Official Convict Record for Margaret Bradburn, Form No.62
Date1852
Object number00055167
NameRecord
MediumPaper, Iron gall ink, tape
DimensionsOverall (Closed): 208 × 85 × 1 mm
Display dimensions (Open): 330 × 208 × 1 mm
Display dimensions (Open): 330 × 208 × 1 mm
ClassificationsEphemera
Credit LineANMM Collection funded by ANM Foundation
DescriptionA convict indent form, no.62, for Margaret Bradburn. The record details that Margaret, a female convict, was transported for seven years to Australia for the theft of a coat, petticoat and shawl.
She was sentenced in 1852, arriving in Van Diemen's Land aboard the MIDLOTHIAN on the 24 February 1853.
Transportation overseas was a relatively common punishment in the 18th and 19th century. This documents relates to the transportation of Margaret Bradburn to Van Diemen's Land between 1853 and 1859.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.
A FEMALE CONVICT IN VAN DIEMEN'S LAND
CONVICT DEPARTMENT Form No.62 for Margaret Bradburn, a 4 feet, 10 inches tall housemaid from County Cavan, Ireland; was 20 years old when she was convicted and transported to VDL. She had been sentenced to seven years for stealing a coat, petticoat and shawl, following a previous conviction for the theft of a cloak.
She arrived in Van Diemen’s land in 1853 on the MIDLOTHIAN (with 22 other female convicts) which had departed from Dublin in 1852. After arriving in Hobart she was sent to the Cascades Female Factory for only 6 days before being placed with a master, Horace Rowcroft, in New Town. However, 5 months later Bradburn was returned to the Cascades Factory for 6 months hard labour after being ‘Absent without Leave’ from her master’s house. It took a year before Bradburn was able to once again leave the Cascades Factory, returning to Rowcroft in July 1854. Yet a year later, Bradburn was granted a Ticket of Leave and 4 years later, in 1859 was Free by Servitude. She was married twice, had at least 9 children and lived till 1910.
SignificanceHistoric material relating to convict transportation to Australia is extremily rare. These documents provide physical descriptions, anecdotal remarks and official information on convict Margaret Bradburn who had been transported to Van Diemen's Land in 1853.
