Early American Crime

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

Before 1718, England’s criminal justice system provided only two sentencing options for criminals convicted of capital crimes: “Benefit of Clergy” for first-time offenders, which sent criminals back out on the streets after receiving some form of corporal punishment, or death. Officially, there was no middle punishment for offenders who seemed to deserve punishment beyond a mere brand on the thumb, but did not deserve death either. However, there was a third possible provision for sentencing a convicted criminal and that was convict transportation, although it technically fell outside the control of judges and juries. Under this provision, criminals could receive royal pardons on condition that they remove themselves from the realm for a defined period of time.

The Origins of Convict Transportation

Portugal, Spain, and France had all used criminals and vagrants to help populate their colonies in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, but the Elizabethan explorer and geographer Richard Hakluyt was probably the first Englishman to come up with the idea of transporting English criminals to the colonies. In 1584, while discussing “the multitude of idle and mutinous persons within the realm . . . whereby all the prisons are stuffed full,” Hakluyt wrote that “the pety theves might be employed for certain years in the western parts in sawing and felling of timber and in planting of sugar canes” (Discourse Concerning Western Planting).

Hakluyt’s idea was not acted upon, but the first official act sanctioning the transportation of rogues and vagabonds was later passed under Queen Elizabeth I in 1597, making it at least possible for reprieved felons to work the fields in Virginia during its earliest settlement. The 1597 statute, however, did not provide for forced labor in the colonies, merely deportation, so once again Hakluyt’s idea of using convict labor for colonization failed to take hold.

In 1611, the colony of Virginia was desperately struggling. Disappointed with the crew that came over with him to help the colony, Governor Dale asked King James I to send across the Atlantic all the convicts from the prisons who were sentenced to die in order to furnish his colony with able men. The British government was slow to act on Dale’s request, but on January 23, 1615, the Privy Council finally issued a warrant that enacted forced labor in the colonies as punishment for idleness or misdemeanors and created a system of transporting convicts by granting reprieves on condition that the felons remove themselves to one of the colonies.

An Act of Leniency

According to common law and the Habeas Corpus Act, it was still illegal for judges to sentence convicts to transportation, but under the new provision passed by James I it was not illegal to pardon felons on condition that they leave the country for a specified amount of time. Transportation could now be used as a means of exacting leniency on those who would otherwise be executed, but felons first had to be sentenced to death before being pardoned. Those who received the pardon were essentially free, so long as they remained abroad for the required term, which could have been for life. One of the benefits of this system was that the Crown could now appear to demonstrate mercy on those who might otherwise be executed, yet still rid itself of this criminal element.

In the 1660’s, judges found a way to use the system of conditional pardon against first-time offenders, who ordinarily would have been back out on the streets under benefit of clergy. Once a judge heard a series of trials, he would identify criminals who he thought deserved transportation and forced them into failing the literacy test that was required to receive benefit of clergy. Rather than sentence this group to death, the judge sent the criminals back to jail, where they waited for the possibility of receiving a conditional pardon from the king. Criminals who refused the pardon were hanged. This practice, though, began to fall out of use in the 1690’s, and a third, middle-ground alternative to letting convicted criminals back out on the streets or executing them continued to elude the authorities.

Around five or six thousand convicts were transported out of Great Britain from the time of the first settlement in North America until 1718. This number may seem large, but with the passage of the Transportation Act of 1718, it was about to grow exponentially.

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.
• Beattie, J. M. Crime and the Courts in England, 1660-1800. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1986.
• 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.
• Jordon, Don and Michael Walsh. White Cargo: The Forgotten History of Britain’s White Slaves in America. New York: New York University Press, 2007.
• Shaw, A. G. L. Convicts and the Colonies: A Study of Penal Transportation from Great Britain and Ireland to Australia and Other Parts of the British Empire. London: Faber and Faber, 1966.
• Smith, Abbot Emerson. Colonists in Bondage: White Servitude and Convict Labor in America, 1607-1776. New York: Norton, 1971.
• —. “The Transportation of Convicts to the American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century.” The American Historical Review 39.2 (1934): 232-49.

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.

