184-705: Between 1788 and 1868 the British penal system transported about 162,000 convicts from Great Britain and Ireland to various penal colonies in Australia . The British Government began transporting convicts overseas to American colonies in the early 18th century. After trans-Atlantic transportation ended with the start of the American Revolution , authorities sought an alternative destination to relieve further overcrowding of British prisons and hulks . Earlier in 1770, James Cook had charted and claimed possession of
368-482: A ticket of leave , permitting some prescribed freedoms . This enabled some convicts to resume a more normal life, to marry and raise a family, and to contribute to the development of the colony. In England in the 17th and 18th centuries criminal justice was severe, later termed the Bloody Code . This was due to both the particularly large number of offences which were punishable by execution (usually by hanging), and to
552-542: A Factory Act based upon the Commission's recommendations. This toured the textile districts and made extensive investigations. It wasted little time in doing so, and even less in considering its report; as with other Whig commissions of the period it was suspected to have had a good idea of its recommendations before it started work. During the course of the Factory Commission's inquiries, relationships between it and
736-519: A Minister of the Crown, during the whole course of his administration, never to have brought forward any measure for the removal of so tremendous an evil?" "He wanted them to decide whether they would amend, or repeal, or enforce the Act now in existence; but if they would do none of these things, if they continued idly indifferent, and obstinately shut their eyes to this great and growing evil, if they were careless of
920-415: A bill to allow magistrates to act on their own initiative, and to compel witnesses to attend hearings; noting that so far there had been only two prosecutions under the 1819 act. Opposing the bill, a millowner MP agreed that the 1819 bill was widely evaded, but went on to remark that this put millowners at the mercy of millhands "The provisions of Sir Robert Peel's act had been evaded in many respects: and it
1104-504: A bill was proposed to the House of Commons to allow the transporting of felons, and was followed by another bill presented to the Lords to allow the transportation of criminals convicted of felony within clergy or petty larceny. These bills failed, but it was clear that change was needed. Transportation was not a sentence in itself, but could be arranged by indirect means. The reading test, crucial for
1288-465: A business: merchants chose from among the prisoners on the basis of the demand for labour and their likely profits. They obtained a contract from the sheriffs, and after the voyage to the colonies they sold the convicts as indentured servants . The payment they received also covered the jail fees, the fees for granting the pardon, the clerk's fees, and everything necessary to authorise the transportation. These arrangements for transportation continued until
1472-489: A convict-supported settlement was established in Western Australia from 1826 to 1831, direct transportation of convicts did not begin until 1850. It continued until 1868. During that period, 9,668 convicts were transported on 43 convict ships . The first convicts to arrive were transported to New South Wales , and sent by that colony to King George Sound (Albany) in 1826 to help establish a settlement there. At that time
1656-559: A day. This was followed by an agitation in the West Riding for relaxation or repeal of the 1833 Act; the short-time movement alleged that workers were being 'leant on' by their employers to sign petitions for repeal, and countered by holding meetings and raising petitions for a ten-hour act. Charles Hindley prepared a draft bill limiting the hours that could be worked by any mill employing people under twenty-one, with no child under ten to be employed, and no education clauses. Hindley's bill
1840-625: A day; the act as passed, the Cotton Mills Regulation Act 1825 ( 6 Geo. 4 . c. 63), improved the arrangements for enforcement, but kept a twelve-hour day Monday-Friday with a shorter day of nine hours on Saturday. The 1819 act had specified that a meal break of an hour should be taken between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.; a subsequent act, the Labour in Cotton Mills, etc. Act 1819 ( 60 Geo. 3 & 1 Geo. 4 . c. 5), allowing water-powered mills to exceed
2024-710: A free settlement was established and this settlement later accepted some convict transportation. Until the massive influx of immigrants during the Australian gold rushes of the 1850s, free settlers had been outnumbered by penal convicts and their descendants. However, compared to the British American colonies , Australia received a larger number of convicts. Convicts were generally treated harshly, forced to work against their will, often doing hard physical labour and dangerous jobs. In some cases they were cuffed and chained in work gangs. The majority of convicts were men, although
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#17330854985002208-479: A group of convict ships departed from England to establish the first colonial settlement in Australia, as a penal colony . The First Fleet included boats containing food and animals from London. The ships and boats of the fleet would explore the coast of Australia by sailing all around it looking for suitable farming land and resources. The fleet arrived at Botany Bay , Sydney on 18 January 1788, then moved to Sydney Cove (modern-day Circular Quay ) and established
2392-484: A haystack - in order to escape homelessness. He was conditionally released in 1869 and was granted his certificate of freedom two years later. He worked in construction and was not convicted of any further crimes, dying in Perth in 1938. In 2010, UNESCO inscribed 11 Australian Convict Sites on its World Heritage List . The listing recognises the sites as "the best surviving examples of large-scale convict transportation and
2576-467: A majority of only two (178–176) – a moral defeat for a government measure. Furthermore, although Poulett Thomson had opened the debate by saying that "at the present moment he was unwilling to re-open the whole factory question", Peel had said he would vote for the second reading, not because he supported the bill, but because its committee stage would allow the introduction of additional amendments to factory legislation. Poulett Thomson (eventually) abandoned
2760-414: A mill at Radcliffe owned by Peel. Although the Act included some hygiene requirements for all textile mills, it was largely concerned with the employment of apprentices; it left the employment of 'free' (non-indentured) children unregulated. It allowed (but did not require) local magistrates to enforce compliance with its requirements, and therefore went largely unenforced. As the first attempt to improve
2944-559: A number of years. The American Revolution brought transportation to the North American mainland to an end. The remaining British colonies (in what is now Canada) were regarded as unsuitable for various reasons, including the possibility that transportation might increase dissatisfaction with British rule among settlers and/or the possibility of annexation by the United States – as well as the ease with which prisoners could escape across
3128-591: A penal colony. At Moreton Bay, he found the Brisbane River , which Cook had guessed would exist, and explored the lower part of it. In September 1824, he returned with soldiers and established a temporary settlement at Redcliffe . On 2 December 1824, the settlement was transferred to where the Central Business District (CBD) of Brisbane now stands. The settlement was at first called Edenglassie . In 1839 transportation of convicts to Moreton Bay ceased and
3312-647: A proposal to release women who could not be transported, but this solution was considered absurd: this caused the Lords Justices to order that no distinction be made between men and women. Women were sent to the Leeward Islands , the only colony that accepted them, and the government had to pay to send them overseas. In 1696 Jamaica refused to welcome a group of prisoners because most of them were women; Barbados similarly accepted convicts but not "women, children nor other infirm persons". Thanks to transportation,
3496-420: A public exhibition of the king's mercy. It was a solution to a real problem in the domestic penal system. There was also the hope that transported convicts could be rehabilitated and reformed by starting a new life in the colonies. In 1615, in the reign of James I , a committee of the council had already obtained the power to choose from the prisoners those that deserved pardon and, consequently, transportation to
3680-635: A punishment for both major and petty crimes since the 17th century. About 60,000 convicts were transported to the British colonies in North America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, under the terms of the Transportation Act 1717 . Transportation to the Americas ceased following Britain's defeat in the American Revolutionary War . (The number of convicts transported to North America
3864-546: A result of the act. The Transportation, etc. Act 1784 ( 24 Geo. 3. Sess. 2 . c. 56) and the Transportation, etc. Act 1785 ( 25 Geo. 3 . c. 46) also resulted to help alleviate overcrowding. Both acts empowered the Crown to appoint certain places within his dominions, or outside them, as the destination for transported criminals; the acts would move convicts around the country as needed for labour, or where they could be utilized and accommodated. The overcrowding situation and
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#17330854985004048-590: A significant portion were women. Some were as young as 10 when convicted and transported to Australia. Most were guilty of relatively minor crimes like theft of food/clothes/small items, but some were convicted of serious crimes like rape or murder. Convict status was not inherited by children, and convicts were generally freed after serving their sentence, although many died during transportation or during their sentence. Convict assignment (sending convicts to work for private individuals) occurred in all penal colonies aside from Western Australia , and can be compared with
