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

Almost as soon as British convict transportation to America ended, Americans began to downplay the numbers and significance of convicts sent to the colonies. In 1786, Thomas Jefferson led the way by claiming,

The Malefactors sent to America were not sufficient in number to merit enumeration as one class out of three which peopled America. It was at a late period of their history that the practice began. I have no book by me which enables me to point out the date of its commencement. But I do not think the whole number sent would amount to 2000 & being principally men eaten up with disease, they married seldom & propagated little. I do not suppose that themselves & their descendants are at present 4000, which is little more than one thousandth part of the whole inhabitants.

Jefferson should have known better. The British were sending nearly 1,000 convicts to America each year around the time he wrote the Declaration of Independence, and about half of them ended up in his own home state of Virginia.

Much Higher Numbers

Nineteenth-century historians participated in this cover-up as well. Most of them ignored the institution of convict transportation to America, and those who did recognize it usually claimed that most of the people who were transported were political prisoners. Not until 1896, when an article on convict transportation by J. D. Butler appeared in the American Historical Review, did this thinking begin to change. Butler pointed out that the majority of convicts shipped to America during the colonial period were decidedly not political prisoners and that their numbers were much higher than previously reported. After the appearance of Butler’s essay, historians in the twentieth century finally began to research convict transportation to America in a serious and systematic way.

Today, historians of convict transportation to America have settled on much higher numbers than those cited in the nineteenth century. Of the 585,800 immigrants to the thirteen colonies during the years 1700-1775, about 52,200 were convicts and prisoners (9 percent of the total). During these same years, slaves by far constituted the largest group of immigrants (278,400; 47%), followed by people arriving with their freedom (151,600; 26%) and indentured servants (96,600; 18%). Note that almost three quarters of all the people arriving in the American colonies during this time period did so without their freedom.

These numbers account for immigrants arriving in America from all countries during these years. When the numbers arriving in America from Great Britain are examined in isolation, the percentage of immigrants who were convicts is of course much higher. From 1718 to 1775, when the Transportation Act was in full force, convicts accounted for one-quarter of all immigrants arriving in the American colonies from the British Isles. Either way, the numbers are much higher than the “one thousandth part of the whole inhabitants” cited by Jefferson.

Short Stories, Momentous Events

This series on convict transportation to the American colonies began with the story of James Bell, who in 1723 was caught stealing a book and was sentenced to transportation for a 7 year term. Other than the description of his criminal act at his trial in the Proceedings of the Old Bailey and the appearance of his name on a convict shipping list, we do not know much more about his story. More well-known and hardened criminals were certainly transported to America, but Bell’s story is more typical of the thousands of petty thieves who received a sentence of transportation for their crime.

Even though Bell’s story of petty theft is short and lacks detail, the event turned out to be a momentous one for him. In being sentenced to transportation, he joined the ranks of thousands of others who could tell a similar story. Transportation to the American colonies constituted a major transformation in the lives of the people who received this punishment–a transformation so profound that they probably never could have conceived of what was in store for them before it actually happened to them. For what could very well have been an impulsive act, Bell was sent on an epic journey across the ocean and into the unknown.

Modern Resonances

The history of convict transportation has modern resonances that are hard to ignore. In recent years, drug crimes in the United States have soared and strict sentencing laws meant to contain such activity have led to a dramatic increased in the prison population. Today, more than 1 out of every 100 adults is now locked away behind bars in the United States. Convicts who have committed a wide range of offenses are housed in overcrowded and dangerous conditions, often with nothing to do all day. Prison gangs are rampant, and violent clashes between rival gangs and guards are common. Many prisoners have become institutionalized and see prison as their only and most comfortable way of life. This description of the state of the criminal justice system in the U.S. today is not far from what characterized England’s in the eighteenth century.

The United States is in dire need of finding new solutions to its prison problem. The cost of housing convicts is draining government coffers, and some states have even tried to contract out the management of its criminal offenders to private prisons. In the eighteenth century, England took the radical step of partnering with private firms to create a new form of criminal punishment that was surprisingly efficient in its administration. The result was convict transportation to America. Can the history of convict transportation to colonial America help the United States to rethink the way it handles its criminal offenders today? The answer to this question hinges on evaluating the success of Britain’s new system of punishment in the eighteenth century.

Winners and Losers

When convict transportation to America had reached its height after mid-century, the British government was ambivalent about the success of this enterprise and sought alternatives, although none of them proved satisfactory enough to displace it. The stories and experiences of the various groups involved in convict transportation offer different shades of light on the success of convict transportation. All of them must be taken into account when evaluating how effective the punishment ultimately was in diminishing the crime rate, rehabilitating the offenders, and establishing new lives for the convicts.

