. Baltimore, MD: Magna Carta Book Co., 1967.
  • Kulikoff, Allan. Tobacco and Slaves: The Development of Southern Cultures in the Chesapeake, 1680-1800. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 1986.
  • Middleton, Arthur Pierce. Tobacco Coast: A Maritime History of Chesapeake Bay in the Colonial Era. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1953.
  • Morgan, Gwenda and Peter Rushton. “Running Away and Returning Home: The Fate of English Convicts in the American Colonies.” Crime, Histoire & Sociétiés / Crime, History & Societies 7.2 (2003): 61-80.
  • “Observations in Several Voyages and Travels in America [from the London Magazine, July 1746].” William and Mary College Quarterly Historical Magazine 15.3 (1907): 1-17.
  • “Philadelphia, May 9 ” The Pennsylvania Gazette May 9, 1751: 1-2. Database: America’s Historical Newspapers, Newsbank/Readex.
  • Scharf, J. Thomas. History of Maryland: From the Earliest Period to the Present Day. 3 vols. Baltimore: John B. Piet, 1879.

Learn More About Convict Transportation

Learn more about convict transportation to colonial America by reading my book, Bound with an Iron Chain: The Untold Story of How the British Transported 50,000 Convicts to Colonial America.

Amazon.com: Paperback ($16.99) and Kindle ($4.99).

Smashwords: All e-book formats ($4.99).

Most people know that England shipped thousands of convicts to Australia, but few are aware that colonial America was the original destination for Britain’s unwanted criminals. In the 18th century, thousands of British convicts were separated from their families, chained together in the hold of a ship, and carried off to America, sometimes for the theft of a mere handkerchief.

What happened to these convicts once they arrived in America? Did they prosper in an environment of unlimited opportunity, or were they ostracized by the other colonists? Anthony Vaver tells the stories of the petty thieves and professional criminals who were punished by being sent across the ocean to work on plantations. In bringing to life this forgotten chapter in American history, he challenges the way we think about immigration to early America.

The book also includes an appendix with helpful tips for researching individual convicts who were transported to America.

Visit Pickpocket Publishing for more details.

Filed in 6. The End of Transportation | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Transported Convicts in the New World: Samuel Ellard’s Return to England

Thursday, August 13, 2009

Note: This post is part of a series on Convict Transportation to the American colonies.

Samuel Ellard grew up in Spitalfields and was apprenticed to a butcher. He completed his time as an apprentice and worked in the Spitalfields Market for various people until he was arrested on March 9, 1741 for robbing a cheese shop owned by William Shipman. The night of the robbery, Ellard went behind the counter of Shipman’s shop and pulled out 18 shillings and 9 pence from the till, but he was spotted by a neighbor who cried out, “Stop Thief! Shipman!” Upon hearing the cries, Shipman managed to seize Ellard, who put up a great struggle, but another neighbor came to his Shipman’s aid, and the two dragged Ellard to the magistrate.

Shipman and the two neighbors, Elizabeth Holmes and John King, testified against Ellard at his trial, and Ellard was found guilty and sentenced to transportation. He later claimed that he was “in Liquor, and did it at the Instigation of a young Fellow a Sailor who was going to Sea.”

Early Trouble

Ellard had run into trouble before. He was accused of theft in May 1736 along with Christopher Freeman. Freeman had grabbed a large quantity of linen items that Elizabeth Exton had been hired to wash. A neighbor heard Exton’s cries when she had realized that her laundry had been taken and assisted her in grabbing hold of Freeman. Ellard then appeared and encouraged Freeman in his struggle with the neighbor by shouting, “Strike him, punch him in the Guts.” Just as another neighbor arrived to help, Freeman managed to hand the bundle to Ellard, who proceeded to run away. Ellard was quickly caught, though, and brought to the constable. Freeman somehow managed to escape, but he was captured a couple days later.

At the trial, Ellard claimed that Freeman simply handed him the bundle during the ruckus and that he never tried to run away. He also arranged to have several people testify that he was at the Butchers-Arms while the robbery was taking place, and he produced a number of other witnesses to speak to his character. Consequently, Ellard was acquitted. Freeman, on the other hand, only managed to call one person to speak to his character, but this witness could not give a good account of him. Freeman was found guilty and sentenced to death.

Transportation to America

After Ellard was found guilty of robbing the cheese shop, he was transported to Maryland along with 21 other convicts in May 1741. He later claimed that he was then sold to a planter who treated him cruelly and was known to have whipped seven men to death. At the first opportunity, Ellard filled his pockets with food and ran away. He traveled 300 miles through the woods, covering twenty to thirty miles per day. At one point, he caught a squirrel and lived on it for 3 days. Several times he was caught and held as a runaway, even though he claimed that he had served out his time as a convict servant. When no one came forward to claim him while he was being held, he was let go, and he continued on in his journey.

Eventually, Ellard reached Philadelphia and then went to New York, where he found a job working on a ship. After six months he returned to Philadelphia and purchased passage back to London. After returning to England, he worked as a porter, carrying fruit for the vendors at Fleet Market. He worked for two years in this capacity, but he was suddenly taken early one morning and sent to Newgate Prison as a returned convict.

On Trial

At his trial for returning from transportation, the two people who gave evidence against Ellard for robbing the cheese shop, Elizabeth Holmes and John King, showed up in court to testify against him. Curiously, neither one could positively identify Ellard. King said that Ellard had a fairer complexion than when he last saw him, but when he was asked whether the prisoner had one eye back then, as was the case now, the witness said yes, he believed he did.

Going against what he later told the Ordinary of Newgate about being sold to a cruel planter, Ellard said at his trial that he worked as a butcher in America and that he lived very well, but that he “could not be easy till he returned to his native country.”

Ellard was found guilty of returning early from transportation and was executed on November 7, 1744 at the age of about 30. He left behind a pregnant wife, whom he had married eight months before his arrest. She frequently visited him in prison and wept bitterly up until his death.

Resources for this article:

  • The Ordinary of Newgate, His Account of the Behaviour, Confession, and Dying Words, of the Malefactors Who Were Executed at Tyburn, on Wednesday the 7th of November, 1744. London: John Applebee, 1744. Database: Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Gale.
  • Old Bailey Proceedings Online. (www.oldbaileyonline.org, 5 August 2009) May 1736, trial of Christopher Freeman and Samuel Ellard (t17360505-60).
  • Old Bailey Proceedings Online. (www.oldbaileyonline.org, 5 August 2009) October 1744, trial of Samuel Ellard (t17441017-29).

Learn More About Convict Transportation

Learn more about convict transportation to colonial America by reading my book, Bound with an Iron Chain: The Untold Story of How the British Transported 50,000 Convicts to Colonial America.

Amazon.com: Paperback ($16.99) and Kindle ($4.99).

Smashwords: All e-book formats ($4.99).

Most people know that England shipped thousands of convicts to Australia, but few are aware that colonial America was the original destination for Britain’s unwanted criminals. In the 18th century, thousands of British convicts were separated from their families, chained together in the hold of a ship, and carried off to America, sometimes for the theft of a mere handkerchief.

What happened to these convicts once they arrived in America? Did they prosper in an environment of unlimited opportunity, or were they ostracized by the other colonists? Anthony Vaver tells the stories of the petty thieves and professional criminals who were punished by being sent across the ocean to work on plantations. In bringing to life this forgotten chapter in American history, he challenges the way we think about immigration to early America.

The book also includes an appendix with helpful tips for researching individual convicts who were transported to America.

Visit Pickpocket Publishing for more details.

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