4232-407: A single stage with any enactment, and ... he will only throw an air of ridicule and extravagance over the whole of this kind of legislation". Oastler responded that a failure with a Ten Hour Bill would "not dishearten its friends. It will only spur them on to greater exertions, and would undoubtedly lead to certain success ". Sadler's Bill when introduced indeed corresponded closely to the aims of
4416-409: A social stigma and, for some later Australians, being of convict descent instilled a sense of shame and cultural cringe . Attitudes became more accepting in the 20th century, and it is now considered by many Australians to be a cause for celebration to discover a convict in one's lineage. In 2007, it was estimated that approximately four million Australians are related to convicts that were deported from
4600-553: A specific term. To provide confinement facilities, the general change in sentencing was passed in conjunction with the Convict Prisons Act 1853 ( 16 & 17 Vict. c. 121), long titled "An Act for providing Places of Confinement in England or Wales for Female Offenders under Sentence or Order of Transportation." The Penal Servitude Act 1857 ( 20 & 21 Vict. c. 3) ended the sentence of transportation in virtually all cases, with
4784-512: A transitional period, children who could not read the New Testament were not to be employed more than nine hours a day; children who could not read an easy reader to be published by the Home Secretary could not be employed. His political opponents mocked the thought of Lord John Russell turning his undoubted talents to the production of a reading primer, and it was soon announced that once
4968-405: A visit to England in 1835. While there he was called upon by the government to give evidence before a Parliamentary Commission on the evils of transportation, and at their request wrote and submitted a tract on the subject. His views in conjunction with others in the end prevailed. The anti-transportation movement was seldom concerned with the inhumanity of the system, but rather the "hated stain" it
5152-464: Is not verified, although it has been estimated to be 50,000 by John Dunmore Lang and 120,000 by Thomas Keneally .) The British American colony of Maryland received a larger felon quota than any other province. Alternatives to the American colonies were investigated and the newly discovered and mapped East Coast of New Holland was proposed. The details provided by James Cook during his expedition to
5336-579: The Australasian Anti-Transportation League was formed to lobby for the permanent cessation of transportation, its aims being furthered by the commencement of the Australian gold rushes the following year. The last convict ship to be sent from England, the St. Vincent , arrived in 1853, and on 10 August Jubilee festivals in Hobart and Launceston celebrated 50 years of European settlement with
5520-499: The Convict Establishment , the colony's convict prison, and misbehaviour was punished by stints there. The majority, however, were stationed in other parts of the colony. Although there was no convict assignment in Western Australia, there was a great demand for public infrastructure throughout the colony, so that many convicts were stationed in remote areas. Initially, most offenders were set to work creating infrastructure for
5704-640: The Dreyfus Affair , and Dreyfus was fully exonerated in 1906. Unlike normal penal transportation, many Soviet people were transported as criminals in forms of deportation being proclaimed as enemies of people in a form of collective punishment . During the Second World War , the Soviet Union transported up to 1.9 million people from its western republics to Siberia and the Central Asian republics of
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5888-621: The Founders and Survivors project. In 1803, two ships arrived in Port Phillip , which Lt. John Murray in the Lady Nelson had discovered and named the previous year. The Calcutta under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Collins transported 300 convicts, accompanied by the supply ship Ocean . Collins had previously been Judge Advocate with the First Fleet in 1788. He chose Sullivan Bay near
6072-564: The Home Counties . The "Felons' Act" (as the Transportation Act was called) was printed and distributed in 1718, and in April twenty-seven men and women were sentenced to transportation. The Act led to significant changes: both petty and grand larceny were punished by transportation (seven years), and the sentence for any non-capital offence was at the judge's discretion. In 1723 an Act
6256-606: The Indian Rebellion of 1857 . As the Indian independence movement swelled, so did the number of prisoners who were penally transported. The Cellular Jail in Port Blair , South Andaman Island , also called Kālā Pānī or Kalapani (Hindi for black waters), was constructed between 1896 and 1906 as a high-security prison with 698 individual cells for solitary confinement . Surviving prisoners were repatriated in 1937. The penal settlement
6440-582: The Merthyr Tydfil rising of 1831 ; the Tolpuddle Martyrs (1834); Swing Rioters and Luddites (1828–1833); American and French-Canadian prisoners from the Upper Canada rebellion and Lower Canada Rebellion (1839), and Chartists (1842). With increasing numbers of free settlers entering New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) by the mid-1830s, opposition to the transportation of felons into
6624-623: The Myall Creek Massacre . In the Hawkesbury and Nepean Wars , a group of Irish convicts joined the Aboriginal coalition of Eora , Gandangara , Dharug and Tharawal nations in their fight against the colonists. Norfolk Island , east of the Australian mainland, was a convict penal settlement from 1788 to 1794, and again from 1824 to 1847. In 1803, Van Diemen's Land (modern-day Tasmania)
6808-651: The Nine Years' War ) and the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–14) adversely affected merchant shipping and hence transportation. In the post-war period there was more crime and hence potentially more executions, and something needed to be done. In the reigns of Queen Anne (1702–14) and George I (1714–27), transportation was not easily arranged, but imprisonment was not considered enough to punish hardened criminals or those who had committed capital offences, so transportation
6992-511: The Restoration , the penal transportation system and the number of people subjected to it, started to change inexorably between 1660 and 1720, with transportation replacing the simple discharge of clergyable felons after branding the thumb . Alternatively, under the second act dealing with Moss-trooper brigands on the Scottish border, offenders had their benefit of clergy taken away, or otherwise at
7176-530: The Seven Years' War were used as makeshift floating prisons . Four out of five prisoners were in jail for theft. In the 1800s the Bloody Code was gradually rescinded because judges and juries considered its punishments too harsh. Since lawmakers still wanted punishments to deter potential criminals, they increasingly used transportation as a more humane sentence to execution . Transportation had been employed as
7360-458: The Swan River Colony in 1829 – initially was intended solely for free settlers, but commenced receiving convicts in 1850. South Australia and Victoria , established in 1836 and 1850 respectively, officially remained free colonies. However, a population that included thousands of convicts already resided in the area that became known as Victoria. Penal transportation to Australia peaked in
7544-483: The benefit of clergy , was a fundamental feature of the penal system, but to prevent its abuse, this pardoning process was used more strictly. Prisoners were carefully selected for transportation based on information about their character and previous criminal record. It was arranged that they fail the reading test, but they were then reprieved and held in jail, without bail, to allow time for a royal pardon (subject to transportation) to be organised. Transportation became
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7728-526: The prisoners may have been released once the sentences were served, they generally did not have the resources to return home. Banishment or forced exile from a polity or society has been used as a punishment since at least the 5th century BCE in Ancient Greece . The practice of penal transportation reached its height in the British Empire during the 18th and 19th centuries. Transportation removed
7912-474: The rule of law , it was equally unreasonable for them to escape punishment entirely. With the development of colonies, transportation was introduced as an alternative punishment, although legally it was considered a condition of a pardon, rather than a sentence in itself. Convicts who represented a menace to the community were sent away to distant lands. A secondary aim was to discourage crime for fear of being transported. Transportation continued to be described as
8096-633: The 1820s until the 1860s, convicts were sent to the Imperial fortress colony of Bermuda (part of British North America ) to work on the construction of the Royal Naval Dockyard and other defence works, including at the East End of the archipelago, where they were accommodated aboard the hulk of HMS Thames at an area still known as " Convict Bay ", at St. George's town. In 1787, the First Fleet ,
8280-486: The 1830s and dropped off significantly in the following decade, as protests against the convict system intensified throughout the colonies. In 1868, almost two decades after transportation to the eastern colonies had ceased, the last convict ship arrived in Western Australia. The majority of convicts were transported for petty crimes , particularly theft: thieves comprised 80% of all transportees. More serious crimes, such as rape and murder, became transportable offences in
8464-436: The 1830s, but since they were also punishable by death, comparatively few convicts were transported for such crimes. Approximately 1 in 7 convicts were women, while political prisoners , another minority group, comprised many of the best-known convicts . Once emancipated , most ex-convicts stayed in Australia and joined the free settlers, with some rising to prominent positions in Australian society. However, convictism carried