There were many winners in the practice of transportation. Convict merchants, who specialized in moving this form of human cargo across the Atlantic, made a fortune. Plantation owners were also beneficiaries of this form of punishment by taking advantage of the cheap labor that convicts provided. There were risks, to be sure. Convicts with ill temperaments could disrupt plantation life, and many convicts jeopardized plantation owners’ investment in them by escaping and running away. Even so, planters quickly bought up convicts almost as soon as they arrived in port, because they were such a bargain. The British government probably benefited the most. Not only was it able to empty its jails of convicts at minimal cost, but it could pass their convicted felons off on someone else and forget about them as soon as they set foot on American shores.

The convicts, for the most part, were the losers. Some of the transported convicts ended up thriving in their new setting. Many, however, died during their trip overseas before they even arrived in America. Others were mistreated by their new masters once they did arrive. Most of them, uprooted from their family and friends in England and shipped off to a strange land, either ran away or served out their terms before disappearing into obscurity.

Convict transportation played a significant role in the workings of colonial America. In the same way that Australia has learned to acknowledge and embrace its criminal legacy, America needs to come to terms with its similar criminal past. The history of convict transportation to colonial America asks Americans to re-examine their roots and compels them to recognize the contribution of British convicts such as James Bell in establishing and populating what would eventually become the United States.

Resources for this article:

• Butler, James Davie. “British Convicts Shipped to American Colonies.” American Historical Review 2.1 (1896): 12-33.
• Fogleman, Aaron S. “From Slaves, Convicts, and Servants to Free Passengers: The Transformation of Immigration in the Era of the American Revolution.” The Journal of American History 85.1 (1998): 43-76.
• Jefferson, Thomas. The Writings of Thomas Jefferson. Ed. Paul Leicester Ford. Vol. IV. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1894.
• Liptak, Adam. “More Than 1 in 100 Adults Are Now in Prison in U.S.” The New York Times Friday, February 29, 2008, National Report: A14.
• Morgan, Kenneth. “Convict Transportation to Colonial America (Review of A. Roger Ekirch, Bound for America: The Transportation of British Convicts to the Colonies, 1718-1775).” Reviews in American History 17.1 (1989): 29-34.
• Old Bailey Proceedings. (www.oldbaileyonline.org, 7 April 2008), January 1723, trial of James Bell (t17230116-9).

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.

The American Revolution brought an abrupt end to the British practice of transporting convicts to America. Back in England, the supposedly temporary solution of housing convicts on prison hulks in the River Thames to relieve prison overcrowding only had a short-term effect, because it wasn’t long before the hulks were completely filled with prisoners as well. Once the British lost the war in America, they also lost any hope of once again using the American colonies as a means of emptying its jails and prisons. The temporary prison hulks, and their dreadful living conditions, began to look like they were going to become permanent.

The British criminal justice system had clearly become addicted to convict transportation. The government had come to rely on the low-cost expedient of transporting its unwanted convicts to America. In fact, near the tail-end of the practice, convict transportation didn’t cost the government a dime, since the sale of convicts in America was so profitable that merchants were lining up to transport them for free. Years went by as Parliament resisted expensive solutions, such as building newer and bigger penitentiaries, and tested failed alternatives, including settling convicts in West Africa and increasing the use of the death penalty.

The Secret Convict Trade

In the summer of 1783, the British government decided to push the issue of convict transportation with America, since no treaty or law specifically banned the practice. It hired George Moore, a London merchant, to transport 143 prisoners to America by offering him ₤500 and whatever profits he could receive from selling the convicts. To help him out, Moore established contact with a prominent merchant in Maryland, George Salmon, who believed that the two could make a fortune selling convicts once again in America.

Salmon was confident that with no law prohibiting the import of convicts to America and with his significant political connections, he could overcome any potential legal obstacles to the scheme. Even so, George Moore and George Salmon decided to disguise their human cargo as indentured servants and list the ship that was to transport them–which was fittingly called the George–as headed to Nova Scotia. That way, once the ship landed in Maryland, it could claim that it did so in distress, even if the true identity of its cargo were discovered. They even renamed the ship to the Swift to help further obscure its true purpose.

