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Archiver > AUS-Tasmania > 2001-09 > 1001570540


From: "Dean Martin Rees NEWMAN" <>
Subject: Re: [AUS-Tas] Transported from London
Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2001 16:02:20 +1000
References: <000501c14635$ea2b45c0$ee5066cb@steel> <008c01c1465a$61430e30$de846f89@abriggs>


Cheers from the "Coral Sea Coast"
(Lat 17.5s Long 146.4e)
Hi Alison,

Perhaps the following may help:

It was the custom for convicts to embark in the Thames and at The Downs,
Portsmouth and Plymouth. They would be put aboard from nearby gaols and
prison hulks or boarded in batches as they arrived from inland prisons.
If you can locate the 'Sworn List' of inmates of the prison or hulk from
which the 'Gilbert' was loaded then that may lead you to your convict.
Convicts were sometimes held in these hulks or prisons for 6 months or
so before being transported to Australia.
The records I have are for the 'Fortitude' convict hulk at Chatham, Kent
at the end of the December quarter 1833 and the June quarter 1834. I did
not obtain these myself but the photocopies bear the stamp of the Public
Record Office, London. The archives in Sydney may hold something to
help.
BTW a 'hulk' was a de-commissioned sailing vessel which was usually
moored in a nearby waterway and took the overflow of prisoners from the
conventional land prisons ('a la' Magwitch in Dicken's 'Great
Expectations').
It is said that a prison hulk in England was often more dreaded than
transportation.

You may also get more information by posting a query to:


And may that which you seek be found
Dean Newman, North Queensland Australia.
"As time goes by"

"To accept a favour from a friend is to confer one"

----- Original Message -----
From: "Alison Briggs" <>
To: <>
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2001 5:10 PM
Subject: Re: [AUS-Tas] Transported from London


> Thanks Sally.
> The Surgeons reports for the 'Gilmore' begin with the convicts
boarding the
> vessel (as I remember) so no luck there. I'm sure I would have
copied
> everything down relating to the ship, and I don't seem to have very
much.
> Is there someone who can correct me on this? : )
> Regards
> Alison
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "The Steel Family" <>
> To: "Alison Briggs" <>; "Tasmania mailing
List"
> <>
> Sent: Tuesday, September 25, 2001 3:35 PM
> Subject: Re: [AUS-Tas] Transported from London
>
>
> > Hello Alison and list
> >
> > The surgeon's reports seem to start when convicts started to arrive
at the
> > ship, sometimes well before it departed. See the AJCP reels for
these
> >
> > Sally Steel at Mareeba
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Alison Briggs <>
> > To: <>
> > Date: Monday, 24 September 2001 20:35
> > Subject: [AUS-Tas] Transported from London
> >
> >
> > >I've asked this question on a couple of British lists but haven't
really
> > received an answer. Not strictly Tas history, but someone may have
come
> > across the answer.
> > >
> > >My convict was tried in Yorkshire in 1831 and sent to London at
some
> time,
> > where he departed from Sheerness. Would anyone know which prison or
> similar
> > holding place he was likely to have been sent? Would he have been
sent
> > directly to his ship and worked on the Thames until the ship filled
up?!
> > >
> > >Puzzled
> > >Alison
> > >
> > >Alison Briggs
> > >Sydney, Australia



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