Convicts in the Colonies

In the eighty years between 1787 and 1868 more than 160,000 men, women and children convicted of everything from picking pockets to murder were sentenced to be transported beyond the seas . These convicts were destined to serve out their sentences in the empire's most remote colony: Australia. Through vivid real-life case studies and famous tales of the exceptional and extraordinary, Convicts in the Colonies narrates the history of convict transportation to Australia from the first to the final fleet.

Using the latest original research, Lucy Williams reveals a fascinating century-long history of British convicts unlike any other. Covering everything from crime and sentencing in Britain and the perilous voyage to Australia, to life in each of the three main penal colonies New South Wales, Van Diemen's Land, and Western Australia this book charts the lives and experiences of the men and women who crossed the world and underwent one of the most extraordinary punishment in history.

24 colour and b/w illustrations

About the Author

Lucy Williams is an experienced researcher with a PhD from the University of Liverpool. She specialises in the history of crime, women and gender, and the social history of the nineteenth century. For more than three years she has been part of the Digital Panopticon , a project tracing 90,000 men and women from London either imprisoned in England or transported to Australia. It is her work on this project which inspired Convicts in the Colonies. Her first book, Wayward Women, was published with Pen and Sword in 2016.