Transportation to America and the West Indies, 1615-1776

Legal Records Information 16

1. What Was Transportation?

Transportation was a system that exiled convicts to the American and West Indian colonies for a period of years.

2. Why Was It Introduced?

Until the Restoration in 1660, the only punishment available for people convicted of treason or felony was, with one exception, the death penalty. The exception was petty larceny for which the punishment was to be whipped. Large numbers of those convicted had their lives saved by a legal fiction called benefit of clergy. This originated in the claims of churchmen to be exempt from the jurisdiction of the king's courts, even if they had been accused of ordinary crimes. Benefit of clergy provided a compromise solution, whereby churchmen were tried in the king's courts but were handed over to the ecclesiastical authorities for punishment. After 1576, those who had successfully claimed benefit of clergy were simply discharged.

As early as the fourteenth century, the king's courts were prepared to accept that any male who could read must be a clergyman. Similar privileges were extended to women during the seventeenth century. Claiming benefit of clergy became something of a formality, and it was often granted to illiterate convicts even before the literacy test was formally abandoned in 1706. Even those who were denied benefit of clergy and were therefore sentenced to death had a good chance of securing a royal pardon - which also meant that they would be discharged without further punishment.

Transportation provided a useful compromise for the authorities ensuring that individuals could be punished without actually killing them.

3. When Was It Introduced?

Although benefit of clergy and unconditional pardons continued to be used, after 1615 it became increasingly common for convicted individuals to be offered a pardon on condition of transportation. After 1718 transportation was to America and was standardised at 14 years for those entitled to conditional pardons. Transportation for 7 years was also introduced as a sentence in its own right for non capital offences.

Transportation to the Americas was ended on the outbreak of the rebellion in 1776.

4. Tracing Named Individuals

Start with the book by Peter Wilson Coldham called The Complete Book of Emigrants in Bondage, 1614-1775 (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co. Inc, 1988) which contains an alphabetical list of men and women transported in this period. A copy is available in The National Archives Library. This book will also tell you where your person was tried.

5. Finding Out More About Them

Finding out more about them is likely to be difficult. With the exception of trial records, most of the original sources held in The National Archives have been published. Peter Wilson Coldham has also published a book called Bonded Passengers to America (Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co. Inc, 1983) which gives a detailed overview of these published sources. Coldham's books will also give you enough to start looking for the trial record.

If your person was transported between 1615 and 1718, or was transported for 14 years after 1718 then (s)he was convicted in a court of assizes or one with equivalent legal power. Surviving assize court records are normally held in The National Archives (see Assizes: English: Key for Criminal Trials, 1559 - 1971, and Assizes: Criminal Trials which will tell you how to identify relevant record classes). Some areas did not have assize courts: the same research guides will tell you where their records are kept.

If the person was transported after 1718 for a term of 7 years then the trial record may be amongst the records of assize courts or amongst the equivalent courts in areas that did not have assizes (see Old Bailey and the Central Criminal Court: Criminal Court) or amongst the records of quarter sessions which are usually held in local record offices.

Trial records do not usually contain useful genealogical information; nor do they contain transcripts of evidence. They may contain copies of pre-trial witness statements. The indictments were written in Latin, and in a distinctive legal handwriting, until 1733. Pre-trial witness statements are in the ordinary hand of the day, but if you are not familiar with seventeenth century handwriting you may find it difficult to read. Sometimes reports of trials were published: the Old Bailey Proceedings, for example, were published from the 1690s onwards, and are available on microfilm for the period 1714-1834 at many large libraries (but not, as yet, in The National Archives). Transcripts and pamphlets about trials in other parts of England and Wales can be traced using the Eighteenth Century Short Title Catalogue which is compiled by the British Library. This should be available to you at a large local reference library. A copy is available in The National Archives Library.

(ri2234) Last updated: 28 June 2004 | © Crown Copyright 2002