The new name of the ship, it turns out, was not nearly as fitting as its original one. Soon after the Swift departed, the convicts rebelled, took over the ship, and ran it aground on the Sussex coast. About one quarter of the convicts managed to escape, although some of them were caught and consequently executed. After spending a month in Portsmouth, the Swift started out once again for Maryland, this time with only 104 convicts.

The Swift finally arrived in Baltimore on Christmas Eve, and as planned the captain informed the authorities that the ship had run out of provisions and was forced to cut short its voyage to Nova Scotia. What they hadn’t planned is that news of the hoax had reached Maryland before their arrival. Members of the state assembly in Annapolis were outraged when they first learned of the plan, but when they officially received word on Christmas day that the ship had indeed landed, they were already on recess for the holiday and could not take up any legislation to block the ship’s entry.

The sale of the convicts went ahead as planned, although demand was low. Only 30 of the convicts on board were sold by mid-January, and several of the convicts who were purchased had already run away from their masters. Moore and Salmon managed to sell most of the convicts by the spring, but they incurred serious losses after having to provide food, clothing, and medicine for the convicts who languished on board the ship until they were sold. Furthermore, the convicts sold for low prices and the planters whose convicts ran away refused to honor their debts to the two sellers.

Despite these troubles, Moore attempted another voyage with 179 convicts in April 1784. Once again, the convicts rebelled. The ship finally made it across the Atlantic after a long trip, but unlike the first time, no American port would allow it to enter. The convicts were finally unloaded in British Honduras, which was none too happy to receive them.

Hugh Williamson, a Congressional representative from North Carolina, said of the attempts to transport convicts to America, “Perhaps a greater insult to any Nation could hardly have been offered.” To erase any legal ambiguity about shipping convicts to American soil, Congress passed a law in 1788 that specifically prohibited the import of convicts from Europe. The era of convict transportation to America had officially come to an end.

Australia

After the botched attempts to reestablish the practice of transporting convicts to America, Great Britain was now on its own in finding an alternative. Back in 1779, Sir Joseph Banks, a naturalist who had accompanied Captain James Cook on an expedition through the South Pacific, had recommended New South Wales as a suitable destination for convicts. However, the estimated cost of ₤30 per head to ship convicts there, six times what it had cost the government to transport convicts to America, quickly put the proposal to rest. Now in a desperate spot, the British government was forced to reconsider its decision. In August 1786, it approved sending convicts half-way around the world to New South Wales.

The first fleet of 11 ships carrying 548 male and 188 female convicts set sail from England to Australia on May 3, 1787. These convicts faced very different experiences from their American cousins when they landed and were put to work in a penal colony in Botany Bay. Convicts sent to America were never placed in a penal colony and instead were generally sold off to private plantation owners. Convicts sent to Australia, on the other hand, were under much tighter control. They fell under the direct supervision of the government and were subject to convict discipline, including the use of chain gangs, convict barracks, slop clothing, and forced labor. They could not buy their freedom, as convicts shipped to America could. Convict servants in America were essentially treated like indentured servants, so they could basically blend in with the general population. In Australia, convicts and indentured servants were distinct.

Many believed that transportation to Australia would mean the end of the prison hulks in the Thames, but it wasn’t to be. The hulks remained for another 70 years, and convicts sentenced to transportation to Australia were first housed in the hulks to await their passage. If the hulks were too crowded, then the prisoners were sent to Newgate or other surrounding prisons.

Over 165,000 convicts were sent to Australia, more than triple the number sent to colonial America, before the practice was officially abolished in 1850. The first four years of transporting convicts to New South Wales cost the British government a staggering ₤574,592. If Parliament had known the cost to establish a penal colony in Australia would be so high, it probably would never have approved the plan.

Resources for this article:

• Campbell, Charles. The Intolerable Hulks: British Shipboard Confinement 1776-1857. Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1994.
• Colquhoun, Patrick. A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis; Containing a Detail of the Various Crimes and Misdemeanors … And Suggesting Remedies for Their Prevention. 5 ed. London: Printed by H. Fry, for C. Dilly, 1797. Database: Eighteenth Century Collections Online: Gale.
• Ekirch, A. Roger. “Great Britain’s Secret Convict Trade to America, 1783-1784.” The American Historical Review 89.5 (1984): 1285-91.
• Hughes, Robert. The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia’s Founding. New York: Vintage, 1986.
• Keneally, Thomas. A Commonwealth of Thieves: The Improbable Birth of Australia. New York: Nan A. Talese, 2006.
• Kercher, Bruce. “Perish or Prosper: The Law and Convict Transportation in the British Empire, 1700-1850.” Law and History Review 21.3 (2003): 527-84.
• Williamson, Hugh. “Hugh Williamson to Samuel Johnston [October 17, 1788].” Letters of Delegates to Congress. Vol. 25: March 1, 1788-December 31, 1789, p. 433. Database: American Memory: Library of Congress.