8648-476: The 1838 session another government factory bill was introduced by Fox Maule Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department . Children in silk mills were not to work more than ten hours a day (but this was not backed up by any certification of age). Otherwise, the bill made no changes to age limits or hours of work, but repealed the education clauses of the 1833 Act, replacing them with literacy tests. After
8832-457: The 1847 Act, met a long-standing (and by 1847 well-organised) demand by the millworkers for a ten-hour day. The Factory Acts also included regulations for ventilation, hygienic practices, and machinery guarding in an effort to improve the working circumstances for mill children. Introduction of the ten-hour day proved to have none of the dire consequences predicted by its opponents, and its apparent success effectively ended theoretical objections to
9016-452: The 6th Earl of Shaftesbury. By the time the new parliament met, public opinion (especially outside the textile districts) had been powerfully affected by 'the report of Mr Sadler's Committee' . Extracts from this began to appear in newspapers in January 1833 and painted a picture of the life of a mill-child as one of systematic over-work and systematic brutality. The conclusion many papers drew
9200-620: The Act could soon be repealed (completely or in part). In 1835, the first report of the Factory Inspectors noted that the education clauses were totally impracticable, and relay working (with a double set of children, both sets working eight hours; the solution which allowed Althorp's Bill to outbid Ashley's in the apparent benefit to children) was difficult if not impracticable, there not being enough children. They also reported that they had been unable to discover any deformity produced by factory labour, nor any injury to health or shortening of
9384-672: The Act; one was to be a clergyman and the other a Justice of the Peace , neither to have any connection with the mill or factory. The visitors had the power to impose fines for non-compliance and the authority to visit at any time of the day to inspect the premises. The Act was to be displayed in two places in the factory. Owners who refused to comply with any part of the Act could be fined between £2 and £5. The Cotton Mills and Factories Act 1819 ( 59 Geo. 3 . c. 66) stated that no children under 9 were to be employed and that children aged 9–16 years were limited to 12 hours' work per day. It applied to
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#17330854985009568-748: The Advice and Consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the Authority of the same, That from and after the passing of this Act it shall not be deemed necessary in any Information, Summons, or Warrant issued in pursuance of the said recited Act, to set forth the Name or Other Designation of each and every the Partners in any Cotton Mill or Factory, but that it shall be lawful to insert in such Information, Summons, or Warrant,
9752-551: The Americas from the 1610s until early in the American Revolution in 1776, when transportation to America was temporarily suspended by the Criminal Law Act 1776 ( 16 Geo. 3 . c. 43). The practice was mandated in Scotland by an act of 1785, but was less used there than in England. Transportation on a large scale resumed with the departure of the First Fleet to Australia in 1787, and continued there until 1868 . Transportation
9936-496: The Australian population (about 7 million) had Irish ancestry – the highest percentage outside of Ireland – thanks partially to historical convict transportation. In British India – including the province of Burma (now Myanmar ) and the port of Karachi (now part of Pakistan ) – Indian independence activists were penally transported to the Andaman Islands . A penal colony was established there in 1857 with prisoners from
10120-502: The Bill had been presented to the Commons; both Sir Robert Peel (not the originator of the 1802 bill, but his son, the future Prime Minister) and Sir George Strickland had warned that the Bill as it stood was too ambitious: more MPs had spoken for further factory legislation than against, but many supporters wanted the subject to be considered by a Select Committee. Sadler had resisted this: "if
10304-400: The Bill originally covered all textile mills; the Act as passed again applied only to cotton mills. Dissatisfied with the outcome of Hobhouse's efforts, in 1832 Michael Thomas Sadler introduced a Bill extending the protection existing Factory Acts gave to children working in the cotton industry to those in other textile industries, and reducing to ten per day the working hours of children in
10488-401: The Bill went into committee it would be amended to restore the 1833 education clauses. The second reading of the bill was scheduled for 22 June, but in early June Russell announced that the bill had been abandoned for the session. On 22 June, when the government intended to progress a bill on Irish tithes, Ashley forestalled them, moving the second reading of the factory bill. He complained of
10672-689: The Brisbane penal settlement was closed. In 1842 free settlement was permitted and people began to colonize the area voluntarily. On 6 June 1859 Queensland became a colony separate from New South Wales . In 2009 the Convict Records of Queensland, held by the Queensland State Archives and the State Library of Queensland was added to UNESCO's Australian Memory of the World Register. Although
10856-619: The British Empire. In 1830, the Port Arthur penal settlement was established to replace Macquarie Harbour, as it was easier to maintain regular communications by sea. Although known in popular history as a particularly harsh prison, in reality, its management was far more humane than Macquarie Harbour or the outlying stations of New South Wales. Experimentation with the so-called model prison system took place in Port Arthur. Solitary confinement
11040-534: The British Isles to Australia. The convict era has inspired famous novels, films, and other cultural works, and the extent to which it has shaped Australia's national character has been studied by many writers and historians. According to Robert Hughes in The Fatal Shore , the population of England and Wales, which had remained steady at 6 million from 1700 to 1740, began rising considerably after 1740. By
11224-514: The Committee might recommend). This effectively removed any chance of a Factories Regulation Act being passed before Parliament was dissolved. Sadler was made chairman of the Committee, which allowed him to make his case by hearing evidence from witnesses of Sadler's selection, on the understanding that opponents of the Bill (or of some feature of it) would then have their innings. Sadler attempted (31 July 1832) to progress his Bill without waiting for
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#173308549850011408-479: The Crown to merchants contracted to take the convicts to America. The Transportation Act made returning from transportation a capital offence . The number of convicts transported to North America is not verified: John Dunmore Lang has estimated 50,000, and Thomas Keneally has proposed 120,000. Maryland received a larger felon quota than any other province. Many prisoners were taken in battle from Ireland or Scotland and sold into indentured servitude , usually for
11592-522: The House or the Government of this, and that the Bill would be referred to a Select Committee. (Lord Althorp, responding for the Government, noted that Sadler's speech made a strong case for considering legislation, but thought it did little to directly support the details of the Bill; the Government supported the Bill as leading to a Select Committee, but would not in advance pledge support for whatever legislation
11776-414: The Laws relating to Apprentices and other young Persons employed in Cotton Factories and in Cotton Mills, and to make further Provisions in lieu thereof. ( 1 & 2 Will. 4 . c. 39) In 1831 Hobhouse introduced a further bill with – he claimed to the Commons – the support of the leading manufacturers who felt that "unless the House should step forward and interfere so as to put an end to the night-work in
11960-421: The Laws relating to the employment of child in Cotton Mills & Manufactories" which relaxed formal requirements for the service of legal documents on millowners (documents no longer had to specify all partners in the concern owning or running the mill; it would be adequate to identify the mill by the name by which it was generally known). The bill passed the Commons but was subject to a minor textual amendment by
12144-419: The Lords (adding the words "to include" ) and then received royal assent without the Commons first being made aware of (or agreeing to) the Lords' amendment. To rectify this inadvertent breach of privilege, a further Act (making no other change to the Act already passed) was promptly passed on the last day of the parliamentary session. Be it therefore enacted by the King's most Excellent Majesty, by and with
12328-430: The Name of the ostensible Proprietor or Title of the Firm by which the Proprietor or Proprietors of any such Mill or Factory are usually designated and known. II. And be it further enacted, That the Service of such Summons or Warrant on any principal Manager, Conductor, or Clerk of any Cotton Mill or Factory, during the usual Hours of working such Cotton Mill or Factory, shall be good and lawful Service. An Act to repeal
12512-416: The Old Bailey and the man who gave important information about capital offenders to the cabinet. One reason for the success of this Act was that transportation was financially costly. The system of sponsorship by merchants had to be improved. Initially the government rejected Thomson's proposal to pay merchants to transport convicts, but three months after the first transportation sentences were pronounced at
12696-413: The Old Bailey, his suggestion was proposed again, and the Treasury contracted Jonathan Forward , a London merchant, for the transportation to the colonies. The business was entrusted to Forward in 1718: for each prisoner transported overseas, he was paid £3 (equivalent to £590 in 2023), rising to £5 in 1727 (equivalent to £940 in 2023). The Treasury also paid for the transportation of prisoners from
