Penal transportation was introduced by the British government in the eighteenth century, but its most recognisable form was in the nineteenth-century system of transportation to Australia. This topic demonstrates connectedness in legal history because of the estimated 162,000 convicts transported between 1787 and 1868 from Britain to the Australian colonies.[1] I decided to pursue this topic at a similar time to a research project I completed on late nineteenth-century penal reform, where I examined the origins of the reform movement and how opinions towards punishment changed over the century. It was clear that by the twentieth century, there had been a shift in sentencing from death or transportation to incarceration.[2] The purposes of the system, which were retribution, deterrence and reform, remained the same but the methods by which these aims should be achieved changed significantly.[3] This slow but inevitable movement towards incarceration in the nineteenth century continues to have significance for the British penal system, with over one-quarter of prisoners still held in Victorian-era prisons in 2021.[4] However, the focus of my research for the EUTOPIA Legal History Connected Learning Community was instead on the earlier alternative to incarceration: transportation.
In this blog post, I will first examine the experience of
transportation as demonstrated by convict love tokens, before discussing some
of the social and political protestors who were sentenced to this fate.
Convict love tokens
I was keen to incorporate material culture into this blog
post in the form of convict love tokens because of the emotional perspective
they can provide to a legal topic. These engraved coins, which were handmade by
prisoners awaiting transportation, show the emotional impact that their
impending sentence had. Whilst among penal reformers and politicians, debate
raged about transportation and whether it was an appropriate deterrent, these
convict love tokens which are part of a collection held by the National Museum
of Australia, are demonstrative of the reality that the sentence was likely a
permanent separation of the convict from their loved ones due to the
difficulties of a return passage to Britain.
This is a more individual way to consider transportation
compared to the record of their trials and transportation. As is the case with
much of history, there are only written sources from the educated elite, as
well as exceptional cases such as that of the Tolpuddle Martyrs which will
subsequently be discussed. Historian of emotions Susan J. Matt has discussed
the way that material culture can be used by historians to study the emotional
experiences of people who have not left behind written sources.[5]
The example in Figure 1 is demonstrative of the care that
was taken in the creation of these tokens, which then act as a source through
which the experience of transportation can be studied. This token was given to
‘Elizabeth’ by Henry Barton and contains detailed engravings to remind the
recipient of the creator’s love.
 |
Figure 1 - 1825: Henry Barton, Elizabeth (1825), National Museum of Australia, Canberra [accessed 15 June 2024].
Social and political protestors
The transportation of prisoners to the Australian colonies
also was important for the removal of social and political protestors. Transportation
acted as punishment but also prevented further subversive activities.
These cases are examined by historian George Rudé in his
book Protest and Punishment: The Story of the Social and Political
Protesters Transported to Australia 1788-1868.[6] This book, along with
prior interest, led me to look more closely at the case of the ‘Tolpuddle
Martyrs’ who were convicted and transported following their attempt to form an
agricultural labourer’s union in 1833.[7] Following protests, those
convicted (James Brine, George Loveless, James Loveless, James Hammett, Thomas
Standfield and John Standfield) were pardoned and had their return fares to
Britain paid for by the British government.[8]
This case can be examined through the record of criminal
petitions held by the National Archives. There is an extensive collection of petitions
written by their supporters, of which transcripts have been produced, so the
contents are accessible without visiting the archives. These documents demonstrate
the public feeling created by the conviction of this group of men and their
subsequent transportation, which has continued with the ‘Tolpuddle Martyrs’
considered heroic figures in the British trade union movement. The collection
includes petitions from a variety of sources from across the country. For
example, a petition from the 23rd of April 1834 was submitted by those
who identified themselves as the ‘trades unions of Newcastle upon Tyne’, as
well as containing a covering letter from Joseph Hume who was MP for Middlesex
(south-east England).[9] The map shown in Figure 2 illustrates
the geographical spread of the discontent that this petition reveals. Another
document from the ‘Mechanics and artisans of Exeter’ demonstrates the perceived
cruelty of the sentence of transportation
through their argument that they 'have suffered severe punishment and should be
restored to freedom with their suffering families’.[10] The final petition that I
will highlight is that put forward by ‘The members of the Trades Union of Great
Britain and Ireland and the friends of the Productive Classes in Public Meeting
assembled - an assembly consisting of 15,000 persons’.[11] In 1834, they argued that
the sentence of transportation for the martyr’s offences ‘are both extremely
cruel and oppressive, and represent an unjustifiable attack upon the rights of
humanity’.[12]
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| Figure 2: Map of Britain highlighting Newcastle and Dorchester |
Though this is only one case in the story of social and political protestors being transported for their actions, it is indicative of the suffering that a sentence of transportation was perceived to bring, not only to the convict but also to their family. Furthermore, these cases show the intertwined history of Britain and Australia that was created by the transportation system.