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.

The American Revolution ended the British practice of transporting convicts to the American colonies and threw Great Britain’s criminal justice system into chaos. With no place to send its convicted felons, and without a back-up plan in place, England suddenly saw its prisons and jails quickly filling beyond their capacity. The British Parliament needed to act quickly before the crisis of prison overcrowding turned into a complete catastrophe.

William Eden’s Solution

In 1775, William Eden, the Home Office secretary, was charged with finding a solution to the crisis of prison overpopulation, now that England could no longer send its convicted felons to America. Eden estimated that England would need to find new accommodations for 1,000 convicts each year, and since the country’s prisons and jails were already overcrowded, there literally wasn’t any place to put them.

Both Eden and the British Parliament predicted that the American market for British convicts would open up again at the conclusion of the war with America. With this belief in mind, Eden proposed creating a system of prison hulks by docking in English waters ships that had been originally used to transport convicts to America. These ships would then serve as temporary places of confinement for England’s prisoners until they could be transferred once again to America.

Eden immediately put his idea into practice. Starting in 1775, convicts were housed in the Censor and Justitia prison hulks at Woolwich and were put to work dredging the Thames and building docks and an arsenal. Had Eden not come up with the idea of housing convicts on these ships, prison conditions on land probably would have deteriorated to an even greater degree than what would eventually occur on board the newly appointed prison hulks.

Parliamentary Approval

Soon after placing the convicts in the newly created hulks, Eden presented two bills before Parliament: one to authorize for two years what was already taking place–namely the housing of convicts on board the ships and the use of their labor on public works projects–and one that called for the erection of a penitentiary.

Even though convicts were already residing in prison hulks on the Thames, passage of a bill authorizing the practice was far from certain. George Johnstone, a former governor of West Florida, argued against the hulk bill, contending that convicts should be sent to the West Indies or Canada instead. Johnstone’s argument was countered by those who pointed out that colonies that have remained loyal to the British government should not be punished by having convicts forcibly dumped on them. And unlike Maryland and Virginia, his critics continued, these areas have little need for cheap convict labor, especially in the West Indies where there was already an abundance of slave labor. A market for convict servants simply did not exist in these colonies.

In the end, resistance to the hulk bill was not enough to prevent its approval by Parliament in May 1776, although some doubt about the success of this scheme lingered. During the same session, Parliament passed a provision empowering every county in England to create a house of correction. Convicts under sentence of death could then be granted mercy and be sentenced to hard labor at these institutions for a term not exceeding ten years, during which time they should “be fed and sustained with bread, and any coarse or inferior food and water or small beer.”

The second bill that Eden proposed to Parliament, the penitentiary bill, was not passed until three years after approval of the hulk bill. This later bill not only authorized building a new penitentiary, but it extended the use of prison hulks for another five years. It also set terms of confinement on board the hulks: offenders liable to 7 years transportation could be sentenced to not less than one year or more than five, and offenders sentenced to transportation for 14 years could have their terms commuted to 7 years on board the prison hulks.

Superintendent of the Thames Area

After passing the first hulk bill, Parliament decided that the prison hulks at Woolwich needed someone to manage them. In the summer of 1776 it awarded the position of Superintendent of the Thames Area to Duncan Campbell, who years earlier had failed to secure the position of Contractor for Transports to the Government. Despite his failure back then to secure this position, Campbell nonetheless maintained influential friends in the House of Commons, and they handed him this new position as compensation for the loss of his convict transportation business due to the war in America. Campbell was now responsible for the welfare of 510 male convicts housed in the prison hulks along the Thames.

Prisoners on board the hulks were boarded in the lower decks of the ship, while officers were housed in the stern. The above-deck forecastle of the ship was reserved for the sick, so that breezes could carry away the smells and the infected air emanating from them. During the day, prisoners were removed from the ship and put to work. At night, prisoners slept side-by-side on wooden platforms measuring six feet long and four feet wide. The two prisoners shared a single straw pad and one blanket, both of which often carried vermin.

Just as on convict ships, gaol fever (typhus) and other diseases rapidly ran through the prisoners housed on the hulks. Of the 632 convicts who were confined on board the hulks between August 1776 to April 1778, 176 died. During the first twenty years of the hulks’ existence, around 8,000 prisoners were housed on them and almost 2,000 of them died. This 25 percent death rate on board the prison hulks almost doubles the 12-14 percent death rate of the convict ships.