12880-466: The Probation System was employed, where convicts spent an initial period, usually two years, in public works gangs on stations outside of the main settlements. They were then freed to work for wages within a set district. Transportation to Tasmania ended in 1853 (see section below on Cessation of Transportation ). Records on the individual convicts transported to Van Diemen’s Land or born there between 1803 and 1900 were being digitised as of 2019 as part of
13064-513: The Risdon Cove site inadequate, and in 1804 he established an alternative settlement on the western side of the river at Sullivan's Cove, Tasmania . This later became known as Hobart , and the original settlement at Risdon Cove was abandoned. Collins was appointed as the first Lieutenant-Governor of Van Diemen's Land. When the convict station on Norfolk Island was abandoned in 1807–1808, the remaining convicts and free settlers were transported to Hobart and allocated land for resettlement. However, as
13248-595: The Short Time Committees. Hobhouse's ban on nightwork up to 21 was retained; no child under nine was to be employed; and the working day for under-eighteens was to be no more than ten hours (eight on Saturday). These restrictions were to apply across all textile industries. The Second Reading debate on Sadler's bill did not take place until 16 March 1832, the Reform Bill having taken precedence over all other legislation. Meanwhile, petitions both for and against
13432-518: The South Pacific in 1770 made it the most suitable. On 18 August 1786, the decision was made to send a colonisation party of convicts, military, and civilian personnel to Botany Bay under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip , who was appointed as Governor of the new colony. There were 775 convicts on board six transport ships. They were accompanied by officials, members of the crew, marines,
13616-492: The Ten Hour Movement became thoroughly adversarial, the Ten Hour Movement attempting to organise a boycott of the commission's investigations: this was in sharp contrast with the commissioners' practice of dining with the leading manufacturers of the districts they visited. The commission's report did not support the more lurid details of Sadler's report – mills were not hotbeds of sexual immorality, and beating of children
13800-454: The Union. Most were persons accused of treasonous collaboration with Nazi Germany, or of Anti-Soviet rebellion. Following death of Joseph Stalin , most of them were rehabilitated. Populations targeted included Volga Germans , Chechens , and Caucasian Turkic populations. The transportations had a twofold objective: to remove potential liabilities from the warfront, and to provide human capital for
13984-417: The age which held that to be ill-advised. Under the Act, regulations and rules came into force on 2 December 1802 and applied to all textile mills and factories employing three or more apprentices or twenty employees. The buildings must have sufficient windows and openings for ventilation, and should be cleaned at least twice yearly with quicklime and water; this included ceilings and walls. Each apprentice
14168-530: The arrival of the Second Fleet . The "Memorandoms" by James Martin provide a contemporary account of the events as seen by a convict from the first fleet. The second fleet was a disaster and provided little in the way of help. In June 1790 it delivered additional sick and dying convicts, affected by the rigors of the lengthy journey. The situation worsened in Port Jackson. Lieutenant-General Sir Richard Bourke
14352-434: The arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove, a group of convicts and free settlers were sent to take control of Norfolk Island , a small island 1,412 kilometres (877 mi) east of the coast of New South Wales. More convicts were sent, and many of them proved to be unruly. In early 1789 they made a failed attempt to overthrow Lieutenant Philip Gidley King , the island's commandant. There were other hazards: HMS Sirius
14536-487: The bay would not be suitable for the establishment of a colony due to "the openness of this bay, and the dampness of the soil, by which the people would probably be rendered unhealthy". Phillip decided to examine Port Jackson , a bay mentioned by Captain Cook, about three leagues to the north. On 22 January 1788 a small expedition led by Phillips sailed to Port Jackson, arriving in the early afternoon: Here all regret arising from
14720-410: The best mine in the place, I cannot much err in coming to the conclusion, that the hardest labour in the worst-conducted factory is less hard, less cruel, and less demoralizing than the labour in the best of coal-mines". Nonetheless, the commission reported that mill children did work unduly long hours, leading to and that these ill-effects were so marked and significant that government intervention
14904-399: The bill. In 1837 Poulett Thomson announced his intention to bring in a factory bill; consequently Ashley, who had intended to introduce a ten-hour bill, dropped this, promising instead a ten-hour amendment to the government bill. No progress had been made with the government bill when the death of King William, and the consequent dissolution of parliament, brought the session to an end. In
15088-578: The border. After the termination of transportation to North America, British prisons became overcrowded, and dilapidated ships moored in various ports were pressed into service as floating gaols known as "hulks". Following an 18th-century experiment in transporting convicted prisoners to Cape Coast Castle (modern Ghana) and the Gorée (Senegal) in West Africa, British authorities turned their attention to New South Wales (in what would become Australia). From
15272-432: The city of Sydney . This date is celebrated as Australia Day . Initially the members of the first fleet suffered a high mortality rate , due mainly to starvation from shortages of food. The ships carried only enough food to provide for the settlers until they could establish agriculture in the region. There were an insufficient number of skilled farmers and domesticated livestock to achieve this. The colony had to await
15456-509: The collapse of the Soviet Union, in 1991. The Russian government today still sends their convicts and political prisoners to prisons that echo those of the Soviet Union. The journey to these prisons and labor camps is long and arduous. Factory Acts The Factory Acts were a series of acts passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom beginning in 1802 to regulate and improve
15640-457: The colonial expansion of European powers through the presence and labour of convicts." Convict George Barrington is (perhaps apocryphally) recorded as having written the prologue for the first theatrical play performed by convicts in Australia, one year after the First Fleet's arrival. It is known as "Our Country's Good", based on the now-famous closing stanza: The poems of Frank the Poet are among
15824-682: The colonies grew. The most influential spokesmen were newspaper proprietors who were also members of the Independent Congregational Church such as John Fairfax in Sydney and the Reverend John West in Launceston, who argued against convicts both as competition to honest free labourers and as the source of crime and vice within the colony. Bishop Bernard Ullathorne , a Catholic prelate who had been in Australia since 1832 returned for
16008-672: The colonies. Convicts were chosen carefully: the Acts of the Privy Council showed that prisoners "for strength of bodie or other abilities shall be thought fit to be employed in foreign discoveries or other services beyond the Seas". During the Commonwealth , Oliver Cromwell overcame the popular prejudice against subjecting Christians to slavery or selling them into foreign parts, and initiated group transportation of military and civilian prisoners. With
16192-402: The committee's report; when this abnormal procedure was objected to by other MPs, he withdrew the Bill. Sadler, as chairman of the committee, reported the minutes of evidence on 8 August 1832, when they were ordered to be printed. Parliament was prorogued shortly afterwards: Sadler gave notice of his intention to reintroduce a Ten-Hour Bill in the next session Sadler, however, was not an MP in
16376-504: The community, and who, by proper care and correction, might be reclaimed from their evil course"; they then passed the Criminal Law Act 1776 ( 16 Geo. 3 . c. 43) "An act to authorize ... the punishment by hard labour of offenders who, for certain crimes, are or shall become liable to be transported to any of his Majesty's colonies and plantations." For the ensuing decade, men were instead sentenced to hard labour and women were imprisoned. Finding alternative locations to send convicts
16560-510: The conditions of convicts in the colonies were inhumane. Although a concerted programme of prison building ensued, the Short Titles Act 1896 lists seven other laws relating to penal transportation in the first half of the 19th century. The system of criminal punishment by transportation, as it had developed over nearly 150 years, was officially ended in Britain in the 1850s, when that sentence
16744-510: The conditions of industrial employment. The early Acts concentrated on regulating the hours of work and moral welfare of young children employed in cotton mills but were effectively unenforced until the Act of 1833 established a professional Factory Inspectorate . The regulation of working hours was then extended to women by an Act of 1844. The Factories Act 1847 (known as the Ten Hour Act), together with Acts in 1850 and 1853 remedying defects in
16928-438: The continent, would differentiate it from America, where the use of convicts was only a minor adjunct to its overall policy. In 1787, when transportation resumed to the chosen Australian colonies, the far greater distance added to the terrible experience of exile, and it was considered more severe than the methods of imprisonment employed for the previous decade. The Transportation Act 1790 ( 30 Geo. 3 . c. 47) officially enacted
