hamish maxwell-stewart on convict transportation from britain and ireland
In 1787, the First Fleet was dispatched from the British Isles to find a penal settlement at Botany Bay, Australia. By this time, the British government had already experimented with convict transportation for over 160 years. The aim of this article is to place the history of transportation to Australia within the context of the wider flow of convict labour from the British Isles in the period 1615 to 1870. Using data from a range of sources it attempts to chart and explain fluctuations in the number of convicts transported over time. It also seeks to explore how the integration of convict labour within the transatlantic market in unfree labour-shaped British penal policy in the long-run. Such an analysis is useful in explaining the differing impacts that transportation had on the prisoners who experienced it and the intensity with which it was opposed in the 19th century by the British anti-slavery movement. Geographically the article explores these issues in relation to transportation to the New World (especially Barbados, Jamaica, Maryland and Virginia), West Africa, New South Wales, Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania), Western Australia, Bermuda and Gibraltar.
Filed under: Africa, Australia, Empire, Pacific, Scholarship and insights | 3 Comments
I saw an interview on channel 24 on TV today re convicts to Tasmania and their genealogy etc. My great grandfather’s sister married a son of Henry Scroop, who as a 16 year old was transported to Tasmania as a convict on the ship the “Royal Sovereign” on 2.7.1837. Henry Scroop ended up in the Adelaide Hills and he had a hugh family. I have approx. 60 pages (typed) on his descendants and some info about his heritage in England. Please let me know if you are interested. (All the Scroops in Adelaide and surrounds are his descendants.) His son, William Scroop, married my great aunt, Ann Scutter.
Regards,
Brenda Baker (nee Scutter)
To Brenda Baker
I am interested in the Scroop family history. Henry Scoop was my 2nd great-grandfather. Would love to hear from you.
Jan Whittington.
I am also a descendant of Henry Scroop. I would love to know more about him. (I presume this is the same Henry Scroop.) He was convicted of stealing a handkerchief at 15yo, in England, and transported to Tasmania. My sister managed to get a copy of his Tasmanian record but many details are not clear. My family are from Adelaide and my grandmother was Florence Scroop and she married a Smith.
Regards
Judy Whitty (nee Smith)