Despite the original intention of prison hulks serving as a temporary expedient to prison overcrowding in England, they remained an integral part of the British criminal justice system for the next 80 years.

Resources for this article:

• Campbell, Charles. The Intolerable Hulks: British Shipboard Confinement 1776-1857. Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, 1994.
• 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.
• Colquhoun, Patrick. A Treatise on the Police of the Metropolis; Containing a Detail of the Various Crimes and Misdemeanors … And Suggesting Remedies for Their Prevention. 5 ed. London: Printed by H. Fry, for C. Dilly, 1797. Database: Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Gale.
• “London, May 24.” The Virginia Gazette (Dixon and Hunter) October 11, 1776, p. 4. Database: CW Digital Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

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.

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

The Last of the Convict Merchants

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

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

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

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

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

The American Revolution

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

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

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

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

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

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

New Immigration Trends

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

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

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

Resources for this article:

• Beattie, J. M. Crime and the Courts in England, 1660-1800. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1986.
• Boswell, James. Life of Johnson. Ed. R. W. Chapman. Oxford World’s Classics. New York: Oxford University Press, 1970.
• 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.
• Ekirch, A. Roger. Bound for America: The Transportation of British Convicts to the Colonies, 1718-1775. New York: Oxford University Press, 1987.
• Fogleman, Aaron S. “From Slaves, Convicts, and Servants to Free Passengers: The Transformation of Immigration in the Era of the American Revolution.” The Journal of American History 85.1 (1998): 43-76.
• “London, July 4.” The Virginia Gazette (Dixon and Hunter) September 16, 1775, p. 3. Database: CW Digital Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

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.

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

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

Critiques in the Press

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

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

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

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

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

Support in the Press

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

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

Second Thoughts

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

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

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

Resources for this article:

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

Learn More About Convict Transportation

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

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

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

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

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

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

Visit Pickpocket Publishing for more details.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Convicts Transported on the Pretty Patsy

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

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

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

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

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

Women Transported on the Loyal Margaret

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

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

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

Resources for this article:

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

Learn More About Convict Transportation

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

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

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

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

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

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

Visit Pickpocket Publishing for more details.

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

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

Freedom Dues

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

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

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

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

What Happened to the Convicts?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Resources for this article:

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

Learn More About Convict Transportation

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

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

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

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

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

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

Visit Pickpocket Publishing for more details.

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

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

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

Early Trouble

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

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

Transportation to America

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

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

On Trial

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

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

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

Resources for this article:

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

Learn More About Convict Transportation

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

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

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

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

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

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

Visit Pickpocket Publishing for more details.

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

Most of the convicts who were sent to America from Great Britain stayed in America, but some made it back to their home country, legally or illegally. Convicts who escaped, ran away, or purchased their freedom soon after landing in America had a greater likelihood of making the trip back across the Atlantic than convicts who ran away after several years had passed or who finished their terms of service.

“The WAY that Convicts return from Transportation”

Convicts who belonged to criminal gangs were more likely to return to England from America, basically because these gangs provided a support system for any member who was caught by the authorities. Gangs had a ready-made list of false witnesses who could provide alibis for any member who was caught and brought to trial. If that member was still found guilty and sentenced to transportation, the gang provided money for the convict to purchase privileges on board the ship, his or her freedom once the ship landed, and a trip back to England.

In his best-selling book that gives a full account of his criminal career and exposes the common practices of criminals, John Poulter describes the method by which convicts returned from transportation:

After they are in an Part of North America, the general Way is this, just before they go on board a Ship, their Friend or Accomplices purchase them their Freedom from the Merchant or Captain that belongs to the said Ship, for about ten Pound Sterling, some gives more and some less; then the Friend of the Convict or Convicts, get a Note from the Merchant, or Captain, that the Person is free to go unmolested when the Ships arrive between the Capes of Virginia, where they please.

Once the convicts secured their freedom, Poulter continues, they then looked for a ship that would take them back to England.

Convicts almost never returned on the same ship that brought them to America. The risk of taking a convict back across the Atlantic would have been too great for the convict merchants. The British government prohibited them from helping any convict to return to England, and if they were ever caught doing so, it would have jeopardized their highly profitable business. There were plenty of other ships, however, that were willing to take paying passengers back to England. Convicts who did not have enough money would look for opportunities to work on board the ship as compensation for their passage.