17112-523: The convict system, including the construction of the Convict Establishment itself. In 1852 a Convict Depot was built at Albany, but closed 3 years later. When shipping increased the Depot was re-opened. Most of the convicts had their Ticket-of-Leave and were hired to work by the free settlers. Convicts also crewed the pilot boat, rebuilt York Street and Stirling Terrace; and the track from Albany to Perth
17296-437: The cotton industry only, but covered all children, whether apprentices or not. It was seen through Parliament by Sir Robert Peel ; it had its origins in a draft prepared by Robert Owen in 1815 but the Act that emerged in 1819 was much watered-down from Owen's draft. It was also effectively unenforceable; enforcement was left to local magistrates, but they could only inspect a mill if two witnesses had given sworn statements that
17480-576: The crown against this interference with their legal rights, fearing that a reduction in punishments would cease to provide enough deterrence to the convicts. Bourke, however, was not dissuaded from his reforms. He continued to combat the inhumane treatment of convicts, and limited the number of convicts assigned to each employer to seventy. There was limited oversight of treatment of assigned convicts. Bourke granted rights to convicts who were freed after serving their sentences, such as allowing them to acquire property and serve on juries. It has been argued that
17664-575: The early 1600s until the American Revolution of 1776, the British colonies in North America received transported British criminals. Destinations were the island colonies of the West Indies and the mainland colonies that became the United States of America. In the 17th century transportation was carried out at the expense of the convicts or the shipowners. The Transportation Act 1717 allowed courts to sentence convicts to seven years' transportation to America. In 1720, an extension authorized payments by
17848-627: The east coast of Australia for Britain . Seeking to pre-empt the French colonial empire from expanding into the region, Britain chose Australia as the site of a penal colony, and in 1787, the First Fleet of eleven convict ships set sail for Botany Bay , arriving on 20 January 1788 to found Sydney , New South Wales , the first European settlement on the continent. Other penal colonies were later established in Van Diemen's Land ( Tasmania ) in 1803 and Queensland in 1824. Western Australia – established as
18032-406: The end of a convict's sentence, seven years in most cases, the convict was issued with a Certificate of Freedom . He was free to become a settler or to return to England. Convicts who misbehaved, however, were often sent to a place of secondary punishment, such as Port Arthur, Tasmania , or Norfolk Island , where they would suffer additional punishment and solitary confinement . Within a month of
18216-423: The end of the 17th century and beyond, but they diminished in 1670 due to certain complications. The colonial opposition was one of the main obstacles: colonies were unwilling to collaborate in accepting prisoners: the convicts represented a danger to the colony and were unwelcome. Maryland and Virginia enacted laws to prohibit transportation in 1670, and the king was persuaded to respect these. The penal system
18400-401: The evasive conduct of ministers and government apathy and complacency on factory reform. Peel (who normally, even in opposition, deprecated obstruction of government business by backbenchers ) supported Ashley: he held very different views on the issue from Ashley, but the issue was important, contentious, and should not be evaded : "so long as ineffectual attempts at legislation remained on
18584-510: The exception of those years, the Transportation Act led to a decrease in whipping of convicts, thus avoiding potentially inflammatory public displays. Clergyable discharge continued to be used when the accused could not be transported for reasons of age or infirmity. Penal transportation was not limited to men or even to adults. Men, women, and children were sentenced to transportation, but its implementation varied by sex and age. From 1660 to 1670, highway robbery, burglary , and horse theft were
18768-458: The existing small population was already having difficulties producing enough food, the sudden doubling of the population was almost catastrophic. Starting in 1816, more free settlers began arriving from Great Britain. On 3 December 1825 Tasmania was declared a colony separate from New South Wales , with a separate administration. The Macquarie Harbour penal colony on the West Coast of Tasmania
18952-485: The factory, and every month the apprentices should visit a church. They should be prepared for confirmation in the Church of England between the ages of 14 and 18 and must be examined by a clergyman at least once a year. Male and female apprentices were to sleep separately and not more than two per bed. Local magistrates had to appoint two inspectors known as 'visitors' to ensure that factories and mills were complying with
19136-465: The families thereof, and their own children who together totaled 645. In all, eleven ships were sent in what became known as the First Fleet . Other than the convict transports, there were two naval escorts and three storeships. The fleet assembled in Portsmouth and set sail on 13 May 1787. The eleven ships arrived at Botany Bay over the three-day period of 18 - 20 January 1788. It soon became clear that
19320-422: The few surviving literary works done by a convict while still incarcerated. His best-known work is "A Convict's Tour of Hell". A version of the convict ballad " Moreton Bay ", detailing the brutal punishments meted out by commandant Patrick Logan and his death at the hands of Aborigines, is also attributed to Frank. Other convict ballads include " Jim Jones at Botany Bay ". The ballad " Botany Bay ", which describes
19504-476: The first four years of their apprenticeship. The Act specified that this should be done every working day within usual working hours but did not state how much time should be set aside for it. Educational classes should be held in a part of the mill or factory designed for the purpose. Every Sunday, for one hour, apprentices were to be taught the Christian religion; every other Sunday, divine service should be held in
19688-457: The first general laws against child labour (the Factory Acts ) passed in the United Kingdom. Crime had become a major problem. In 1784, a French observer noted that "from sunset to dawn the environs of London became the patrimony of brigands for twenty miles around." Each parish had a watchman, but British cities did not have police forces in the modern sense. Jeremy Bentham strongly promoted
19872-540: The first permanent European settlement in Australia. This marked the beginning of the European colonisation of Australia . Violent conflict on the Australian frontier between indigenous Australians and the colonists began only months after the First Fleet landed, lasting over a century. Convicts forced to work in the bush on the frontier were sometimes the victims of indigenous attacks, while convicts and ex-convicts also attacked indigenous people in some instances, such as
20056-407: The former disappointments was at once obliterated; and Governor Phillip had the satisfaction to find one of the finest harbours in the world, in which a thousand sail of the line might ride in perfect security. The different coves of this harbour were examined with all possible expedition, and the preference was given to one which had the finest spring of water, and in which ships can anchor so close to
20240-465: The government or on hire from penal depots, the Exiles were free to work for pay, but could not leave the district to which they were assigned. The Port Phillip District was still part of New South Wales at this stage. Victoria separated from New South Wales and became an independent colony in 1851. In 1823 John Oxley sailed north from Sydney to inspect Port Curtis and Moreton Bay as possible sites for
20424-402: The growth of an immense population, plunged in ignorance and vice, which neither feared God, nor regarded man, then he warned them that they must be prepared for the very worst result that could befall a nation." In the 1839 session, Fox Maule revived the 1838 Bill with alterations. The literacy tests were gone, and the education clauses restored. The only other significant changes in the scope of
20608-415: The idea of a circular prison , but the penitentiary was seen by many government officials as a peculiar American concept. Virtually all malefactors were caught by informers or denounced to the local court by their victims. Pursuant to the so-called " Bloody Code ", by the 1770s some 222 crimes in Britain carried the death penalty . Almost all of these were crimes against property, including such offences as
20792-565: The industries legislated for. A network of "Short Time Committees" had grown up in the textile districts of Yorkshire and Lancashire, working for a "ten-hour day Act" for children, with many millhands in the Ten Hour Movement hoping that this would in practice also limit the adult working day. Witnesses to one of the Committees taking evidence on Peel's Bill had noted that there were few millworkers over forty, and that they themselves expected to have to stop mill work at that age because of "the pace of
20976-452: The judge's discretion, were to be transported to America, "there to remaine and not to returne". There were various influential agents of change: judges' discretionary powers influenced the law significantly, but the king's and Privy Council's opinions were decisive in granting a royal pardon from execution. The system changed one step at a time: in February 1663, after that first experiment,
21160-424: The legislation were that working extra hours to recover lost time was now only permitted for water-powered mills, and magistrates could not countersign surgeon's certificates if they were mill-owners or occupiers (or father, son, or brother of a mill-owner or occupier). Details of enforcement were altered; there was no longer any provision for inspectors to be magistrates ex officio , sub-inspectors were to have nearly
21344-488: The life of factory children caused by working a twelve-hour day. The inspectors appointed were also largely ineffective, simply because there were not enough of them to oversee all 4000 factories on the island. The idea of government-appointed inspectors would gain traction within the following decades, but for now, they were mostly figureheads. Three of the four inspectors had recommended in their first report that all children 12 or older should be allowed to work twelve hours