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

Thief-Taker General

Any discussion of the state of England’s criminal underworld in the early 18th century must include Jonathan Wild, the self-described “Thief-Taker General of Great Britain and Ireland.” Wild had his hand in almost every facet of England’s criminal world and criminal justice system, including convict transportation, as we will later see. He operated an Office for the Recovery of Lost and Stolen Property, where owners of lost or stolen items could apply to him for help in recovering their possessions for a fee that fell below their current market value. Using his connections in the criminal underground, Wild aided the public by systematically hunting down thieves, extracting the stolen goods from them, and occasionally prosecuting them.

Wild provided a valuable service for the many victims who lacked the means and time to recover items that were stolen from them. In an age that lacked a professional police force, people who witnessed a crime on the street were legally required to assist the victim in capturing the criminal. As an added incentive for people to police the streets themselves, the government also offered anyone who could capture a thief and provide evidence for convicting him or her a reward of ₤40, far more than what most people in England could earn in a year. Wild benefited from this policy by collecting a reward every time he was able to prosecute a criminal. Amazingly, not only was Wild able to catch and bring to trial both petty and leading criminals of the day, but he was also able to break some of the most notorious gangs in the country. His office essentially served as the de facto “Scotland Yard” of the day.

In 1720, Wild’s reputation with the authorities was so high, the Privy Council turned to him for help in finding solutions to a sharp increase in highway robberies. Wild suggested raising the reward, arguing that ₤100 would serve as a greater incentive for capturing them. The Council agreed and raised the reward from £40 to £140, giving Wild a substantial pay increase for every highway robber he captured and prosecuted.

Wild’s service appeared to be so valuable that questions about how he developed such a close connection with criminal elements and an in-depth knowledge of how they operated simply weren’t asked. As long as Wild was able to recover stolen property and clear the streets of at least one more thief, the people and the government authorities were happy. He enjoyed a solid reputation in the newspapers, which published advertisements that helped him reconnect owners and their property, but the public remained blissfully unaware of the other, more sinister, side of Jonathan Wild.

Wild’s Criminal Underworld

In actuality, the man supposedly responsible for clearing the streets of criminals was the head of a vast criminal empire and a well-oiled criminal machine. Wild’s Lost Property Office turned out to be a clearinghouse for stolen goods that members of his organized gang had themselves acquired. The thieves he apprehended, supposedly for the good of the community, were fall guys; they either belonged to rival gangs, or were members of his own gang who tried to double-cross him, quit his business, or had ceased to be more valuable than the £40 reward given by the government for capturing and convicting a criminal. Wild sent many of these criminals to the gallows by appearing in court to give evidence–real or false–against them. The unofficial head of crime prevention was actually the foremost perpetrator of crime and organizer of criminals in London and throughout Great Britain.

A gallows ticket to view the hanging of Jonathan Wild

Wild had his hand in many forms of crime, including coining, forging, smuggling, and protection rackets for brothels and gambling houses. He purchased a boat in order to trade his stolen goods in Holland and Flanders. Wild understood the profit that could be exacted by organizing and inter-relating various criminal activities under one umbrella operation. His system allowed him to expand the notion of what constituted profitable stolen merchandise: diaries, letters, pocket-books, and even scraps of paper could become valuable objects if their recovery were advertised with the proper hint of blackmail. If a personal item were found or taken near a brothel, Wild would advertise it so as to imply that he knew who owned it and that if the owner did not meet Wild’s price, he would reveal the place where it was found to the owner’s wife or mother.

Wild was a master at manipulating the law in order to keep those working in his criminal empire under his tight control. Public officials had long suspected that Wild’s activities were not above board, but they were reluctant to draw up charges against Wild, not only because he was the most effective crime-stopper in the city, but also because he had bought them off, giving him the means to indict them for accepting bribes if they ever did try to bring him to trial.

Jonathan Wild turned out to be the most notorious criminal of early eighteenth-century England and head of the largest and most complex criminal organization England had seen to date, perhaps even to this very day. Wild transformed the nature of crime by organizing it into an efficient and multi-layered business that brought a large number of London’s criminals and gangs under his direct control. Yet by hiding behind a veil of respectability he maintained the public’s favor and support almost up until his execution on 25 May 1725 in front of a large and enthusiastic crowd. His ability to manipulate both the laws and public opinion for his own criminal purposes exposed the contradictory nature of law and crime in eighteenth-century England. Indeed, after he was executed the number of criminals apprehended and convicted fell sharply.

