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Category Archives: Convict Transportation

The Need for a New Punishment: Jonathan Wild and the Criminal Underworld

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Note: This post is part of a series on Convict Transportation to the American colonies. Thief-Taker General Any discussion of the state of England’s criminal underworld in the early 18th century must include Jonathan Wild, the self-described “Thief-Taker General of Great Britain and Ireland.” Wild had his hand in almost every facet of England’s criminal […]

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The Need for a New Punishment: England’s Criminal Justice System

Monday, September 29, 2008

Note: This post is part of a series on Convict Transportation to the American colonies. Government officials became increasingly alarmed by the rise in crime in early eighteenth century England, but its criminal justice system was woefully inadequate in stopping crime and in handling the number of criminals passing through its system. Law Enforcement Even […]

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The Need for a New Punishment: Crime in England

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Note: This post is part of a series on Convict Transportation to the American colonies. Why did England decide to ship its convicted felons across the Atlantic to America? To answer this question, we need to look at the changes in crime and its occurrence in early eighteenth-century England. The Rise in Property Crime The […]

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Convict Transportation to America: Introduction

Monday, September 22, 2008

Note: This post is part of a series on Convict Transportation to the American colonies. On a winter’s day in 1723, James Bell, a tailor of age 20 with a dark complexion, wandered the narrow London streets not far from where the notoriously rank Fleet Ditch emptied out into the River Thames. He paused in […]

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