Convict Guide - published 2006 - Manual / Resource - Page 148
Guide to New South Wales State archives relating to convicts and convict administration
Chapter 12: Gaols
12.1
Background to the records
Upon arrival in the colony, convicts were either assigned to a settler or
kept to work for the government and this assignment would determine
the measure of independence they would experience. The movements of
the convicts or prisoners were restricted by military presence, there
were night patrols by constables, curfews and some prisoners were
physically constrained by leg irons. A secure gaol was required for those
who committed criminal offences within the colony and who were
sentenced to imprisonment. Gaols were also used to house prisoners
awaiting trial or transportation to another penal settlement.
An Act for the Regulation of Gaols, Prisons and Houses of Correction in
the Colony of New South Wales 1840 (4 Vic. Act No.29) nominated the
gaols at Sydney, Parramatta, Windsor, Bathurst, Liverpool, Campbell
Town, Berrima, Newcastle and Melbourne and the House of Correction
at Sydney as the public gaols and houses of correction for the colony.
In addition to buildings erected for the purpose, hulks were used for the
confinement of prisoners. The Phoenix was used from 1825–38 and the
Harmony in 1863.
Sydney and
Darlinghurst Gaols
The first temporary gaol was built in Sydney in 1797. A permanent
stone building was planned in 1799 and erected in the following year.
Sydney Gaol closed in 1841 and the prisoners were transferred to the
new gaol in Darlinghurst. (HRA vol. 17, p.630). When the State
Penitentiary at Long Bay opened on 2 June 1914, Darlinghurst Gaol was
closed and it ceased to be used by the State as a prison on 14 July
1914.
Parramatta Gaol
The first gaol in Parramatta, built in 1798, was destroyed by fire on
28 December 1799 and was rebuilt in 1802. (NSW Government Gazette,
4 June 1841, pp.767-68). A new prison was erected on the site between
1837 and 1843 because of the poor physical state of repair of the
previous premises. The building under construction was proclaimed a
'Public Gaol, Prison and House of Correction' in 1842.
Phoenix prison hulk
The ship Phoenix, of 589 tons, was damaged on 6 August 1824, when
she struck the Sow & Pigs rocks in Sydney Harbour. She was
condemned by the Vice-Admiralty Court to be broken up and her stores
were to be sold, but she was instead bought by the government for one
thousand pounds, and fitted out in May 1825 as a prison hulk. (Fletcher,
Ralph Darling, pp.111-2).
The Phoenix was used to house the overflow from the Sydney Gaol and
to house prisoners detained for trial and those under sentence of
transportation to the penal settlements. The Phoenix, which had the
capacity to accommodate about two hundred prisoners, ceased to be
used as a prison in 1838.
12.2
Indexes to the records
Index to Bench of Magistrates, 1788–1820 available on State
Records' website
Index to and listing of Court of Criminal Jurisdiction, 1788–1824
available in State Records' reading rooms
State Records Authority of New South Wales
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