Resources for this article:

• The Bloody Register. Vol. 2. London: Printed for E. and M. Viney, 1764.
• The Complete Newgate Calendar. Vol. 3. London: The Navarre Society, 1926.
• Howson, Gerald. Thief-Taker General: Jonathan Wild and the Emergence of Crime and Corruption as a Way of Life in Eighteenth Century England. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books, 1970.
• McLynn, Frank. Crime and Punishment in Eighteenth-Century England. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.

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.

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

Why did England decide to ship its convicted felons across the Atlantic to America? To answer this question, we need to look at the changes in crime and its occurrence in early eighteenth-century England.

The Rise in Property Crime

The most notable change in the nature of crime in the early eighteenth century was a sharp rise in property offenses. Indeed, property crime became so prevalent that when those in the eighteenth century referred to “crime,” they generally meant violence and theft, and particularly offenses that combined the two, such as burglary and robbery.

This rise in property crime was partly due to expanding urbanization. Before the growth of cities, property crime was rare, and most criminal offenses could be dealt with by summary justice or informal sanctions. The crowded city streets of early eighteenth-century London, however, provided more temptations for theft and greater anonymity. The large number of stores and shop stalls provided easy targets for thieves, and since people no longer lived in more or less self-contained communities, criminals could easily disappear into the crowd and escape through the winding streets and alleyways.

Overcrowding in the Cities

Overcrowding in the cities also significantly added to the increase in crime. The gentry and new moneyed men had begun to claim more and more of the countryside for their own exclusive use by enacting enclosure laws. These laws created hardship for the common people, who up until now had enjoyed unrestricted hunting and fishing on these lands, and forced them to abandon the lives they had known up until this point and move to the cities. Even with the beginnings of industrialization taking hold, there were not enough jobs available to support this new influx of people to the cities, so many of them became destitute and inevitably turned to crime to support themselves. Further complicating job prospects were the periodic return of soldiers and sailors from oversea wars. Hardened from brutal fighting in the field, these men returned with few skills and connections. Crime became a natural outlet for those who could use their aggression to their own profit.

Daniel Defoe, a prolific commentator on eighteenth-century society at the time, observed:

Violence and Plunder is no longer confin’d to the High-ways, where the Robbers have lurking Places to hide and numberless Turnings, to avoid and escape the Pursuit of the Country, and the Force of a Hue and Cry.

The Scene is quite chang’d, the Field of Action is remov’d; and the Actors themselves are likewise chang’d. The Scene, I say, is chang’d: The Streets of the City are now the Places of Danger; Men are knock’d down and robb’d, nay, sometimes murther’d at their own Doors, and in passing and repassing but from House to House, or from Shop to Shop (An Effectual Scheme For the Immediate Preventing of Street Robberies, London, 1731).

Crime in the Press

Accompanying the rise in concern about crime was a dramatic increase in writing about criminals. Criminal writing–in the form of broadsides, pamphlets, newspaper and magazine articles, and dramatic and prose literature–saturated the reading market. Criminals and their actions were one of the most popular topics for printed works, which recorded the acts of even the most common criminal. Some criminals became celebrities as a result of this focus on the criminal, and turnkeys at Newgate profited by charging polite society money to view in their jail cells the more famous criminals, like Jonathan Wild and Jack Sheppard. The large number of texts detailing the activities of known or executed criminals added to the commonly held notion that crime had reached epidemic proportions in the early eighteenth century.

All of these factors contributed to a real and perceived increase in crime. People believed that something had to be done to stop it, but unfortunately England’s criminal justice system, as it was currently constituted, was ill equipped to handle the new criminal underworld that was developing.

Resources for this article:

• Beattie, J. M. Crime and the Courts in England, 1660-1800. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1986.
• Bell, Ian A. Literature and Crime in Augustan England. New York: Routledge, 1991.
• Faller, Lincoln B. Turned to Account: The Forms and Functions of Criminal Biography in Late Seventeenth- and Early Eighteenth-Century England. New York: Cambridge UP, 1987.
• Linebaugh, Peter. The London Hanged: Crime and Civil Society in the Eighteenth Century. New York: Cambridge UP, 1992.
• Thompson, E. P. Whigs and Hunters: The Origin of the Black Act. New York: Pantheon, 1975.

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.