Research Guides: Convicts: Bound for Australia: Trial & court records

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Trial & court records

Resources

British Newspapers 1600-1950 (Gale) [eresource]
The British Newspapers 1600-1950 collection includes the 17th-18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers and the 19th Century British Library Newspapers.
ProQuest Historical Newspapers [eresource]
Search The Guardian (Manchester) 1821-2003 and The Observer (London) 1791-2003 to find reports on a convict’s trial particularly if the convict was tried in Manchester or London. The Observer also reported on trials in other counties or circuits.
You can also search these newspapers on microfilm in the Library.
Times Digital Archive 1785-2019 (Gale)
Search for individuals charged with a crime, 1791-1892. You can find the convict’s name, birthplace (not often listed after 1802), crime, when and where tried and their sentence. Sometimes the convict's age and physical description are also listed.
This collection includes the original data from HO 26: Criminal Registers, Middlesex and HO 27: Criminal Registers, England and Wales.
17th - 18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers (Gale)
The 17th-18th Century Burney Collection Newspapers database contains one million newspaper pages with titles from London, British Isles, and colonies. Included in the collection are newspapers, newsbooks, Acts of Parliament, addresses, broadsides, pamphlets and proclamations. Document supply available.
Assize Court records, 1775-1853 [microfilm]
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You can find calendars of prisoners tried and sometimes details of the crime, the convict’s age and the place of transportation. Assize courts dealt with criminal and civil matters and occasionally more serious crimes that were transferred from the Quarter Sessions. We hold Assize Court records for Lancashire (1819-1842), Oxfordshire (1775-1853), Shropshire (1786-1845) and Staffordshire (1777-1845).