This post has sought to demonstrate the connectedness that penal
transportation created between Britain and Australia between 1787 and 1868, as
well as the legacy this has had for the development of modern Australia. It represents
an important stage in the development of the modern British penal system due to
the reduction in the use of the death penalty it resulted in. However, this was
not a humane decision as the convict love tokens demonstrate that this sentence
was viewed with a finality similar to death. Similarly, petitions relating to
the transportation of the ‘Tolpuddle Martyrs’ highlight the cruelty of the
sentence for protestors who aimed to improve worker’s rights.
By Nia Belcher
Bibliography
Primary sources:
Petition from Mechanics and artisans of Exeter [Devon], Home
Office: Criminal Petitions, Series I, The National Archives, Kew (HO 17/42/51).
Petition from The Friends of the productive classes and
especially of the trades unions of Newcastle upon Tyne [Northumberland], Home
Office: Criminal Petitions, Series I, The National Archives, Kew (HO 17/42/38).
Petition
from The members of the Trades Union of Great Britain and Ireland and the
friends of the Productive Classes, Home Office: Criminal Petitions, Series I,
The National Archives, Kew (HO 17/42/42).
Secondary sources:
Devereaux, Simon, ‘In Place of Death: Transportation, Penal
Practices, and the English State, 1770-1830’ in Qualities of Mercy: Justice,
Punishment and Discretion, ed. by Carolyn Strange (Vancouver: UBC Press,
1996), pp. 52-76.
Emsley, Clive, Crime and Society in England, 1750–1900
(London: Routledge, 2018).
Jewkes, Yvonne, Eleanor March, Dominique Moran and Matt
Houlbrook, ‘The Long Shadow of the Victorian Prison’, Prison Service Journal,
256 (2021), pp. 10-14.
Matt, Susan J., ‘Recovering the Invisible: Methods for the
Historical Study of the Emotions’ in Doing Emotions History, ed. by
Susan J. Matt and Peter N. Stearns (Champaign: University of Illinois Press,
2013), pp. 41-54.
Rudé, George, Protest and Punishment: The Story of the
Social and Political Protesters Transported to Australia 1788-1868 (Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 1978).
[1]
George Rudé, Protest and Punishment: The Story of the Social and Political
Protesters Transported to Australia 1788-1868 (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1978), p. 1.
[2]
Clive Emsley, Crime and Society in England, 1750–1900 (London:
Routledge, 2018), p. 258.
[3]
Simon Devereaux, ‘In Place of Death: Transportation, Penal Practices, and the
English State, 1770-1830’ in Qualities of Mercy: Justice, Punishment and
Discretion, ed. by Carolyn Strange (Vancouver: UBC Press, 1996), pp. 52-76 (pp.
53-54).
[4]
Yvonne Jewkes, Eleanor March, Dominique Moran and Matt Houlbrook, ‘The Long
Shadow of the Victorian Prison’, Prison Service Journal, 256 (2021),
10-14 (p. 10).
[5]
Susan J. Matt, ‘Recovering the Invisible: Methods for the Historical Study of
the Emotions’ in Doing Emotions History, ed. by Susan J. Matt and Peter
N. Stearns (Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2013), pp. 41-54 (pp.
49-51).
[6]
Rudé, Protest and Punishment.
[7]
Rudé, Protest and Punishment, p. 120.
[8]
Rudé, Protest and Punishment, p. 202.
[9]
Petition from The Friends of the productive classes and especially of the
trades unions of Newcastle upon Tyne [Northumberland], Home Office: Criminal
Petitions, Series I, The National Archives, Kew (HO 17/42/38).
[10]
Petition from Mechanics and artisans of Exeter [Devon], Home Office: Criminal
Petitions, Series I, The National Archives, Kew (HO 17/42/51).
[11]
Petition from The members of the Trades Union of Great Britain and Ireland and
the friends of the Productive Classes, Home Office: Criminal Petitions, Series
I, The National Archives, Kew (HO 17/42/42).
[12]
Petition from The members of the Trades Union of Great Britain and Ireland and
the friends of the Productive Classes, Home Office: Criminal Petitions, Series
I, The National Archives, Kew (HO 17/42/42).
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