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Convict Voyages: From Prison to Convict Ship

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

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

Once the convict merchant was ready to make the trip to America, the convicts were released from prison and loaded onto the ship, along with dry goods and perhaps a few indentured servants. Convict voyages were generally timed to leave just after the spring and autumn sessions of the assize courts. After the eight to ten week voyage, the ships would usually arrive in Maryland or Virginia either in June and July or in October and November.

Exiting Prison

A contributing factor to the general abuse that permeated all English prisons was that jailors bought their positions and then used fees to recoup and profit from their investment. Jailors extracted fees from suspected criminals entering the prisons and then charged set fees for releasing them. For every convict who was discharged for transportation, the Keeper of Newgate prison charged 14 shillings and 10 pence.

Jonathan Forward and other convict transport contractors used part of the payments they received from the government to cover the jailor fees for releasing the prisoners they were supposed to transport. Since jailors and justices of the peace maintained such tight control over the delivery of convicts in and out of prison, convict merchants who did not have guaranteed contracts with the government had to maintain good relationships with these officials in order to secure future contracts.

Transportation contracts were struck between merchants and justices soon after sentences were handed out in court. A Transportation bond was then drawn up, which included a fine of ₤50 if an authentic certificate of convict arrivals from the governor or chief customhouse officer at the American destination could not be produced by the contracted firm. The firm also agreed to transport the convicts within a specified amount of time after the signing of the contract and not to lend aid to any transported convicts attempting to return to England before the end of their terms.

The release of the convict from prison was an important moment. The term of transportation, be it seven or fourteen years, began as soon as the Keeper of the prison delivered the criminal to the captain of the convict ship.

"Representation of the Transports going from Newgate to take water at Blackfriars" - The Newgate Calendar

A Parade of Convicts

Upon their release from prison, the convicts were marched through the street to the transport ship chained together, two by two. This parade of convicts, which occurred 3 or 4 times a year, would generate considerable attention. People in London would follow the chained group as they emerged from Newgate and made their way through the streets down to Blackfriars at the edge of the River Thames to board the convict ship. Lists of the criminals who were being transported were sometimes available for purchase by the curious among crowd. The departure of convicts for the colonies generated so much interest that newspapers continued to report on its occurrence up until the practice of transporting convicts to America ended.

On August 20, 1752, The Maryland Gazette published the following description of convicts being led down to the ship, with a special focus on Daniel Bishop, who received a reprieve of transportation for life for committing murder:

Bristol, May 2. Last Monday Morning a great Number of People resorted before Newgate to see the 11 Transports carried away for Biddeford. The principle Object of their Curiosity was Daniel Bishop, who was condemned to be hang’d last Midsummer Assizes, for the Murder of his Sweet heart, Winnifred Jones. Ten of the Prisoners were mounted two upon a Horse, chain’d; and Bishop was put upon a single Horse without Chains. As he was the last that came out of the Prison, the People were impatient, and cry’d out, Where’s Bishop?—He no sooner appeared, but they set up a loud Huzza, and bestowed on him divers Reproaches: In particular a young Woman cry’d out, Hang the Dog, &c. and told him she was glad to see him come to this. He behaved with great Assurance and Boldness, wav’d his Hat, and huzza’d in Chorus. The Streets through which they passed were exceedingly crowded with People, who in general bore him such an Indignation, that they cry’d out, Hang the Dog—Hang the Dog.—A Halter,—A Halter, &c. and pelted him with Dirt. At the Foot of Redcliff Hill, six of the Prisoners were thrown from their Horses, occasioned by their taking Fright at the Noise of the Populace. At which Place a Woman told him, with a Halter shaking in her Hand, She would be glad to see him hang’d up to her Sign Post, for that he had killed her good honest Servant Maid, Winnifred Jones.—He made Answer, What should I be hang’d for? I have been hang’d a great many times to such as you.—On Redcliff Hill, he struck a young Man who had pelted him, several Blows; which together with his impudent Behaviour, had so incensed the Populace, that they more eagerly pelted him with Dirt and Stones; and ‘tis thought would have tore him to Pieces had not the Persons who guarded the Prisoners prevented them. Several Thousand People followed him as far as Bedminster.

