Guide to the Transportation records (Ireland to Australia) held by the National Archives of Ireland (as filmed by the AJCP), 1788-1868

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Summary

Collection number:

M2125-M2229

Creator:

National Archives of Ireland

Extent:

194 items

Language:

English

Preferred citation:

Acknowledgement of use of this material should refer to the National Archives of Ireland and to the Australian Joint Copying Project.

Items from this collection should include references to the location of the original material and to the AJCP nla.obj number, which serves as the online identifier for the digital copy.

Example: M Series: Transportation Register, Vol.Tr.1, 1836, National Archives of Ireland (AJCP ref: https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-919437026/findingaid#nla-obj-1063168689).

Availability:

Not for loan

Background

Content Summary:

These records relate to transported convicts and some free settlers who applied to accompany convicts to Australia.

Biographical / Historical:

In 1786 the Irish Parliament, following the lead of the English Parliament, passed a law providing for 'the more expeditious and effectual transportation of felons ... to some of his Majesty's plantations or settlements in America, or to some other place or places not in Europe'.

The first convict transport to sail directly from Ireland to Sydney was the Queen, which in 1791 carried 148 convicts to Sydney. Between 1791 and 1867 about 40,000 Irish convicts were sent to the eastern Australian colonies. Roughly a quarter of them were women. The bulk of those transported had been convicted of larceny. Less common offences were forgery, embezzlement, fraud, highway robbery, assault, housebreaking and arson. About 600 of the transported convicts were political prisoners. The largest group arrived in New South Wales in 1798-1806, following the United Irishmen uprisings against British rule. The leaders of the brief Young Ireland uprising of 1848 were convicted and sent to Van Diemen's Land. In 1867 62 Fenians (members of the Irish Republican Brotherhood) were convicted of treason-felony and mutinous conduct and were transported to Western Australia. They sailed on the Hougoumont, the last convict transport to come to Australia.

The Irish Government was headed by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, who was based in Dublin Castle, and the Chief Secretary for Ireland, who was a member of the British Cabinet. Although the Irish Parliament was abolished by the Acts of Union in 1800, the administration of government in Ireland did not change greatly after 1800. The Chief Secretary's Office, which was headed by an under-secretary, dealt with the clerks of courts throughout Ireland and organised the transport of convicts to port towns, their confinement while they were awaiting transportation, and the chartering of convict transports. It also corresponded with the Home Office in London on general matters relating to transportations. Petitions from convicts, their families and friends were usually addressed o the Lord Lieutenant and the correspondence was handled by the Convict Department within the Chief Secretary's Office. The name of the office was changed to the Government Prisons Office in 1850.

Most of the early records of Irish transportation were held in the Public Record Office of Ireland and were destroyed when the Four Courts in Dublin were bombarded in 1922. Other records which survived were held in the State Paper Office in Dublin Castle. The State Paper Office and the Public Record Office merged to form the National Archives of Ireland in 1988. In 1991 it moved to its current address, Bishop Street, Dublin DO8 DF85.

Reference: Rena Lohan. Sources in the National Archives for research into the transportation of Irish convicts to Australia (1791-1853), Journal of the Irish Society for Archives, spring 1996.

Access and use

Conditions Governing Access:: Available for Access.
Conditions Governing Use:: Readers wishing to publish or reproduce documents should seek permission, in the first instance, from the National Archives of Ireland where the original records are held.