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Category Archives: Convict Transportation

The End of Convict Transportation: Closing Stages

Thursday, September 10, 2009

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. […]

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The End of Convict Transportation: Debates Back in England

Thursday, September 3, 2009

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.” […]

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The End of Convict Transportation: Ex-Convicts Who Succeeded in America

Friday, August 28, 2009

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 […]

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The End of Convict Transportation: After Servitude

Thursday, August 20, 2009

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, […]

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Transported Convicts in the New World: Samuel Ellard’s Return to England

Thursday, August 13, 2009

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 […]

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