While this event seems to be more spirited than other marches to convict ships, it gives an idea of what it was like for convicts and witnesses alike.

Onto the Ship

Ships transporting convicts tended to be separated out from those transporting commodities, so there was plenty of space between the convict ship and any others. First-hand accounts of the loading of convicts onto the ship include descriptions full of tears, embraces, and goodbyes as the convicts were finally separated from their families and friends, possibly for the rest of their lives. This sad moment is depicted in a doggerel poem called The Poor Unhappy Transported Felon’s Sorrowful Account of His Fourteen Years Transportation at Virginia in America (1780), which in general appears to be fairly accurate in its details about convict transportation:

My father vex’d[,] my mother she took on,
And said alas! alas! my only son,
My father said, it cuts me to the heart,
To think on such a cause as this we part.

To see him grieve pierced my very soul,
My wicked cause I sadly did condole,
With grief and shame my eyes did overflow,
And had much rather chuse to die than go.

In vain I griev’d and in vain my parents wept,
For I was quickly sent on board the ship,
With melting kisses and a heavy heart,
I from my dearest parents then did part.

The moment of boarding the ship could be particularly harsh for couples who were convicted of committing a crime together and were both sentenced to transportation. Government officials would generally go out of their way to separate the two by sending each of them to different colonies on different ships. If they could afford to do so, husbands and wives could book passage on the same ship together instead or try to arrange to become indentured in the same colony, but this rarely happened.

Not all departures, however, were somber. On January 5, 1769, The Virginia Gazette reported, “Saturday morning between four and five o’clock the transports, to the number of eighty, were conveyed from Newgate and put on board a close lighter at Black-friars, in order to be forwarded to the British plantations. They went off very merry, huzzaing; and declared they were going to a place where they might soon regain their lost liberty.”

Once the transports boarded the ship, they were sent down between decks to a prison hold where they were secured until they reached port in America. Once a convict was shipped off, his or her family members were left to fend for themselves. Most likely, they would fall into a life of crime themselves or end up in workhouses.

Resources for this article:

  • Carew, Bampfylde-Moore. An Apology for the Life of Mr Bampfylde-Moore Carew. 8th ed. London: Printed for R. Goadby and W. Owen, 1768.
  • 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.
  • Langley, Batty. An Accurate Description of Newgate, with the Rights, Privileges, Allowances, Fees, Dues, and Customs Thereof. London: Printed for T. Warner, 1724.
  • The Maryland Gazette. “Bristol, May 2.” Thursday, August 20, 1752, p. 3.
  • Morgan, Kenneth. “The Organization of the Convict Trade to Maryland: Stevenson, Randolph and Cheston, 1768-1775.” The William and Mary Quarterly 42.2 (1985): 201-27.
  • Revel, James. The Poor Unhappy Transported Felon’s Sorrowful Account of His Fourteen Years Transportation at Virginia in America. London, 1780. A later edition is also available from Documenting the American South, http://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/revel/revel.html.
  • Smith, Abbot Emerson. Colonists in Bondage : White Servitude and Convict Labor in America, 1607-1776. The Norton Library; N592. New York: Norton, 1971.
  • The Virginia Gazette (Rind), Thursday, January 5, 1769, p. 2.

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 4. Convict Voyages | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (1)

Convict Voyages: Mary Standford, Pick-Pocket and Thief

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

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

Mary Standford was convicted of privately stealing a shagreen pocket book, a silk handkerchief, and 4 guineas from William Smith on July 11, 1726. After her conviction, she strongly rejected transportation to the American colonies as an alternative to execution.

Early Years

Standford was raised just outside of London by good parents who sent her to school and educated her in the principles of Christian values. Standford, however, showed more interest in the “Company of Young Men,” so she was sent to London to become a servant, where she lost several positions due to her behavior. In her last position she was seduced by a footman, which subsequently forced her into prostitution.

Standford quickly fell in company with Mary Rawlins, “a Woman of notorious ill fame,” and the two of them walked the streets between Temple Bar and Ludgate-Hill looking to empty the pockets, one way or another, of gullible men. Later, they had considerable success targeting sailors who, after returning from their voyages, had money to spend for their favors. Standford eventually married a man with the last name of Herbert, but after a year and a half she left him or, by her account, he abandoned her. Soon afterward, she had a child out of wedlock from another man, who was a servant.

