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Tag Archives: Prisons and Jails

Convict Voyages: Starting the Journey in Newgate Prison

Note: This post is part of a series on Convict Transportation to the American colonies. Convicted criminals who were tried at the Old Bailey in London and received a sentence of transportation began their journey to the American colonies in the notorious Newgate Prison. Like those sentenced to transportation at other prisons, they waited for […]

The Business of Convict Transportation: The First Contractor for Transports to the Government

Note: This post is part of a series on Convict Transportation to the American colonies. Jonathan Forward, after being appointed “Contractor for Transports to the Government,” ran his new business out of his house on Fenchurch Street in Cheapside. He now deployed his fleet of slave and merchant ships–many of which he named after himself–to […]

Convict Transportation to America: Introduction

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 […]