21528-468: The limited choice of sentences available to judges for convicted criminals. With modifications to the traditional benefit of clergy , which originally exempted only clergymen from the general criminal law, it developed into a legal fiction by which many common offenders of "clergyable" offences were extended the privilege to avoid execution. Many offenders were pardoned as it was considered unreasonable to execute them for relatively minor offences, but under
21712-427: The lot of factory children, it is often seen as paving the way for future Factory Acts. At best, it only partially paved the way; its restriction to apprentices (where there was a long tradition of legislation) meant that it was left to later Factory Acts to establish the principle of intervention by Parliament on humanitarian grounds on worker welfare issues against the "laissez-faire" political and economic orthodoxy of
21896-471: The mill was breaking the Act. An amending Act, the Labour in Cotton Mills, etc. Act 1819 ( 60 Geo. 3 & 1 Geo. 4 . c. 5) was passed in December 1819. When any accident disabled a factory (as had just happened at New Lanark), night working in the rest of the works by those who had previously worked in the affected factory was permitted until the accident was made good. In 1825 John Cam Hobhouse introduced
22080-400: The mill" unless working hours were reduced. Hobhouse advised Richard Oastler , an early and leading advocate of factory legislation for the woolen industry, that Hobhouse had got as much as he could, given the opposition of Scottish flax-spinners and "the state of public business": if Sadler put forward a Bill matching the aims of the Short Time Committees "he will not be allowed to proceed
22264-426: The next session: in the first election for the newly enfranchised two member constituency of Leeds he was beaten into third place by Thomas Babington Macaulay a Whig politician of national standing and John Marshall , the son of one of Leeds's leading millowners. Casting around for a new parliamentary advocate for factory reform, the short-time movement eventually secured the services of Lord Ashley , eldest son of
22448-457: The novel Papillon , a semi-autobiographical novel of his incarceration in and escape from a penal colony in French Guiana . The most significant individual transported prisoner is probably French army officer Alfred Dreyfus , wrongly convicted of treason in a trial in 1894, held in an atmosphere of antisemitism . He was sent to Devil's Island. The case became a cause célèbre known as
22632-526: The number of men whipped and released diminished, but whipping and discharge were chosen more often for women. The reverse was true when women were sentenced for a capital offence, but actually served a lesser sentence due to a manipulation of the penal system: one advantage of this sentence was that they could be discharged thanks to benefit of clergy while men were whipped. Women with young children were also supported since transportation unavoidably separated them. The facts and numbers revealed how transportation
22816-473: The offences most often punishable with transportation for men. In those years, five of the nine women who were transported after being sentenced to death were guilty of simple larceny, an offence for which benefit of clergy was not available for women until 1692. Also, merchants preferred young and able-bodied men for whom there was a demand in the colonies. All these factors meant that most women and children were simply left in jail. Some magistrates supported
23000-433: The offender from society, mostly permanently, but was seen as more merciful than capital punishment . This method was used for criminals, debtors, military prisoners, and political prisoners. Penal transportation was also used as a method of colonization . For example, from the earliest days of English colonial schemes, new settlements beyond the seas were seen as a way to alleviate domestic social problems of criminals and
23184-412: The official end of transportation. Transportation continued in small numbers to Western Australia. The last convict ship, Hougoumont , left Britain in 1867 and arrived in Western Australia on 10 January 1868. In all, about 164,000 convicts were transported to the Australian colonies between 1788 and 1868 onboard 806 ships. Convicts were made up of English and Welsh (70%), Irish (24%), Scottish (5%), and
23368-419: The poor as well as to increase the colonial labour force, for the overall benefit of the realm. Initially based on the royal prerogative of mercy , and later under English law , transportation was an alternative sentence imposed for a felony . It was typically imposed for offences for which death was deemed too severe. By 1670, as new felonies were defined, the option of being sentenced to transportation
23552-543: The practice of convict leasing in the United States. Transportation from Great Britain and Ireland ended at different times in different colonies, with the last being in 1868, although it had become uncommon several years earlier thanks to the loosening of laws in Britain, changing sentiment in Australia, and groups such as the Anti-Transportation League . In 2015, an estimated 20% of the Australian population had convict ancestry. In 2013, an estimated 30% of
23736-408: The present Bill was referred to one, it would not become a law this Session, and the necessity of legislating was so apparent, that he was unwilling to submit to the delay of a Committee, when he considered they could obtain no new evidence on the subject". In his long Second Reading speech, Sadler argued repeatedly that a Committee was unnecessary, but concluded by accepting that he had not convinced
23920-433: The present-day Sorrento, Victoria for the first settlement - some 90 km south of present-day Melbourne . About two months later the settlement was abandoned due to poor soil and water shortages and Collins moved the convicts to Hobart. Several convicts had escaped into the bush and were left behind to unknown fates with the local aboriginal people. One such convict, the subsequently celebrated William Buckley , lived in
24104-495: The previous orders in council into law, stating "his Majesty hath declared and appointed... that the eastern coast of New South Wales, and the islands thereunto adjacent, should be the place or places beyond the seas to which certain felons, and other offenders, should be conveyed and transported ... or other places". The act also gave "authority to remit or shorten the time or term" of the sentence "in cases where it shall appear that such felons, or other offenders, are proper objects of
24288-488: The principle of factory legislation; from the 1860s onwards more industries were brought within the Factory Act. The Health and Morals of Apprentices Act 1802 ( 42 Geo. 3 . c. 73) was introduced by Sir Robert Peel ; it addressed concerns felt by the medical men of Manchester about the health and welfare of children employed in cotton mills , and first expressed by them in 1784 in a report on an outbreak of 'putrid fever' at
24472-567: The remaining 1% from the British outposts in India and Canada, Maoris from New Zealand, Chinese from Hong Kong, and slaves from the Caribbean. Samuel Speed, who died 150 years after the arrival of the First Fleet, is believed to have been the last surviving transported convict. Born in Birmingham in 1841, he was transported to Western Australia in 1866 after deliberately committing a crime - setting fire to
24656-521: The resumption of transportation would be initially resolved by Orders in Council on 6 December 1786, by the decision to establish a penal colony in New South Wales , on land previously claimed for Britain in 1770, but as yet not settled by Britain or any other European power. The British policy toward Australia, specifically for use as a penal colony , within their overall plans to populate and colonise
24840-480: The rise of a well-coordinated anti-transportation movement, especially following a severe economic depression in the early 1840s. Transportation was temporarily suspended in 1846 but soon revived with overcrowding of British gaols and clamour for the availability of transportation as a deterrent. By the late 1840s most convicts being sent to Van Diemen's Land (plus those to Victoria ) were designated as "exiles" and were free to work for pay while under sentence. In 1850
25024-410: The royal mercy" At the beginning of the 19th century, transportation for life became the maximum penalty for several offences which had previously been punishable by death. With complaints starting in the 1830s, sentences of transportation became less common in 1840 since the system was perceived to be a failure: crime continued at high levels, people were not dissuaded from committing felonies, and
25208-449: The sadness felt by convicts forced to leave their loved ones in England, was written at least 40 years after the end of transportation. Penal transportation Penal transportation (or simply transportation ) was the relocation of convicted criminals, or other persons regarded as undesirable, to a distant place, often a colony , for a specified term; later, specifically established penal colonies became their destination. While
25392-456: The same enforcement powers as inspectors; unlike inspectors they could not examine witnesses on oath, but they now had the same right of entry into factory premises as inspectors. Declaring a schoolmaster incompetent was now to invalidate certificates of education issued by him, and a clause in the bill aimed to make it easier to establish and run a school for factory children; children at schools formed under this clause were not to be educated in
25576-477: The settlement and industrialization of the largely underpopulated eastern regions. The policy continued until February 1956, when Nikita Khrushchev in his speech, " On the Personality Cult and Its Consequences ", condemned the transportation as a violation of Leninist principles. Whilst the policy itself was rescinded, the transported populations did not begin to return to their original metropoles until after