Standford’s Arrest

With two mouths to feed, Standford set out to practice prostitution on her own, and it was then that she was arrested for theft. William Smith, who brought her to trial and was surprisingly frank in his testimony, related that he was walking along Shoe Lane after one o’clock in the morning when he was approached by Standford, who offered him to “take a Lodging with her.” He spent 2 or 3 three hours with her, all the while ordering drinks to be brought up from downstairs. He soon realized that he was missing money, and when he confronted Standford about it, she bolted from the room.

A constable caught Standford running away from Smith in the street. He picked up one of Smith’s guineas after Standford had dropped it, and he found another in her hand and two in her mouth. He also discovered Smith’s handkerchief and pocket book on her. In his testimony, the constable called Smith a “Country Man” and described him as very drunk at the time.

Standford’s version of the event was quite different. She claimed that Smith was drunk when she met him, and that he forced himself up to her room. There, he placed the four guineas one by one in her bosom and then threw her onto the bed. In the struggle, she speculated that his pocket book must have fallen out of his pocket, and when she discovered it after he left, she ran after him to return it. Not believing her story, the jury found her guilty, and she was sentenced to death.

A Rejection and a Defense of Transportation

After receiving her sentence, Standford’s friends pleaded with her to ask for a pardon in exchange for transportation. Standford refused, “declaring that she had rather die, not only the most Ignominious, but the most cruel Death that could be invented at home, rather than be sent Abroad to slave for her Living.”

The author of the Lives of the Most Remarkable Criminals was baffled by Standford’s position and presents a lengthy defense of the institution of convict transportation:

such strange Apprehensions enter into the Heads of these unhappy Creatures, and hinder them from taking the Advantage of the only possibility they have left of tasting Happiness on this side the Grave, and as this Aversion to the Plantations has so bad Effects, especially in making the Convicts desirous of escaping from the Vessel, or of flying out of the Country whither they were sent, almost before they have seen it. I am surpriz’d that no Care has been taken to print a particular and authentick Account, of the Manner in which they are treated in those Places; I know it may be suggested that the Terrour of such Usage as they are represented to meet with there, has often a good Effect in diverting them from such Facts as they know must bring them to Transportation, yet . . . if instead of magnifying the Miseries of their pretended Slavery, or rather of inventing Stories that make a very easy service, pass on these unhappy Creatures for the severest Bondage. The Convicts were to be told the true state of the Case, and were put in Mind that instead of suffering Death, the Lenity of our Constitution, permitted them to be removed into another Climate, no way inferiour to that in which they were born, where they were to perform no harder tasks, than those who work honestly for their Bread in England do, and this not under Persons of another Nation, who might treat them with less Humanity upon that Account, but to their Countrymen, who are no less English for their living in the New, than if they dwelt in Old England, People famous for their Humanity, Justice and Piety, and amongst whom they are sure of meeting with no variation of Manners, Customs, &c. unless in respect of the Progress of their Vices which are at present, and may they long remain so, far less numerous there than in their Mother-Land. I say if Pains were taken to instill into these unhappy Persons such Notions . . ., they might probably conceive justly of that Clemency which is extended towards them, and instead of shunning Transportation, flying from the Countries where they are landed, as soon as they have set their Foot in them, or neglecting Opportunities they might have on their first coming there, be brought to serve their Masters faithfully, to endure the Time of their Service chearfully, and settle afterwards in the best Manner they are able, so as to pass the Close of their Life in an honest, easy, and reputable Manner; whereas now it too often happens, that their last End is worse than their first, because those who return from Transportation being sure of Death if apprehended, are led thereby to behave themselves worse and more cruelly than any Malefactors whatsoever (Vol. III, pp. 287-289).

The author’s cheery account of life as an indentured servant in the American colonies certainly makes transportation sound like a compelling alternative to execution. The reality of life overseas under such conditions, though, does not match this picture, and some criminals valued their liberty over enforced servitude, even if it meant their own death.

Execution

In his account of her execution, James Guthrie, the minister at Newgate Prison, described Standford as “grosly Ignorant of any thing that is good.” He went on to say that “she was neither ingenious nor full in her Confessions, but appeared obstinate and self-conceited.” Standford continued to maintain her innocence in the affair with Smith, and she appeared indifferent about the fate of her child, expressing to Guthrie the hope that the parish would take care of it. Guthrie claimed, however, that “she acknowledg’d herself among the chief of Sinners.”

