Convict records
Introduction
The British Government transported about 76,000 convicts to Tasmania between 1804 and 1853. You can search for them online.
Tasmania’s convict records are part of the UNESCO Memory of the World International Register along with the convicts records for New South Wales and Western Australia. The register is the equivalent for documents of the World Heritage List for built and natural sites.
The first convicts arrived in Tasmania in 1804 aboard the Calcutta. Apart from one direct convict ship arriving in 1812, most arrivals were small irregular shipments from Sydney, mainly of secondary convicted men. This continued until 1818 when a steady stream of convicts began to arrive directly from England.
Finding out about a convict’s life after their sentence expired
Many convicts are untraceable after their sentence expired. They often left the state, changed their names or generally kept a low profile. All our family history guides might be useful, but some places to start looking include:
- Census and musters. Also check the Victoria and other states as many ex-convicts left to go to the goldfields and other places.
- Employment records. For example, many ex-convicts had a publican’s licence.
- Royal Derwent Hospital Records
- Court records
- Later prison records
- Trove
What is online?
Convicts in Tasmania
Explore resources on transportation, convict life, and freedom
Indexes searchable by name
- With the Tasmanian Names Index you can search and view many records, including those related to convicts
Convict employment records online
- 1810-1859 Assignment lists and associated papers (CON13)
- 1822-1846 Appropriation Lists (CON27)
- 1835 Memos, letters and instructions sent to the Prisoner’s Barracks, Hobart (CON154)
- 1806-1849 New South Wales and Tasmania convict musters (HO10) in Ancestry – find them under ‘New Collections’. Ancestry is available onsite in our libraries only.
Conduct records
- 1803-1843 Assignment system – male convicts (CON31)
- 1803-1843 Assignment system – female convicts (CON40)
- 1822-1844 Alphabetical conduct registers of convicts living in northern Tasmania (CON78)
- 1828-1853 Supplementary conduct registers (CON32) (“sv” – “supplementary volume”)
- 1840-1853 Probation system – male convicts (CON33)
- 1840-1893 Male convicts arriving on non-convict ships or locally convicted (CON37)
- 1840-1846 Male convicts whose records were transferred from the probation series and of certain others (CON39)
- 1844-1892 Male convicts arriving under the assignment system on strength (CON34) (“on strength” – still within the (convict) system)
- 1844 Male convicts arriving under the assignment system on non-convict ships and on strength in November 1844 – Volume 1 (CON35)
- 1844 Probation system – female convicts 1844 (CON41)
- 1854-1892 Female convicts reconvicted in the Colony 1854-1892 (CON42)
- 1868-1876 Tasman Peninsula (CON94)
Descriptive lists
- 1804-1840 Alphabetical Register of Male Convicts (CON23), Compiled by Surgeon Superintendents 1825-1845 (CON69)
- 1828-1853 Male convicts (CON18)
- 1828-1853 Female convicts (CON19)
- 1832-1853 Description lists of convicts arriving on minor ships or convicted locally (CON20)
- 1845-1851 Convicts arriving from Norfolk Island (CON21)
- 1873-1879 Female convicts at the Female House of Correction, Hobart (CON105)
Indents
- 1824-1853 Male convicts (CON14)
- 1831-1853 Female convicts (CON15)
- 1835-1853 Convicts locally convicted or transported from other colonies (CON16)
- 1844-1852 Male convicts arriving from Norfolk Island (CON17)
Indulgences
- 1829-1851 Alphabetical register of applications for indulgences (CON45)
- 1829-1857 Index to convict applications for permission to marry (via the Names Index)
Campbell Street Gaol
- 1831-1835 Alphabetical register of prisoners admitted to the Hobart Town Penitentiary
- 1855-1859 Register of hours worked by prisoners in the barracks
- 1872-1933 Admissions and discharges from the Hobart Gaol
Female factory
A number of these records were collected by John Watt Beattie, and form part of his collection at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery
- 1833-1834 Register of female convicts admitted to the Female House of Correction, Hobart (CON139)
- 1833-1854 Registers of baptisms performed at the Female House of Correction, Hobart (AF586)
- 1848 Infirmary book of the Female House of Correction, Hobart (AF585)
- 1848-1869 Memos and correspondence from the Female House of Correction, Hobart (AF591)
- 1851-1854 Register of Offences committed and punishment ordered at the Female House of Correction, Hobart (CON138)
- 1876-1879 Description list of prisoners (CON105)
More guides on convict records
- Information found in a convict record
- Convict records – explanation of format and frequently used abbreviations
- Records relating to the movement of convict ticket of leave holders
- Guide to the public records of Tasmania: The Convict Department – a thorough guide on convict administration and all records from the Convict Department
Other resources
- General correspondence of the Comptroller General of Convicts 1843-1869 (CON1)
- Online images of convicts
- Photos of some Tasmanian convicts on Flickr
- 1856 – 1859 Accounts of money received from prisoners as repayment of rewards for their apprehension (CON67/1/1)
- 1845 Instructions for the management of Convict Hospitals (CON74)
- 1851 Journal of the religious instructor on board the convict ship Blenheim (4), (CON76/1/1)
Miscellaneous archives records relating to convicts
- Isaac Thompson (Convict) Letter – LMSS12/1/146 from LMS12/1/146 Browne papers
- William Johnson’s list of convicts – Descriptive list of convicts who sailed to Australia per the Dunbrook (NS3401)
- Architectural drawings of buildings at penal settlements on Tasman’s peninsula (CON87)
- Drawings of convict-related buildings (PWD266)
What else is there?
These are some commonly useful records. The Guide to the Convict Department is more comprehensive.
- Other records of the Convict Department
- Copies of Tasmanian Convict Department records held by the NSW Mitchell Library
- Copies of correspondence of the Comptroller-General of Convicts (MM62) (Records held by the Mitchell Library) Indexed online
- For records relating to pardons, search the archives – put “free pardon” in the search box
Library resources
- About Tasmanian convicts
- On convicts in general
- Notorious strumpets and dangerous girls: Convict women in Van Diemen’s Land 1803-1829 by Phillip Tardif
- The Convict Ships 1787-1868 by Charles Bateson
- Convict applications to bring out families to Van Diemen’s Land Index 1827-1873 by the Tasmanian Family History Society
Related
- Digital Panopticon is a website that allows you to search millions of convict records from datasets in Australia and the UK, including records from the Founders and Survivors project.
- Founders and Survivors is a partnership between historians, genealogists, demographers and population health researchers. Provides a free brief transcription of some convict records.
- Guide to Early Tasmanian Government administration
- Guide to Tasmanian Prison Records
- Guide to Royal Derwent Hospital Records – some of these records identify convict patients by ship.
What is available from other organisations?
- Female Convicts Research Centre – has lists of female convicts and their children throughout Tasmania
- Cascades Female Factory Historic Site – information about the historic site
- Port Arthur Historic Site Management Authority assists with research into Tasmanian convicts and staff at Port Arthur – whether or not the convict was at Port Arthur
- NSW State Records: Convict Records
- Friends of the Orphan School & St John’s Park Precinct. Search this site to find a child who was admitted to the Orphan School
- Old Bailey Trials 1674 – 1913. Was your convict sentenced at the Old Bailey? Find their trial transcript
- Convict transportation registers database (1787 – 1867). Entries compiled by the State Library of Queensland from British Home Office records. It includes over 123,000 of the 160,000 convicts transported to Australia
- Guide to convict transportation from the National Archives of the United Kingdom
- Looking for records of a criminal or convict
- Looking for records of prisoners or prison staff