25760-554: The settlement was transferred to the Swan River Colony, and the troops and convicts were withdrawn. In April 1848, Charles Fitzgerald , Governor of Western Australia , petitioned Britain to send convicts to his state because of labour shortages. Britain rejected sending fixed-term convicts, but offered to send first offenders in the final years of their terms. Most convicts in Western Australia spent very little time in prison. Those who were stationed at Fremantle were housed in
25944-496: The shore, that at a very small expence quays may be constructed at which the largest vessels may unload. This cove is about half a mile in length and a quarter of a mile across at the entrance. In honour of Lord Sydney, the Governor distinguished it by the name of Sydney Cove. There they established the first permanent European colony on the Australian continent, within New South Wales , on 26 January 1788. The area has since developed as
26128-406: The small factories where it was practised, it would be impossible for the large and respectable factories which conformed to the existing law to compete with them." The Act repealed the previous Acts, and consolidated their provisions in a single Act, which also introduced further restrictions. Night working was forbidden for anyone under 21 and if a mill had been working at night the onus of proof
26312-433: The specified hours in order to make up for lost time widened the limits to 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Hobhouse's Act of 1825 set the limits to 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. A parent's assertion of a child's age was sufficient, and relieved employers of any liability should the child in fact be younger. JPs who were millowners or the fathers or sons of millowners could not hear complaints under the act. In 1829, Parliament passed an "Act to Amend
26496-480: The stealing of goods worth over 5 shillings, the cutting down of a tree, the theft of an animal, even the theft of a rabbit from a warren . Because the Industrial Revolution economically displaced much of the working class, there was an increase in petty crime. The government was under pressure to find an alternative to confinement in overcrowded gaols . The situation was so dire that hulks left over from
26680-434: The suspension of convict transportation to New South Wales in 1840 can be attributed to the actions of Bourke and other like-minded men, such as Australian-born lawyer William Charles Wentworth . It took another 10 years, but transportation to the colony of New South Wales was finally officially abolished on 1 October 1850. If a convict was well behaved, the convict could be given a ticket of leave , granting some freedom. At
26864-496: The table of the house, the excitement of the manufacturing districts would continue to be kept up" Ashley's motion was lost narrowly 111 to 119. Ashley later attacked the government and its complacency and connivance at the shortcomings in the current Factory Act identified by the government's own Factory Inspectors: "After these representations .. by his own inspectors, how could the noble Lord opposite reconcile it with his conscience as an individual, and with his public duty as
27048-473: The terms of sentence initially being of the same duration as transportation. While transport was greatly reduced following enactment of the 1857 act, the last convicts sentenced to transportation arrived in Western Australia in 1868. During the 80 years of its use to Australia, the number of transported convicts totalled about 162,000 men and women. Over time the alternative terms of imprisonment would be somewhat reduced from their terms of transportation. From
27232-401: The time of the American Revolution , London was overcrowded, filled with the unemployed, and flooded with cheap gin . Poverty , social injustice , child labour , harsh and dirty living conditions and long working hours were prevalent in 19th-century Britain . Dickens 's novels perhaps best illustrate this; many government officials were horrified by what they saw. Only in 1833 and 1844 were
27416-466: The use of Select Committees for fact-finding on factory conditions. A Factory Commission was set up to investigate and report. Sadler and the Short Time Committees objected to any further fact-finding and attempted to obstruct the work of the Commissioners. Ashley's Bill proceeded to a Second Reading in early July 1833 (when the likely main recommendations of the Commission were known, but its report
27600-535: The western side of Port Phillip for the next 32 years before approaching the new settlers and assisting as an interpreter for the indigenous peoples. A second settlement was established at Westernport Bay , on the site of present-day Corinella , in November 1826. It comprised an initial 20 soldiers and 22 convicts, with another 12 convicts arriving subsequently. This settlement was abandoned in February 1828, and all convicts returned to Sydney. The Port Phillip District
27784-487: The western third of Australia was unclaimed land known as New Holland . Fears that France would lay claim to the land prompted the Governor of New South Wales , Ralph Darling , to send Major Edmund Lockyer , with troops and 23 convicts, to establish a settlement at King George Sound. Lockyer's party arrived on Christmas Day, 1826. A convict presence was maintained at the settlement for over four years. On 7 March 1831 control of
27968-491: The word 'monthly' was used, and one clause limited hours of work per week where a daily limit had been intended. A short amending Act was therefore passed in February 1834 The 1833 Act had few admirers in the textile districts when it came into force. The short-time movement objected to its substitution for Ashley's Bill, and hoped to secure a Ten-Hour Bill. Millowners resented and political economists deplored legislators' interference in response to public opinion, and hoped that
28152-551: The years 1865, 1866, and 1867, after which transportation would cease. In accordance with this, the last convict ship to Western Australia, Hougoumont , left Britain in 1867 and arrived in Western Australia on 10 January 1868. Between 1788 and 1852, about 24,000 transportees were women, one in seven. 80% of women had been convicted of theft, usually petty. For protection, many quickly attached themselves to male officers or convicts. Although they were routinely referred to as courtesans , no women were transported for prostitution, as it
28336-552: Was allowed. Depending on the crime, the sentence was imposed for life or for a set period of years. If imposed for a period of years, the offender was permitted to return home after serving their time, but had to make their own way back. Many offenders thus stayed in the colony as free persons, and might obtain employment as jailers or other servants of the penal colony. England transported an estimated 50,000 to 120,000 convicts and political prisoners, as well as prisoners of war from Scotland and Ireland , to its overseas colonies in
28520-403: Was also influenced by economics: the profits obtained from convicts' labour boosted the economy of the colonies and, consequently, of England. Nevertheless, it could be argued that transportation was economically deleterious because the aim was to enlarge population, not diminish it; but the character of an individual convict was likely to harm the economy. King William's War (1688–1697) (part of
28704-627: Was also settled as a penal colony, followed by the Moreton Bay Settlement (modern Brisbane , Queensland ) in 1824. The other Australian colonies were established as "free settlements", as non-convict colonies were known. However, the Swan River Colony (Western Australia) accepted transportation from England and Ireland in 1851, to resolve a long-standing labour shortage . Two penal settlements were established near modern-day Melbourne in Victoria but both were abandoned shortly after. Later,
28888-507: Was believed to inflict on the free (non- emancipist ) middle classes. Transportation to New South Wales temporarily ended 1840 under the Order-in-Council of 22 May 1840, by which time some 150,000 convicts had been sent to the colonies. The sending of convicts to Brisbane in its Moreton Bay district had ceased the previous year, and administration of Norfolk Island was later transferred to Van Diemen's Land. Opposition to transportation
29072-723: Was established in 1820 to exploit the valuable timber Huon Pine growing there for furniture making and shipbuilding. Macquarie Harbour had the added advantage of being almost impossible to escape from. Most attempts ended with fugitive convicts either drowning, dying of starvation in the bush, or (on at least three occasions) turning cannibal. Convicts sent to this settlement had usually re-offended during their sentence of transportation. They were treated very harshly, labouring in cold and wet weather, and subjected to severe corporal punishment for minor infractions. Several hundred non-indigenous black convicts were transported to Van Diemen's Land, most as punishment for speaking or acting against
29256-512: Was imposed on prisoners guilty of capital offences pardoned by the king. Returning from the colonies before the stated period was a capital offence. The bill was introduced by William Thomson , the Solicitor General , who was "the architect of the transportation policy". Thomson, a supporter of the Whigs, was Recorder of London and became a judge in 1729. He was a prominent sentencing officer at
29440-481: Was introduced into the House of Commons in 1717 under the Whig government. It legitimised transportation as a direct sentence, thus simplifying the penal process. Non-capital convicts (clergyable felons usually destined for branding on the thumb, and petty larceny convicts usually destined for public whipping) were directly sentenced to transportation to the American colonies for seven years. A sentence of fourteen years
29624-497: Was justified but where Sadler's Bill was for a ten-hour day for all workers under eighteen, the commission recommended an eight-hour day for those under thirteen, hoping for a two-shift system for them which would allow mills to run 16 hours a day. The Factory Act 1833 ( 3 & 4 Will. 4 . c. 103) was an attempt to establish a regular working day in textile manufacture. The act had the following provisions: The Act failed to specify whether lunar or calendar months were intended where