Mary Standford was executed on Wednesday, August 3, 1726 at Tyburn. She was 36 years old. Executed alongside her were 3 other criminals. Thomas Smith and Edward Reynolds were both sentenced to die for highway robbery. John Claxton, alias Johnson, was put death for returning twice from transportation before his 7-year sentence had run out.

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 4. Convict Voyages | Tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

Convict Voyages: Convict Attitudes toward Transportation

Thursday, January 22, 2009

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

Convict transportation was conceived as a relatively easy means of emptying British prisons and punishing repeat petty criminals without having to resort to a death sentence. Most convicted criminals facing potential execution were probably relieved to receive a reprieve from death in exchange for servitude in the American colonies. There are a few cases, however–Philip Gibson, who was found guilty of highway robbery in 1751, being one–where felons refused to be transported, preferring death instead.

As an alternative to corporal punishment (whipping, branding, burning in the hand, etc.), transportation was generally regarded as a less humanitarian and more severe form of punishment. Even though transportation was supposed to serve as a more lenient sentence in cases that would normally call for execution, those caught committing petty crimes were no doubt stunned to learn that their measly acts earned them enforced transportation and servitude in a far-off land. While languishing in Newgate or other English prisons awaiting transportation, some convicts tried to appeal their sentences in a desperate attempt to avoid being shipped overseas. The following three convicted felons all show willingness in their petitions to exchange their sentence of transportation for corporal punishment.

Elizabeth Howard

Elizabeth Howard of St. Bride’s was found guilty of stealing 3 yards of ribbon and a piece of silk lace from Thomas Worsley. The stolen items were valued at three shillings and two pence, but the jury reduced the value of the goods to 10 pence, so that she could receive a reduced sentence of transportation. The fact that Howard was only 12 years old at the time must have entered into the jury’s decision.

While in Newgate, Howard wrote to Sir Robert Bayly, the Lord Mayor of the City of London, asking him to change her sentence in order to avoid transportation:

The humble petition of Elizabeth Howard
That your petitioner being disguis’d in liquor was guilty of committing a crime which she never before did and hopes by the grace of God never to do the like again. Your petitioner since her unhappy confinement in goal has lost the use of her limbs.
Most humbly prays on the account of her tender age not yet thirteen years and only cast to the value of single tenpence that your Honour out of your extensive goodness will be pleas’d to let her receive corporal punishment here for the heinousness of her crime and not to transport her out of her native isle.
And your petitioner as in duty bound will ever pray etc.

The petition seemed to have had its intended effect. Howard was ordered to be discharged on account of her age, but she died in prison before she could be released.

John Wilson, aka “Half-Hanged Smith”

On 17 May 1727, John Wilson, alias Smith, of St. Mary Wallbrook was accused of stealing a padlock from a warehouse door. Two watchmen stopped and searched him on suspicion of seeing him and another man take the padlock. The other man got away, but the watchmen found eight picklock keys on Wilson. The padlock was later found in the Channel, after Wilson had tried to rid himself of the evidence.

This wasn’t Wilson’s first brush with the law. In 1705 under the name of Smith, he was found guilty of robbery and sentenced to execution. Miraculously, Smith survived his hanging after being cut down and taken to a nearby house where he was resuscitated. He was granted his freedom as a consequence of outliving his execution, and from that point on, he was known as “Half-Hanged Smith.”

In the present case, the court agreed that Wilson intended to rob the warehouse, but the jury only found him guilty of stealing the padlock, and he was sentenced to transportation. It did not take him long to appeal his sentence to Sir John Eyles, the Lord Mayor of London.

The humble petition of John Wilson alias Smith alias half-hanged Smith
sheweth
that your petitioner was try’d yesterday at the Old Baily for a padlock value two shillings and found guilty.
That your petitioner is now in the sixty sixth year of his age his eyesight much decay’d and wounded in both his hands in her late Majestie’s service at Vigo, being then a Soldier in the Lord Cutts his Regiment in Colonel Bissetts Company, hath now a poor wife and two children.
Therefore your lordships poor petitioner most humbly prays your Lordship that in consideration of his great age, his wounds and bodily infirmities together with the smallness of the crime laid to his charge, that your Lordship will be pleas’d to inflict such corporal punishment in lieu of transportation as your Lordship and the Honourable court shall think meet.
And your petitioner as in duty bound shall ever pray etc.

