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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)