29808-570: Was less frequently applied to women and children because they were usually guilty of minor crimes and they were considered a minimal threat to the community. The outbreak of the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783) halted transportation to America. Parliament claimed that "the transportation of convicts to his Majesty's colonies and plantations in America ;... is found to be attended with various inconveniences, particularly by depriving this kingdom of many subjects whose labour might be useful to
29992-400: Was made into a good road. An Albany newspaper noted their commendable behaviour and wrote, "There were instances in which our free settlers might take an example". Western Australia's convict era came to an end with the cessation of penal transportation by Britain. In May 1865, the colony was advised of the change in British policy, and told that Britain would send one convict ship in each of
30176-451: Was much less common than Sadler had asserted (and was dying out). Major millowners such as the Strutts did not tolerate it (and indeed were distinguished by their assiduous benevolence to their employees). Working conditions for mill-children were preferable to those in other industries: after a visit to the coal mine at Worsley one of the commission staff had written "as this was said to be
30360-489: Was much that required remedy. He doubted whether shortening the hours of work would be injurious even to the interests of the manufacturers; as the children would be able, while they were employed, to pursue their occupation with greater vigour and activity. At the same time, there was nothing to warrant a comparison with the condition of the negroes in the West Indies. Hobhouse's bill also sought to limit hours worked to eleven
30544-596: Was not a transportable offence. Approximately 3,600 political prisoners were transported to the Australian colonies, many of whom arrived in waves corresponding to political unrest in Britain and Ireland. They included the First Scottish Martyrs in 1794; British Naval Mutineers (from the Nore Mutiny) in 1797 and 1801; Irish rebels in 1798 , 1803 , 1848 and 1868 ; Cato Street Conspirators (1820); Scots Rebels (1820); Yorkshire Rebels (1820 and 1822); leaders of
30728-536: Was not easy, and the act was extended twice by the Criminal Law Act 1778 ( 18 Geo. 3 . c. 62) and the Criminal Law Act 1779 ( 19 Geo. 3 . c. 54). This resulted in a 1779 inquiry by a parliamentary committee on the entire subject of transportation and punishment; initially the Penitentiary Act 1779 was passed, introducing a policy of state prisons as a measure to reform the system of overcrowded prison hulks that had developed, but no prisons were ever built as
30912-554: Was not unanimous; wealthy landowner, Benjamin Boyd , for reasons of economic self-interest, wanted to use transported convicts from Van Diemen's Land as a source of free or low-cost labour in New South Wales, particularly as shepherds. The final transport of convicts to New South Wales occurred in 1850, with some 1,400 convicts transported between the Order-in-Council and that date. The continuation of transportation to Van Diemen's Land saw
31096-498: Was not used by Scotland before the Act of Union 1707 ; following union, the Transportation Act 1717 specifically excluded its use in Scotland. Under the Transportation, etc. Act 1785 ( 25 Geo. 3 . c. 46) the Parliament of Great Britain specifically extended the usage of transportation to Scotland. It remained little used under Scots Law until the early 19th century. In Australia, a convict who had served part of his time might apply for
31280-427: Was not yet available to MPs); Ashley wanted the Bill to then be considered by a Committee of the whole House and defeated Lord Althorp 's amendment to refer the Bill to a Select Committee. However at Committee stage the first point considered where the Bill differed from the Commission's was the age up to which hours of work should be limited Ashley lost (heavily) the vote on this, and left it to Althorp to pilot through
31464-431: Was now in the power of the workmen to ruin many individuals, by enforcing the penalties for children working beyond the hours limited by that act" and that this showed to him that the best course of action was to repeal the 1819 Act. On the other hand, another millowner MP supported Hobhouse's Bill saying that he agreed that, the bill was loudly called for, and, as the proprietor of a large manufactory, admitted that there
31648-518: Was officially sanctioned in 1837 following the landing of the Henty brothers in Portland Bay in 1834, and John Batman settled on the site of Melbourne . Between 1844 and 1849 about 1,750 convicts arrived there from England. They were referred to either as "Exiles" or the "Pentonvillians" because most of them came from Pentonville Probationary Prison. Unlike earlier convicts who were required to work for
31832-402: Was on the millowner (to show nobody under-age had been employed). The limitation of working hours to twelve now applied up to age eighteen. Complaints could only be pursued if made within three weeks of the offence; on the other hand justices of the peace who were the brothers of millowners were now also debarred from hearing Factory Act cases. Hobhouse's claim of general support was optimistic;
32016-493: Was presented in Virginia to discourage transportation by establishing complex rules for the reception of prisoners, but the reluctance of colonies did not stop transportation. In a few cases before 1734, the court changed sentences of transportation to sentences of branding on the thumb or whipping, by convicting the accused for lesser crimes than those of which they were accused. This manipulation phase came to an end in 1734. With
32200-588: Was published at the end of the 1834-5 parliamentary session, but was not taken forward in the next session, being pre-empted by a government bill introduced by Charles Poulett Thomson , the President of the Board of Trade , allowing children twelve or over to work twelve hours a day. The second reading of Poulett Thomson's Bill was opposed by Ashley, who denounced the bill as a feeler towards total repeal of protection for factory children. The Bill passed its second reading by
32384-509: Was shut down in 1945. An estimated 80,000 political prisoners were transported to the Cellular Jail which became known for its harsh conditions, including forced labor; prisoners who went on hunger strikes were frequently force-fed . France transported convicts to Devil's Island and New Caledonia in the 19th and early-to-mid 20th centuries. Devil's Island, a French penal colony in Guiana ,
32568-449: Was substituted by imprisonment with penal servitude , and intended to punish. The Penal Servitude Act 1853 ( 16 & 17 Vict. c. 99), long titled "An Act to substitute, in certain Cases, other Punishment in lieu of Transportation," enacted that with judicial discretion, lesser felonies, those subject to transportation for less than 14 years, could be sentenced to imprisonment with labour for
32752-488: Was that Sadler's Bill should be revived and passed. However, when Ashley introduced a Bill essentially reproducing Sadler's, MPs criticised both the report (since the only witnesses heard had been Sadler's, the report was unbalanced; since witnesses had not testified on oath, doubts were expressed about the accuracy/veracity of the more lurid accounts of factory life) and Sadler's conduct. 'An air of ridicule and extravagance' had been thrown not upon factory legislation, but upon
32936-476: Was the ninth Governor of the Colony of New South Wales, serving between 1831 and 1837. Appalled by the excessive punishments doled out to convicts during their imprisonment and work assignments, Bourke passed 'The Magistrates Act', which limited the sentence a magistrate could pass to fifty lashes (previously there was no such limit). Bourke's administration was controversial. Furious magistrates and employers petitioned
33120-399: Was the preferred method of punishment. Many changes were made to the manner in which convicts were handled in the general population, largely responsive to British public opinion on the harshness of their treatment. Until the late 1830s, most convicts were either retained by the Government for public works or assigned to private individuals as a form of indentured labour. From the early 1840s
33304-420: Was the preferred punishment. There were several obstacles to the use of transportation. In 1706 the reading test for claiming benefit of clergy was abolished ( 6 Ann. c. 9). This allowed judges to sentence "clergyable" offenders to a workhouse or a house of correction . But the punishments that then applied were not enough of a disincentive to commit crime: another solution was needed. The Transportation Act
33488-501: Was to be given two sets of clothing, suitable linen, stockings, hats, and shoes, and a new set each year thereafter. Apprentices could not work during the night (between 9 pm and 6 am), and their working hours could not exceed 12 hours a day, excluding the time taken for breaks. A grace period was provided to allow factories time to adjust, but all night-time working by apprentices was to be discontinued by June 1804. All apprentices were to be educated in reading, writing and arithmetic for
33672-469: Was used for transportation from 1852 to 1953. New Caledonia became a French penal colony from the 1860s until the end of the transportations in 1897; about 22,000 criminals and political prisoners (most notably Communards ) were sent to New Caledonia. Henri Charrière (16 November 1906 – 29 July 1973) was a French writer, convicted in 1931 as a murderer by the French courts and pardoned in 1970. He wrote
33856-556: Was wrecked on one of the island's reefs while attempting to land stores. In 1803, a British expedition was sent from Sydney to Tasmania (then known as Van Diemen's Land ) to establish a new penal colony there. The small party, led by Lt. John Bowen, established a settlement at Risdon Cove, on the eastern side of the Derwent River. Originally sent to Port Philip, but abandoned within weeks, another expedition led by Lieutenant-Colonel David Collins arrived soon after. Collins considered
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