Convict Guide - published 2006 - Manual / Resource - Page 22
Guide to New South Wales State archives relating to convicts and convict administration
1.5
Reports from the Select Committee on
Secondary Punishments, together with the
Minutes of Evidence, etc., 27 Sep 1831 and
22 Jun 1832. House of Commons, 1831–32
Mitchell Library
Q365/G
Reports from the Select Committee on
Transportation, together with the Minutes
of Evidence, etc., 14 Jul 1837 and 3 Aug
1838. House of Commons, 1837–38
Mitchell Library
Q365/G
Select Committee on Secondary
Punishment, 1857
Votes and
Proceedings of the
Legislative
Assembly, 1858
Vol.1 p.1209
Records of convicts arriving
How to find a convict arrival
See also: Appendix IV: List of Convict Records on microfilm which was
copied as part of the Australian Joint Copying Project.
Starting point for
convict research
The starting point for any convict research is the Convict Indent which is
the list of convicts transported to New South Wales on a particular ship.
The early Indents only provide name, date and place of trial and
sentence. Later Indents contain more information such as a physical
description, native place, age and crime.
The Indents will often contain numbers of Tickets of Leave, Pardons or
Certificates of Freedom as well as details of any further crimes
committed in the colony. Researchers should always make a note of
these annotations. They have been indexed in the Index to Convicts
who arrived in NSW, 1788-1842.
Convict Indents
Convict vessels arriving at Port Jackson, 1788–1842, 1849,
NRS 1150-54, 12188, 12889 *ARK
Convict indents are arranged by vessel and usually provide details of the
prisoners' name, age, marital status, literacy, place and date of
conviction, sentence and physical description. References to tickets of
leave, pardons or certificates of freedom later received are frequently
noted.
Appendix I is a chronological list of convict vessels arriving at Port
Jackson noting the location of the various types of indents for each
vessel.
There are four main series of indents:
Bound Indents
a) Principal Superintendent of Convicts: Bound manuscript
indents, 1788–1835, NRS 12188 *ARK, NRS 1150-54
The volumes were written up in the colony in the office of the Colonial
Secretary. The volumes located at [SZ115, 4/3999-4/4002], ([4/3998]
now SZ115 at COD 9 Fiche 620-624; [4/3999] on Reel 2719, Fiche 625;
[4/4600-02] Reel 2719), are mostly copies or originals of the indentures
with the owners of the ships contracting to transport the convicts, not
always with a list of prisoners attached.
[4/4003] (COD 131-136, Reel 392, Fiche 614-617) is an alphabetically
arranged list of convicts arriving 1788–1800, taken at a later date from
earlier volumes. The pencil annotations in the right hand columns refer
State Records Authority of New South Wales
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