If convicts could not secure their freedom upon arrival, Poulter says, they would run away from their master, and “lay in the Woods by Day, and travel by Night for Philadelphia, New York, or Boston, in which Place no Questions are asked them.” Poulter goes on to claim that the ease by which convicts could return from transportation “encourages a great many to commit Robberies more than they would, because they say they do not mind Transportation, it being but four or five Months Pleasure, for they can get their Freedom and come home again.”

At his trial, the transported convict Bampfylde-Moore Carew expressed the kind of nonchalant attitude towards transportation that Poulter contends was typical. After the judge passed a sentence of transportation and told Carew that he would now “proceed to a hotter Country,” the convict

enquired into what Climate, and being told Merryland, he with great Composure made a critical Observation on the Pronunciation of that Word, implying, that he apprehended it ought to be pronounced Maryland, and added, it would save him Five Pounds for his Passage, as he was very desirous of seeing that Country.

Carew later escaped just as he was being sold to some planters, but he was eventually caught. As punishment, the captain had him flogged with a cat o’ nine tails and secured an iron collar around his neck to prevent him from escaping again.

Poulter concludes his section on convict transportation by offering an unwieldy bureaucratic solution to the problem of returning convicts. First, he recommends fining any merchant or captain who frees a convict upon arrival. Then he proposes that anyone bound homeward on a ship should be required to publish publicly his or her name and intent to travel abroad and that person should then secure a certificate from the governor stating that he or she is not an indented servant or a convict. These steps, he proclaims, “would prevent such a Number of Convicts coming back again before their Time is expired.”

Convicts Back in England

Any convict returning to England had to remain in hiding. If he or she were caught, the convict could automatically receive the death penalty. The government did not make it easy for returned convicts to go undetected. The reward for identifying and turning in a convict who returned early from a sentence of transportation was substantial. Given the risk of detection, the number of transported convicts returning to England was low.

Jonathan Wild, the self-proclaimed “Thief-Taker General,” took advantage of this reward system. He developed a strong relationship with Jonathan Forward, the Contractor for Transports for the Government, who could give him valuable intelligence in the matter of returned convicts. Once he identified a returned convict, Wild could either blackmail the convict into continuing a life of crime as a working member in Wild’s criminal empire or he could turn the convict in for the ₤40 reward offered by the government.

Even with the reward, prosecuting returned convicts was apparently quite difficult if one did not have the kind of resources that Wild had at his disposal. The Virginia Gazette contended,

It is certain Numbers do return from Transportation; but it being so much Trouble to bring them down to the Old Bailey, prove them to be the Persons transported, and that did the Fact transported for, that People don’t care for the Trouble of it; especially since the Trying of them for the Fact transported for, is too often attended with great Trouble and Expence, that poor People are scarce able to support it, by which Means Rogues often escape.

Notably, convicts who were caught returning to England never showed up in advertisements for runaways in American newspapers. There could be several reasons for why this is the case. Most likely, those who ran away from their masters never made it back to England. Convicts needed some combination of money, connections with captains or sailors, and an appearance that did not draw suspicion that they were escaped servants in order to travel back to their homeland. The longer they stayed in America, the less likely these resources were available to them. Convicts who managed to escape or found freedom after their ship encountered problems at sea through shipwreck, piracy, or mutiny before they could be sold would not have had advertisements run in colonial newspapers for their capture, and these early escapees were more likely to return to England. Another reason convicts caught returning to England did not show up in runaway ads could be that returned convicts were either skillful in avoiding detection or the methods of detecting them were in reality inadequate.

Resources for this article:

• Carew, Bampfylde-Moore. An Apology for the Life of Mr Bampfylde-Moore Carew. 8 ed. London: Printed for R. Goadby and W. Owen, 1768. Database: Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Gale.
• 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.
• —. The King’s Passengers to Maryland and Virginia. Westminster, MD: Heritage Books, 1997.
• Morgan, Gwenda and Peter Rushton. “Running Away and Returning Home: The Fate of English Convicts in the American Colonies.” Crime, Histoire & Sociétiés / Crime, History & Societies 7.2 (2003): 61-80.
• Poulter, John. The Discoveries of John Poulter, Alias Baxter. Eleventh ed. London: R. Goadby, 1754. Database: Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Gale.
• The Virginia Gazette (Parks) January 28, 1737, p. 4. Database: CW Digital Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

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.