Check the Assizes Court Help page to view details of the Assize Court records.
England & Wales, Criminal Registers, 1791-1892 - Ancestry Library Edition [eresource]
Search for individuals charged with a crime, 1791-1892. You can find the convict’s name, birthplace (not often listed after 1802), crime, when and where tried and their sentence. Sometimes the convict's age and physical description are also listed.
This collection includes the original data from HO 26: Criminal Registers, Middlesex and HO 27: Criminal Registers, England and Wales.
Criminal entry books, 1786-1871 (HO 13) [catalogue record | microfilm]
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Find letters mainly concerned with free pardons, conditional pardons, remissions, respites, movements of prisoners, and convict ships. These can help you with determining the actual outcome from a petition for a reduction in sentence or against transportation.
Criminal entry books (public departments), 1850-1871 (HO 25) [catalogue record | microfilm]
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You can find letters mainly concerning prisoners, pardons, expenditure, convict ships and penal colonies in the entry books. These records may contain names of convicts.
You will need to go through each volume as only the first 5 volumes are indexed.
Criminal Petitions 1817-1858 on England & Wales, Crime, Prisons & Punishment Browse, 1770-1935 on FindMyPast
This collection holds 22 series of records from The National Archives including HO 17, HO 18 and HO 19 Criminal petitions. Criminal petitions provide details of petitions for just over 16,300 people for the period 1817-1858. Convicted criminals, or their family and friends, made a petition when they wanted to revoke or reduce the sentence.
Criminal registers, England & Wales, 1805-1868 (HO 27 Series 2) [catalogue record | microfilm]
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Search registers of all individuals charged with an indictable offence in all counties. Middlesex is included only after 1850. You can find the convict’s name, birthplace (not often listed after 1805), their alleged crime, when and where they were tried and their sentence. Sometimes the convict's age and physical description are also listed. You can also find out if the individual was acquitted.
Ask at the desk in the Special Collections area to view. Also available on Ancestry Library Edition (only in the Library).
Criminal registers, Middlesex, 1791-1849 (HO 26 Series 1) [catalogue record | microfilm]
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Search registers of all individuals charged with indictable offences in Middlesex. You can find the convict’s name, birthplace (not often listed after 1802), their alleged crime, when and where they were tried and their sentence. Sometimes the convict's age and physical description are also listed. You can also find out if the individual was acquitted. Registers 1807-1811 only list prisoners tried at the Old Bailey.
Ask at the desk in the Special Collections area to view. Also available on Ancestry Library Edition (only in the Library).
Police Gazette or Hue and Cry [catalogue record | microfilm]
Find descriptions of crimes committed, criminals including wanted criminals, escapes and commitments. Police Gazette or Hue and Cry is a London police publication.
Quarter Sessions Court records, 1723-1878 [microfilm]
You can find indictments, witness statements, gaol calendars and minute books in the Quarter Sessions Court records. Search the minute books to find a list of defendants at each session, the verdict and sentence. We hold records that cover convicts tried at English (excluding Middlesex) and Welsh county Quarter Session courts.
Ask at the desk in the Special Collections area.
Sessions records of the Old Bailey, 1815-1849 [catalogue record | microfilm]
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Search the session records for prisoners committed to trial at the Sessions of Oyer, Terminer and Gaol Delivery for the City of London and County of Middlesex. You can find the charges, the verdict and the sentence. Sessions records contain less information than the Proceedings of the Old Bailey. From 1834, the records include Essex, Kent, Surrey and Admiralty.
Check the Proceedings of the Old Bailey for more information about the accused and their offence.
Convict transportation registers database, 1787-1867 [external website]
Find details on over 123,000 of the estimated 160,000 convicts sent to NSW, Van Diemen's Land, Moreton Bay, Port Phillip, Western Australia and Norfolk Island. You can find the convict’s name, date and place of their trial, the length of the sentence, the name of the ship, departure date and the colony where they were sent.
Compiled and indexed from the British Home Office HO11 Convict Transportation Registers by the State Library of Queensland. Also available on Ancestry Library Edition (only in the Library).
Digital Panopticon
This website allows you to search millions of records from around fifty datasets, relating to the lives of 90,000 convicts from the Old Bailey. Search individual convict life archives, explore and visualise data, and learn more about crime and criminal justice in the past.
Ireland-Australia transportation records (1791-1853) [external website]
Find details of convicts sentenced to transportation from Ireland (including convicts from Northern Ireland). You can find the convict’s name, age, place and date of the trial and crime. Sometimes the sentence, the ship the convict was transported on and petitions of prisoners are also listed.
Transportation registers before 1836 were destroyed. Any individual convicted before 1836 who was not the subject of a petition will not appear in the records.
The National Archives (UK) - Home Office: Registers of Criminal Petitions (HO 19) [external website]
Search the Registers of Criminal petitions (HO 17 & HO 18) on the National Archives catalogue for an original petition made by convicted persons (or their friends and relations) asking for their sentence to be revoked or reduced. Summaries of the index are available free to view on the National Archives catalogue and digitised images of selected pieces of these records can be found on Findmypast called England & Wales, Crime, Prisons & Punishment, 1770-1935
The National Archives (UK) - Judges’ Reports on Criminals (HO 47) [external website]
Search the National Archives catalogue to find a report by a judge on criminals and cases in which they call for commutation of sentence, free pardons etc. These letters often include reasons for clemency and details of family circumstances. Summaries of the index are available free to view on the National Archives catalogue and digitised images of selected pieces of these records can be found on Findmypast called England & Wales, Crime, Prisons & Punishment, 1770-1935.
The National Archives (UK) - Petitions for mercy, 1784-1830 [external website]
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Search The National Archives's Discovery catalogue to find reports from judges to the Home Office in response to a convict's petition for mercy. You might find transcripts of trial evidence, character references and other personal information that would help prove the accused was worthy of clemency.
National Records of Scotland [external website]
Find out how to access records relating to crimes and criminals in Scotland, including prison registers and court records. Trials for criminals sentenced to transportation can be found in the papers of the High Court of Justiciary.
Check the Convict transportation registers database for more information as convicts were sent to England to be transported to Australia.
Proceedings of the Old Bailey, 1674-1913 [external website]
Find transcripts of convict trials at the Old Bailey in London and Middlesex. The Proceedings of the Old Bailey were published for a public (not just legal) audience and contain summaries of the trials, including the charge, sworn testimony for the prosecution, the prisoner's defence and the outcome of the trial. If you cannot find your convict in the Proceedings of the Old Bailey but you know the crime was committed in London, it may be because the convict was tried at a different London court.

Did you know?

While many crimes were capital offences not all received a death sentence.

Many convicts pleaded for mercy and were pardoned on the condition of transportation to Australia.

What are assizes?

Assizes, or Courts of Assize, were periodical courts held across England and Wales for both civil and criminal cases.

They were held during Lent and Summer.

The Old Bailey, Known Also as the Central Criminal Court (1808)
A trial at the Old Bailey in London as drawn by Thomas Rowlandson and Augustus Pugin for Ackermann's ''Microcosm of London'' (1808-11).

The Old Bailey

Nearly 1 in 5 of the convicts sent to Australia were tried at the Old Bailey in London.

The Proceedings of the Old Bailey were published for a public (not just legal) audience and contain summaries of the trials, including the charge, sworn testimony for the prosecution, the prisoner's defence and the outcome of the trial.

The Session records of the Old Bailey cover counties not included in the proceedings but contain less information about the accused and the offence.