Catalogue description TRANSPORTATION BONDS

Bonds to the clerk of the peace or two justics, mainly from the keeper of the county gaol and one or two other persons. The contractors bound themselves to transport the convicts, to obtain certificates (These certificates were to be delivered to the clerk of the peace, but none have been preserved.) of landing them from the Governor or chief customs officer of the colony, and not to allow the convicts to return before the end of their sentence. Giving names of convicts, offences, and sentences (at Quarter Sessions or Assizes). With list of convicts transported, 1750-55.

The shipping overseas of convicted felons, practised from the early 17th Century, was legally sanctioned by various Acts of Charles II; and an Act of 1717 (4 Geo. I, c.11) authorized the infliction of transportation as an actual sentence for various crimes. During the 18th Century convicts were transported in large numbers to 'some of his Majesty's plantations in America', until the outbreak of the American war of independence in 1775 made this impossible. Consequent difficulties were a major factor in prison reform, though transportation to Australia was carried on from 1787 to 1840.

Contractors were employed for the transportation, receiving a bounty, usually £5 per head, from the justices.