Lots of convict servants tried to run away from their owners in an attempt to escape harsh treatment from them or to regain their freedom and possibly return to Great Britain, or both. Almost as soon as the practice of convict transportation started, convicts began trying to run away. Shortly after one of the first ships to transport convicts to America under the Transportation Act landed, seven of the convicts on board managed to escape. On November 25, 1718, Samuel Shute, the Governor of Massachusetts, issued a proclamation that described the convicts–who had been committing “many robberies, and other Enormities in the Places whether they are fled”–and offered fifty shillings each for their recapture.

Incentive

Convicts tended to run away from their masters at a higher rate than indentured servants. Unlike indentured servants, convict servants did not choose to come to America, so they were more than likely resentful of being forced into servitude in a strange country against their will. They also had little incentive to serve out their terms of service, so running away could appear to be an attractive option. Early on in the period, owners of convict servants were required to provide some tools and seed to them once they served out their terms, much like indentured servants. But as the century progressed these rights were stripped from the convicts, so there was no reward waiting for them if they stayed until the end of their service.

The punishment for running away was not much of a deterrent either. Runaway convicts faced corporal punishment and additional service time if caught: roughly one extra week for every day, one month for every week, and one year for every month. But such punishments seemed trivial compared to the experiences the convicts had already faced.

Most of the convicts who chose to run away did so within two years of arriving in America, and they usually did so 6 months to a year after arrival, if they didn’t run away soon after they landed. As the years went on, the incentive to run away grew less as they neared the end of their usual sentence of 7 years. Most convicts ran away alone, but occasionally they would run away in pairs, often with someone who came from the same part of England. Some convicts were even known to run away with an African slave.

The Difficulty of Running Away

Convicts who ran away from their owners had a difficult time escaping detection due to the many mechanisms in place to bring about their recapture. For one, servants traveling through the countryside were required to carry papers that showed that they either had been discharged or had their owner’s permission to be wandering off of his property. Any servant caught traveling without such papers could be questioned and apprehended at any time to see if anyone made any inquiries about his or her whereabouts.

Property owners were vigilant in keeping an eye out for runaways, mainly because a generous reward was usually offered for their capture and return. Advertisements in American newspapers helped in the identification of runaway convicts and specified the reward offered. Many plantation owners kept descriptions of their servants and slaves on file in case any one of them decided to run away.

Convict servants who ran away in Virginia or Maryland not only had to contend with the vigilance of property owners, but also with the intersecting rivers that made travel extremely difficult. Even if a runaway convict managed to make it to a port, he or she would have had a difficult time securing passage back to Great Britain without any money or without being detected.

Runaway Ads

Colonial newspapers often carried advertisements for runaway convict servants that were placed by their owners, and these notices provide important information about the convicts and their lives in America. Runaway ads usually give the names of the convicts, a description or their appearance, their age, where they originally came from, and their occupation or skill set. The faces of many of the convicts are described as being pitted from smallpox, and some of the convicts are noted as wearing an iron collar or handcuffs.

The following runaway ad that appeared in the Pennsylvania Gazette illustrates the kind of information that was generally included in runaway advertisements, even though it provides a more detailed description of the runaway convict than most did.

Bohemia, Maryland, April 9. 1752
Runaway, last night, from the subscriber, a convict servant fellow, nam’d Jacob Parrott, born in the West of England, and bred in the family of a gentleman in Devonshire. He is about 22 years old, of a fair complection, active and strong, but short for his bulk; he is very handy at any thing, so that he may pretend to be a groom, coachman, gardiner, barber, lawyer, shoemaker, &c. His apparel was a new felt hat, a new brown and an old grey wig, a new ash colour’d duffel great coat, with a large cape, and white metal buttens, a new darkish grey fine kersey coat, with a small black cape, and black button holes, with carved white metal buttons, double breasted short brown holland jacket, with wash’d yellow buttons, new leather breeches, two or three fine Irish linen shirts, white cotton stockings, and new footed grey yarn ditto, new pumps, and larger pewter buckles. He took with him a brown middle siz’d natural pacing horse, a good bridle, saddle and housing, with plenty of money, which ‘tis supposed will soon be spent, he being a very drunken idle fellow, and a lover of dancing, singing, carding, racing, cock-fighting, &c. he will cringe to those he thinks his superiors, but is quarrelsome and abusive to others, in whose company he will brag, chatter, fight, curse, swear, &c. has a scar on his left-thumb, occasioned by a cut with a broad ax: All persons, especially women, are cautioned to beware of him, for he is a great cheat, and a notorious villain. Whoever secures him in any prison, &c so that he may be had again, shall be paid Forty Shillings, Pennsylvania currency, and besides that reward, any person that will bring him home, shall be paid his reasonable charges, &c. by me, his master. Hugh Jones.
N.B. All masters of vessels are forbid to carry him off.

