Genealogy Australia

Transportation as a punishment for crime grew out of the ancient concept of banishment from the realm in medieval times. By the fourteenth century this form of punishment had largely lapsed and had become the preserve of dealing with fugitives who took sanctuary to avoid arrest. Even this manner of avoiding was denied the fugitive when sanctuary as a legal institution was abolished in 1623/24.

By the seventeenth century transportation was once again in place, and by the eighteenth century it had been refined. Two forms of transportation were in place. The first type was enacted when a criminal elected to be transported on receipt of a conditional pardon. In the second instance the convicted criminal was contracted to serve the sentence abroad.

This book gives a succinct background to the history of transportation which puts the reader in the picture, and the practice of transportation during the first years of the South Australian Colony is expanded in detail. All 220 convicts are listed together with details of their trials and transportation. A further 30 men and women, who although sentenced, escaped transportation for various reasons are also detailed.

Contents:
A brief history of transportation
South Australia and transportation
The transportees
Primary sources
Bibliography
Index