Convict Guide - published 2006 - Manual / Resource - Page 72
Guide to New South Wales State archives relating to convicts and convict administration
Chapter 6: Convict Barracks,
Establishments, Factories and
Farms
6.1
Background to the records
Carters Barracks, House of Correction
Housing for convict
boys
Although it was unusual to transport convicted youths under fifteen
(they were usually transported from fifteen years of age) there are
examples of children as young as eight, nine and ten being sent to the
colony. (Robson, Convict Settlers, p.39). The Carters Barracks in
Sydney was built by Macquarie and catered for convict boys. It also
housed the treadmill and convicts who drove government carts around
Sydney. Under Governor Darling the boys were taught a trade and to
read and write. He also took steps to 'segregate young offenders from
older and more hardened prisoners'. (Fletcher, Ralph Darling, 112-4).
Closure of Carters
Barracks for boys
The Barracks for boys were closed when Governor Bourke introduced a
semi-apprenticeship system whereby boys were assigned directly from
the ships on arrival to masters who would teach them a trade and keep
them for the term of their sentence. In 1834 a boys' establishment at
Port Puer in Van Diemen's Land was founded. (Shaw, Convicts and the
Colonies, p.243-44).
Punishment at
Carters Barracks
The Carters Barracks was used as a House of Correction which
contained the treadmill that was used as an alternative to flogging. The
treadmill was used from about 1823. (NRS 938, [4/5783 pp.354-8];
Reel 6017). See plan of treadmill adapted for country districts, 1837,
(Designs of Public Buildings, 1837 NRS 4334, [X694]; Reel 2660). In
1843 Governor Gipps wrote of the House of Correction and treadmill as
'... the place of minor punishment for convicts; and being the chief
substitute for the lash, it cannot be dispensed with. Free persons are
also and always have been (though not in great numbers) sent to it'.
(HRA vol. 22, p.457). It was also used as the Debtors' Prison.
Hyde Park Barracks
Housing for
government
convicts
The Hyde Park Barracks opened on 4 June 1819 with a feast to
celebrate the King's Birthday. The building was 'designed to hold all
convicts working for the government in and around Sydney'. (Hirst,
Convict Society, p.41).
Prior to its completion, convicts had found their own private lodgings
paid for with earnings from extra work in their own time. (Hirst, Convict
Society, pp.41-2).
Government
convicts to be
locked in the
barracks at night
The new barracks meant that, 'For the first time in thirty years …
convicts were to be under constant surveillance, to be locked up at night
and their "own time" was to be taken from them'. 'The desire to gain
permission to sleep out of barracks (was) an incentive to good
behaviour'. (Shaw, Convicts and the Colonies, pp.81-2).
Macquarie reported that the incidence of night robberies and burglaries
had declined considerably since the convicts were lodged in the
barracks. In 1819 it housed 688 convicts and in 1820 the number had
grown to 800.
State Records Authority of New South Wales
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