Wilson’s petition didn’t work. He was placed on board the Susannah and sent to Virginia in July, 1727.

James Barton

James Barton of St. Dunstan’s in the West, was indicted on 9 July 1729 for feloniously stealing three pounds and eight pence worth of goods from John Amos and Charles Edgerton. The jury found him guilty, but, as in the case of Elizabeth Howard, they reduced the value of the goods to ten pence. As a result, Barton was sentenced to transportation. With the help of several friends, he also petitioned to have his sentence changed to corporal punishment.

To the Honourable Mr Seirjeant Raby
The humble petition of James Barton now under sentence of transportation in his Majestys goal of Newgate London sheweth
that your petitioner is a young man come of very wealthy and honest parents who are now dead, had a plentifull fortune to begin the world, but by loss in trade, fail’d and has since been as a journeyman to Messrs. Egerton and Amos haberdashers of small wares, the prosecutors. He took from them a small quantity of thread without their knowledge, in order to support his wife that was then big with child and two children. His wife is now dead and one child, since his sentence last sessions for transportation.
Your petitioner having several friends who are ready to give security for his future good behavior.
That the prosecutors having suffer’d no loss the thread being restoar’d to them without any diminution.
Your poor petitioner therefore humbly hopes and begs as this being the first fact he ever was guilty off, you will be pleased to order him corporal punishment, that he may not be forced into forreign parts, but remain in England.
We whose names are hereunto set have known the petitioner and his family many years during all which time the petitioner has behaved very honestly and we believe this to be his first offence.
John Worrall
Joseph Hague
Charles Worrall
Adam Johnson
Henry Prude
John Addis

This petition worked. Barton’s sentence was changed to a whipping on 29 August 1729. Barton then posted bail with the court and was ordered to remain in Britain for three years.

Resources for this article:

This post is particularly indebted to Kenneth Morgan’s work.

  • Coldham, Peter Wilson. “The Complete Book of Emigrants, 1607-1776.” Baltimore, MD: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1996.
  • —. The King’s Passengers to Maryland and Virginia. Westminster, MD: Heritage Books, 1997.
  • Ekirch, A. Roger. Bound for America: The Transportation of British Convicts to the Colonies, 1718-1775. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.
  • Linebaugh, Peter. “The Tyburn Riot against the Surgeons.” Albion’s Fatal Tree: Crime and Society in Eighteeth-Century England. Ed. Douglas Hay, et. al. New York: Pantheon Books, 1975.
  • Marks, Alfred. Tyburn Tree: Its History and Annals. London: Brown, Langham, 1908, pp. 221-223. Internet Archive (22 January 2009): http://www.archive.org/details/tyburntreeitshis00markuoft.
  • Morgan, Kenneth. “Petitions against Convict Transportation, 1725-1735.” The English Historical Review 104.410 (1989): 110-13.
  • [News item on Philip Gibson]. The London Magazine or Gentleman’s Monthly Intelligencer, Vol. 21, 1751, p. 427. The Hathi Trust Digital Library (22 January 2009): http://catalog.hathitrust.org/.
  • Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, 22 January 2009), May 1727, trial of John Wilson (t17270517-1).
  • Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, 22 January 2009), December 1728, trial of Elizabeth Howard (t17281204-37).
  • Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, 22 January 2009), July 1729, trial of James Barton (t17290709-60).
  • Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, 22 January 2009), August 1729, supplementary material, James Barton (o17290827-3).
  • Old Bailey Proceedings Online (www.oldbaileyonline.org, 21 January 2009), May 1751, trial of Philip Gibson (t17510523-25).

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 4. Convict Voyages | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (2)

Convict Voyages: Starting the Journey in Newgate Prison

Thursday, January 15, 2009

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

Convicted criminals who were tried at the Old Bailey in London and received a sentence of transportation began their journey to the American colonies in the notorious Newgate Prison. Like those sentenced to transportation at other prisons, they waited for the next convict ship to leave port, which sometimes could be several months after sentencing. Given prison conditions at the time, it wasn’t unusual for convicts waiting to be transported to die before they even left prison.