Dangerous Runaways

Runaway convicts could be quite dangerous. On September 7, 1738, the American Weekly Mercury carried a story about a coachmaker named Evans who was found murdered in the woods. Evans was traveling from Rappahannock to Hanover when he stopped at an inn for the night. Before retiring, he handed the innkeeper a handkerchief holding money in it for safekeeping. Unfortunately, someone witnessed the exchange and followed Evans the next day after he left the inn. Two days later, a convict was picked up as a runaway, and in his possession were Evans’s handkerchief, his clothes, his horse, and a considerable sum of money. The convict was the one who witnessed the exchange of money, but he was not known to be a runaway at the time. After his capture, he was committed to the public jail in Williamsburg, VA and charged with “barbarously murdering Mr. Evans.”

In July 1773, Archibald Moffman, a soul-driver from Baltimore, purchased a group of convicts with the intention of reselling them for a profit further inland. He managed to sell all but four of the convicts by the time he reached the town of Frederick and was continuing on to Hagerstown to sell the rest. About two or three miles outside of Frederick, one of the convict servants complained of fatigue, so the party stopped under a tree alongside the main road. When Moffman decided that they needed to continue on their journey, the convicts refused to move. Instead, they threw him backwards, dragged him into the woods, and cut his throat from ear to ear. They then stole Moffman’s pocketbook and proceeded to stop at every tavern they met as they continued the journey over the mountain.

At one of the taverns, a man who had earlier happened to spot them with their master asked them where he was. The group claimed that he was refreshing himself just a little way behind them, but after the enquiring man rode a couple miles back without meeting Moffman, he suspected murder. He notified the neighborhood, and the convicts were easily pursued and captured. They were brought to the jail in Frederick, where they confessed their guilt. This story caused quite a sensation at the time, for a number of newspapers from the Chesapeake all the way up to New Hampshire carried the story and followed up on it in later editions.

For their act, the four convicts received the death sentence, and they were executed in Frederick on October 22, 1773.

Resources for this article:

• “Annapolis, July 29.” New-York Gazette, and Weekly Mercury August 9, 1773. Database: America’s Historical Newspapers, Newsbank/Readex.
• Coldham, Peter Wilson. Emigrants in Chains: A Social History of Forced Emigration to the Americas of Felons, Destitute Children, Political and Religious Non-conformists, Vagabonds, Beggars and Other Undesirables, 1607-1776. Baltimore, Md.: Genealogical Pub. Co., 1992.
• Eddis, William. Letters from America, Historical and Descriptive, Comprising Occurrences from 1769 to 1777, Inclusive. London: William Eddis, 1792. Database: Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Gale.
• “Extract of a Letter from Shippensburg, in Pennsylvania, Agusut 6, 1773.” New-Hampshire Gazette September 17, 1773. Database: America’s Historical Newspapers, Newsbank/Readex.
• Grubb, Farley. “The Market Evaluation of Criminality: Evidence from the Auction of British Convict Labor in America, 1767-1775.” The American Economic Review 91.1 (2001): 295-304.
• —. “The Transatlantic Market for British Convict Labor.” The Journal of Economic History 60.1 (2000): 94-122.
• Morgan, Gwenda and Peter Rushton. “Running Away and Returning Home: The Fate of English Convicts in the American Colonies.” Crime, Histoire & Sociétiés / Crime, History & Societies 7.2 (2003): 61-80.
• The Ordinary of Newgate, His Account of the Behaviour, Confession, and Dying Words, of the Malefactors Who Were Executed at Tyburn, on Wednesday the 7th of November, 1744. London: John Applebee, 1744. Database: Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Gale.
• “Philadelphia, November 10.” Boston Post-Boy November 15, 1773. Database: America’s Historical Newspapers, Newsbank/Readex.
• “Run Away from the Subscriber.” Pennsylvania Gazette October 28, 1742. Database: America’s Historical Newspapers, Newsbank/Readex.
• “[Runaway Advertisement].” Pennsylvania Gazette May 21, 1752. Database: America’s Historical Newspapers, Newsbank/Readex.
• Shute, Samuel. “A Proclamation.” Massachusetts, 1718. Database: Eighteenth Century Collections Online, Gale.
• “Williamsburg, August 18.” American Weekly Mercury September 7, 1738. Database: America’s Historical Newspapers, Newsbank/Readex.

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.