What type of criminals were the scottish convicts

While there is no single index of the names of people transported to Australia, various lists of names exist, both in published books and among our records. Few of these contain any other biographical information, so further research usually involves legal records. A similar list for the second fleet, which left in and suffered deaths during its voyage, is included in The Second Fleet Convicts , compiled and edited by R J Ryan.

The microfiche index to the New South Wales convict indents and ships, compiled by the Genealogical Society of Victoria, can be consulted in our reading rooms. These can be useful in researching transported convicts.

Most are records of trials, and though a few can be searched by name you will usually need to know where and when the trial took place:. This information has been digitised from many different records. Records of trials held at quarter sessions are held by local archives. Contact details can be found using find an archive. In many cases convicts appealed to be pardoned or to have their sentences reduced, while transportation itself was often used as a reduced sentence for a convict who might otherwise have been executed.

The records of these appeals can be very useful. Applications are known as petitions, and may have been made by friends, relatives or other associates on behalf of the convict. Petitions could be on behalf of persons convicted in courts of any level and for sentences ranging from a few weeks imprisonment to death.

They are mainly from England and Wales but there are Scottish and some Irish cases and also courts martial from around the world. These can be found in various ways:. Before transportation most criminal offences were punished by death, a fine or whipping. Transportation provided an alternative punishment for crimes which were considered serious, but not worthy of execution.

The usual period of transportation was 14 years for convicts receiving conditional pardons from death sentences or seven years for lesser offences. The American Revolution of meant that transportation to North America was no longer possible. Around convicts were transported for political crimes such as rioting, treason, and sedition. Most women were first offenders, with their crimes related to poverty.

A high percentage were single, yet many left children and family behind. About children travelled with their convict parents, entering institutions on arrival.

Child convicts Children as young as 9 years were transported to Australia as convicts. Two convicts out of every three were tried in England. Although Welsh convicts were often grouped with English convicts, it is estimated that around 2, Welsh convicts were transported to Australia. Trial records can be searched for the Court of Great Sessions that operated in Wales until They were the first of nearly 30, men and 9, women transported directly from Ireland.

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Please note that the following High Court records are closed to the public for years and cannot be accessed without the permission of the court:. The main record of a High Court trial is the bundle of case papers known as the 'process' or 'small papers', also 'case papers' or 'sitting papers' JC They usually include a copy of the indictment, which sets out the charges against the accused, depositions, confessions and other information on the accused and the crime, together with information about witnesses and jurors.

You may also find statements by the accused and other papers produced as evidence, but case papers do not include transcripts of trials. Finding records of individual trials depends on the date. We are adding all case papers from onwards to our catalogue. The period from with the exception of has been completed and the period from will be added gradually. Case papers not catalogued in this way are stored according to the year and location of the trial, and it is necessary to search through them to find individual records.

For some cases more than years old it is possible to identify records by searching our catalogue under the name of the victim of the crime. Further trial records are found in the High Court's minute books, which provide summaries of proceedings in court. Additionally, there are the books of adjournal, which contain copies of indictments with brief summaries of trial proceedings.

There is also a small series of selected trial transcripts from onwards JC36 , details of which will shortly be added to our electronic catalogue. Some of the more sensational trials are covered in William Roughhead's series of 'Notable Scottish trials'. The following finding aids are available in the Historical Search Room. Precognitions are the documents containing the written statements of the witnesses and accused about a crime, and they are put together before a trial to prepare the case against the accused.

As precognitions provide a snapshot of the local community they are a wonderfully rich source of information about individuals, economic conditions, contemporary attitudes and even language. The precognitions relate to serious crimes tried at the High Court in the 19th and 20th centuries, though few survive before They can be identified by searching on our catalogue under the name of the accused. Precognitions less than years old are closed to public access.

If a precognition is available there will usually be a record of a trial at the High Court too, although cases do not always come to a trial.

Similarly as records do not always survive, beware the temptation of concluding that there was no trial if you cannot find a precognition. Many criminal cases were dealt with by the Privy Council before its abolition in Most men and women who appeared before the Council were of some social standing, rather than ordinary criminals, but the Council also heard cases of people accused of witchcraft and seditious practices.

The published volumes are fully indexed and available for consultation in the Historical Search Room, as well as in good reference libraries. The local sheriff courts deal with both criminal and civil cases.

Sheriff courts trials are for lesser crimes, commonly theft and assault, and we receive the records once they are more than 25 years old. Our catalogue lists the records we hold for each sheriff court, although criminal trials are not indexed and it is necessary to search through records to find individual cases.

From the 19th century onwards most of the courts kept criminal records separately from civil case records, but in the earlier period you will often find these records mixed together.