Eighteenth-Century Prisons

Prisons in eighteenth-century England mainly functioned as holding places for those moving through the criminal justice system–much like our modern-day jails today–with debtors generally being the only long-term inhabitants. The poor condition of prisons in general made the idea of punishing criminals by placing them in prison for an extended period almost unimaginable. Sentencing a criminal to long-term incarceration would have been the equivalent of handing down a death sentence, given the rampant diseases that often ran through the prisons. In addition, prisons were already overcrowded, and the cost of building even more prisons for long-term imprisonment was prohibitive.

Eighteenth-century English prisons were often scenes of drunkenness and riot, since almost every prison had a tap room that sold alcohol to its prisoners. Some smaller prisons were even situated in public houses. The sale of alcohol was highly profitable for the keepers of jails, so much so that an Act in 1751 banning the sale of spirits in prisons was generally ignored. Prisoners received a meager diet of food, although better fare could be purchased. Felons who had access to an opening to the street were allowed to beg for food or for money, which could be used either to supplement their diet or to spend in the tap room.

Perhaps the most striking characteristic of eighteenth-century English prisons was their smell. The stench coming from Newgate Prison infiltrated the entire surrounding neighborhood. In 1750, the odor got so bad that eleven men were hired to wash down the walls of the prison with vinegar and install a ventilation system. During the process, seven of the eleven men working on the project came down with “gaol fever.” Only five years later the horrible smell from the prison was still so strong that nobody in the neighborhood could bear standing in their doorways.

John Howard.
Image via Wikipedia

John Howard, who published a study of English prisons in 1777, described the intense odor he encountered at practically every prison he visited.

Air which has been breathed, is made poisonous to a more intense degree by the effluvia from the sick; and what else in prisons is offensive. My reader will judge of its malignity, when I assure him, that my cloaths were in my first journeys so offensive, that in a post-chaise I could not bear the windows drawn up: and was therefore often obliged to travel on horseback. The leaves of my memorandum-book were often so tainted, that I could not use it till after spreading it an hour or two before the fire: and even my antidote, a vial of vinegar, has after using it in a few prisons, become intolerably disagreeable. I did not wonder that in those journies many gaolers made excuses; and did not go with me into the felons wards.

Entering Newgate Prison

When prisoners arrived at Newgate Prison, they were put in irons and led through the prison gate. The keeper’s house was on the left, and below it was the “hold,” where prisoners awaiting execution were kept. Prisoners entered the hold through a hatch, and the chamber was entirely constructed of stone, with hooks and chains fastened into the floor to restrain unruly prisoners. An open sewer ran down the middle of the hold, emitting a stench that filled the entire space.

Newgate, the old city gate and prison.
Image via Wikipedia

If prisoners had enough money to pay the fees and the garnish demanded of them upon entry, they could be directed to the Master’s Side or the Press Yard. The Steward of the Ward, generally the senior prisoner who was entrusted to oversee the daily care of the prisoners, collected the garnish money, which was a fee that went toward purchasing coal for heat, brooms for sweeping, and candles for light. Prisoners who entered Newgate with money could also pay to have the weight of their irons reduced or removed entirely. Those who lacked sufficient funds to pay for the privilege of better accommodations were put in the Common Felons Side.

The Common Felons Side

The Common Felons Side of Newgate Prison was divided into five wards, three for men and two for women. Each ward had varying degrees of comfort, relatively speaking, and felons were placed in them according to how much money they could pay. Those who could not pay the entrance fees were put in the Stone Hold, which one observer described as “a most terrible stinking, dark and dismal Place, situated under Ground, in which no Day-light can come.” The hold had no beds, so prisoners were forced to sleep on the stone that paved the floor. Felons who could pay dues could be placed in the Middle Ward, which was not as dark or cold as the Stone Hold, and while these prisoners still did not receive beds, they slept on oak flooring instead of stone.

