{"id":233,"date":"2017-04-15T13:08:46","date_gmt":"2017-04-15T13:08:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.dorsetforyou.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/?p=233"},"modified":"2018-05-05T14:57:03","modified_gmt":"2018-05-05T14:57:03","slug":"journeys-to-new-worlds-transportation-in-18th-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.dorsetcouncil.gov.uk\/dorset-history-centre-blog\/2017\/04\/15\/journeys-to-new-worlds-transportation-in-18th-century\/","title":{"rendered":"Journeys to new worlds: transportation in 18th century"},"content":{"rendered":"

Transportation records in the Borough of Poole Archive provide a fascinating insight into the fate of 18th century convicts, including one of the very first Europeans sent to Australia.<\/p>\n

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D-PPY\/C\/5\/4\/7\/5<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Most people know the story of Dorset’s most famous transportees, the Tolpuddle Martyrs sent to Australia in 1834 for setting up a Friendly Society. Now, Quarter Sessions records from the Borough of Poole Archive can reveal the fate of earlier convicts.<\/p>\n

What was transportation?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

From the early 1600s to the 1860s, transportation was a penalty handed out to hundreds of thousands of men, women and children who had committed felonies, but whose crimes were not sufficiently severe to warrant a death sentence. Prior to the start of the American War of Independence in the 1770s, most British prisoners sentenced to transportation were sent to the Americas for a set number of years.<\/p>\n

The transportation of prisoners was administered by the Quarter Sessions, a court which met four times per year at Epiphany, Easter, Midsummer and Michaelmas. Among the thousands of records created by Poole Quarter Sessions, one hidden gem is a handful of 18th<\/sup>\u00a0century transportation records (reference DC-PL\/C\/B\/10). Looking at the case of one convict, we can see how the process worked….<\/p>\n

The Transportation of Samuel Cater<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The first document issued by the Quarter Sessions was a\u00a0court order<\/strong>\u00a0for the prisoner to be transported abroad – this tells us the name of the convict, the type of crime which has been committed, roughly where the convict was to be sent and how long they were to remain there. Cater was to be sent to America for the term of seven years.<\/p>\n

The next stage was arranging transportation. A\u00a0contract\u00a0<\/strong>was issued between Poole’s Justices of the Peace and an individual willing to deliver the convict to their destination. We learn that the man charged with transporting Cater was Martin Cole, a mariner, who was to deliver Cater to Savannah, Georgia. A\u00a0bond<\/strong>\u00a0accompanied the contract, a pledge to pay a set amount of money if the contract was not fulfilled.<\/p>\n

The final record relating to Cater’s transportation is a\u00a0certificate<\/strong>\u00a0confirming the landing of the convict in a foreign port. From this document, dated 5 April 1769, we learn when Cater arrived in the New World and on which ship he travelled – the wonderfully named ‘Snow Sweepstakes’.<\/p>\n