A Convict Indent Record for Ann Norman
Date1827-1839
Object number00055166
NameVellum Record
MediumParchment, vellum, iron gall ink
DimensionsOverall: 330 × 226 × 1 mm
ClassificationsEphemera
Credit LineANMM Collection funded by ANM Foundation
DescriptionA convict incident form written on Vellum that details the record of female convict Ann Norman who was transported to Van Diemen's Land.
The beginning of the record reads "Ann Norman, arrived at V.D.L [sic Van Diemen’s Land] Augt 1827" she was sentenced to 7 years on the 20th of October 1826.
Transportation overseas was a relatively common punishment in the 18th and 19th century. This documents relates to the transportation of Ann Norman to Van Diemen's Land between 1827 and 1841.HistoryExtreme poverty was a fact of life for many in 18th and 19th century English society. In desperation, many resorted to crimes such as theft, prostitution, robbery with violence and forging coins as the means to survive in a society without any social welfare system or safety net. This was countered by the development of a complicated criminal and punishment code aimed at protecting private property. Punishment was harsh with even minor crimes, such as stealing goods worth more than one shilling, cutting down a tree in an orchard, stealing livestock or forming a workers union, attracting the extreme penalty of 'death by hanging'.
Until the early nineteenth century prisons were administered locally and were not the responsibility or property of central government, with the exception of the King's Bench, Marshalsea, Fleet Prisons and Newgate Gaol, which were all Crown prisons attached to the central courts. They were used for the correction of vagrants and those convicted of lesser offences, for the coercion of debtors and for the custody of those awaiting trial or the execution of sentence.
When in the 18th century, the death penalty came to be regarded as too severe for certain capital offences, such as theft and larceny The British Transportation Act of 1718 effectively established transportation to the American colonies as a punishment for crime. British courts sentenced criminals on conditional pardons or those on reprieved death sentences to transportation.
Prisoners were committed under bond to ship masters who were responsible for the convict's passage overseas in exchange for selling their convict labour in the distant colony. This solution helped solve the overcrowding in British prisons and provided much needed labour for the American colonies of Virginia and Maryland. The American War of Independence (1776-1781) effectively stopped transportation to the Americas leading to the introduction of prison hulks in England and Ireland as temporarary prisons until a solution could be found.
Convict transportation to Australia began in 1787 (New South Wales) reached its peak in the 1830s (New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land) and continued until 1868 (Western Australia) by which time prison reform, relaxation of penalties in the criminal code, the construction of purpose built prisons in Britain and Ireland and growing disenchantment with the convict transportation system saw the cessation of transportation to the Australian Colonies.
Between 1788 and 1868 over 168,000 men, women and children had been transported to Australia from England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Canada, India, Bermuda and South Africa as convicts on board more than 1,000 modified merchant ships which had been converted into convict transports. Although many of the convicted prisoners were habitual or professional criminals with multiple offences recorded against them, a small number were political prisoners, social reformers, or one-off offenders.
ANN NORMAN - A FEMALE CONVICT IN VAN DIEMEN'S LAND
The record of her convictions, punishments, physical appearance, etc., recorded in manuscript on vellum.
Ann Norman arrived in Van Diemen’s Land in August 1827 one of 60 female convicts aboard the PERSIAN, after being tried at Cambridge in 1826 and sentenced to 7 years for “stealing in a dwelling house”. Norman is described as: a housemaid, 5 feet, 1½.
On 29 Nov.29 1827 she is recorded as having “disobeyed orders and general improper conduct” receiving 12 months in the (Women’s) Factory Georgetown.
In 1829 she was found “absconding” but her master was “not willing to take her back”. Instead she was placed in the 2nd class House of Correction for 3 months. Again in 1830 Norman was found “in Hobart Town away from her service, running away from Constable Hamston”, and again was placed in the 2nd class House of Correction. She was tried, again, at Hobart Town in October 1835 and received another 7 year sentence "for receiving". Her record continues to 1841 with numerous infractions and punishments.
Ann had been born in 1806 near Cambridge. While her trade was a “housemaid” she gained her living by prostitution. She was single at the time of her first conviction and sentence.
The jail report described her as “very indifferent before convicted of felony”, furthermore she is recorded as “house breaking once - 6 months in Cambridge” and as having a “bad character, always quarrelling with other prisoners.”
In 1831 Norman was assigned to Mrs Midwood, and free by servitude in 1835. However, Norman continued to be unruly, charged on many more occasions of “neglect of duty” and “absconding without leave”
The George Town Female Factory opened in 1821, set up in the shed of a lumber yard. Female convicts made cloth, leather and shoes from the colony's produce. By 1825 however, the looms were moved to Maria Island and the Factory was moved to a former parsonage in George Town. By 1832 there were 37 female convicts and 5 children in residence. Problems in the Factory included shortages of material and machinery as well as unreliable supervision and overcrowding. There were food shortages for the women and concerns for their moral safety having to travel from their place of sentencing in Launceston to George Town by foot or boat up the East Tamar. As a result, the George Town Female Factory closed in 1834 and inmates were relocated to the new Launceston Female Factory.
From 1803 to 1853, 12,500 female convicts were transported to Van Diemen’s Land.
SignificanceHistoric material relating to convict transportation to Australia is extremely rare. These documents provide physical descriptions, anecdotal remarks and official information on convict Ann Norman who had been transported to Van Diemen's Land in 1827.