In 1724, it was observed that most of the prisoners who inhabited the Common Felons Side were

generally those that lie for Transportation; and they knowing their Time to be short here, rather than bestow one Minute towards cleaning the same, suffer themselves to live far worse than Swine; and, to speak the Truth, the Augean [sic] Stable could bear no Comparison to it, for they are almost poisoned with their own Filth, and their Conversation is nothing but one continued Course of Swearing, Cursing and Debauchery, insomuch that it surpasses all Description and Belief.

The beginning of a transported convict’s journey to the American colonies was inauspicious, to say the least.

Resources for this article:

  • Ackroyd, Peter. London: The Biography. New York: Anchor Books, 2000.
  • George, M. Dorothy. London Life in the Eighteenth Century. Chicago: Academy Chicago Publishers, 1965.
  • Howard, John. The State of the Prisons in England and Wales, with Preliminary Observations, and an Account of Some Foreign Prisons. Warrington: Printed by William Eyres, 1777.
  • Langley, Batty. An Accurate Description of Newgate, with the Rights, Privileges, Allowances, Fees, Dues, and Customs Thereof. London: Printed for T. Warner, 1724.
  • Whitfield, Peter. London: A Life in Maps. London: The British Library, 2006.

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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Convict Voyages: Overview

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

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

Popular characterizations of early immigration to America give the impression that most of the people who made the trip across the Atlantic either belonged to religious groups looking for a place where they could freely practice their beliefs, such as the Pilgrims, or were brave men seeking unlimited opportunity in a new land. These notions fall far short of the truth.

Without Their Freedom

From the time of the first settlers to the American Revolution, close to three quarters of all immigrants to the thirteen American colonies arrived on American shores without their freedom, coming over as slaves, convicts, or indentured servants. Even during the seventeenth century only 33 percent of immigrants to America were free. The vast majority of immigrants who arrived without their freedom were African slaves, accounting for a full 47 percent of all immigrants during the eighteenth century. About 150,000 immigrants, or 27 percent of the total, arrived as convicts or indentured servants during the same time.

British convicts formed a significant proportion of immigrants to early America. One quarter of all British immigrants arriving in the American colonies in the eighteenth century were transported convicts, most of them ending up in the labor-hungry colonies of Maryland and Virginia. After 1745, half of all indentured servants who arrived at Annapolis were convicts, and in 1755, 22.4 per cent of all white employees in Maryland were transported felons.

A Diverse Group

Criminals from all over Great Britain were transported to America, making them the most diverse of all groups who emigrated from Great Britain to America. In Ireland, large numbers of vagabonds were transported along with ordinary criminals, and more than 16,000 people were transported from Ireland between 1718 and 1775.

In Scotland, only 700 to 800 criminals were transported during the same time period. Transportation in Scotland was generally reserved for more serious criminals, and those coming to trial could ask to be banished before the trial began in the hope of avoiding a death sentence. The Scottish transportation system was more decentralized than it was in England, and most convicts had to make their own arrangements for passage to America. Unless they happened to be wealthy and could pay for their own trip, they generally were forced to become bound to a ship captain as an indentured servant.

The majority of convicts sentenced to transportation were native Englishmen, who totaled about 34,000.

The Transported Convicts

Most of the people who ended up being transported to America for their crimes were petty criminals who mainly came out of the ranks of the destitute poor. The economic situation in England generally offered those who could not find work two choices. They could either sell themselves into indentured servitude in America or risk transportation by stealing and be shipped to America anyway. Many chose to take the risk and maintain their freedom in England as long as possible–and lost.

Transported convicts were colloquially known as “His Majesty’s Seven-Year Passengers,” given that most of them received seven-year sentences away from England for their crimes. A large majority of those transported were male, especially since they tended to commit the most serious crimes and the courts often avoided sentencing women to transportation. Transports were typically in their early twenties, and most ranged from fifteen to twenty-nine years old.

Unfortunately, due to its very nature, convict transportation left few documents behind that chronicle the experiences of those involved in it. Transported convicts were generally illiterate and did not have the skill or desire to write down their experiences. Merchants involved in transporting convicts tended to keep a low profile, being careful to shield their methods and profits. And the general public seemed to be uninterested in what happened to convicted criminals once they left the British shores for America. Any attempt to discover the experiences of these malefactors needs to be pieced together from the scattered surviving documents and extrapolated from those who participated in related or similar practices.

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 4. Convict Voyages | Tagged | Comments (0)