convicts walking

[eustace]

A convict ancestor of mine was sentenced in London in December 1827 and imprisoned at Newgate. In January 1828 he was imprisoned on the hulk "York" at Portsmouth. He was taken off the hulk in November 1828. He was transported to Australia on a convict ship departing London in January 1829.
How were convicts moved between cities in those days ? Did they walk in a chain gang ?
Can anyone suggest where my convict was in the two months between leaving the hulk and the ship sailing to Australia ?
Eustace 

[Tom Piper]

Hi Eustace,

In 1828, like now for instance, the government was looking for ways to reduce costs, so  the Lord High Admiral of the Navy gave instructions that in Naval dockyards the work done by horses should be replaced by convicts. So maybe your relative, before starting his trip to Australia, for for a time in the dockyards.

According to a newspaper report written in 1828, one of the prisoners, a man called Jas. Hawkins, a notorious character, managed to disengage himself from his irons, jumped out of the caravan and made good his escape. On checking the  other prisoners, most of them were about to do the same. The newspaper article reported that on publication date Hawkins had not been re-captured. Hawkins was being transported from Newgate to a ship at Sheerness.

I am sure that walking would allow great opportunity to escape.

I have read many account sheets in the papers between those dates and there are bills quoted "for the conveyance of Prisoners". Unfortunately not show how!

Tom

[stockman fred]

Down in Dorset, there are still a couple of red signposts such as the one near Winterborne Zelston. These were designed to point the way to barns in which prisoners from Dorchester assizes could be held overnight while walking to the transport ships at Portsmouth. As I understand it, the guards were not all literate, so the red post was a more easily understood marker.
When we were kids, Dad told us all manner of tales about the red post, the favourite being that a highway man was shot there, and the authorities could never remove his blood so they gave in and painted it red!
Fred 

[eustace]

Thanks Fred. So would you think the convicts might have walked perhaps 40 miles ?
Eustace

[eustace]

Thanks Tom
What do you think "caravan" means. Would it be some kind of horse drawn vehicle ?
"Conveyance of prisoners" certainly seems to indicate that they were in some kind of vehicle. It seems that there might have been quite a few of them in it. Some kind of big enclosed cart ? I wonder if anyone has ever seen a sketch of something like that.
On the other hand, I wonder if anyone has seen a sketch of prisoners walking a highway linked together like a chain gang ?
Regards     Ken

[Tom Piper]

Ken

http://www.rootschat.com/links/0903/   *

Have a look at this from Google books-prisoners were carried from Newgate to Blackfriars, not walked.

Tom

*Moderator comment: link shrunk

[Springbok]

Hi Ken,

A caravan was the original term applied to a company of travellers/merchants etc moving through possibly dangerous territory. Nothing to do with wheeled transport 'though of course some of the transport may gave been wheeled

The old desert traders would use camel caravans. and similarly the famous Silk Road a mix of carts ,horses and others on foot.

The Black Maria didn't come in 'till the 1850's but I'd think judging by Tom's answer, something like a box vehical could well be described as a caravan,so would be interesting to know when the term came into use?

Spring

[Andcarred]

Hi,

I think the answer is there were several ways convicts were transported to embark on their journey.   I have seen receipts to waggoners for the conveyance of convicts.  The British Government put the jobs out to tender in some case.  Some convicts from coastal towns went by small ship around the coastline to the main harbour, some were transported down canals, others walked.  Dorset had "red barns" which had irons inserted into the walls when they were built to enable the convicts to be chained at night.     

Andcarred

[eustace]

Thanks Andcarred
From your reading, could you suggest the most likely way a group of prisoners from Newgate Prison in London would have been taken to the prison hulk York in Portsmouth in late January 1828 ?
Similarly, could you suggest the most likely way a group of prisoners from the York would have been taken to board a convict ship departing London in November 1828 ?
I note the dates in case the time of year may have been a factor in the choice of means for moving convicts
I don't know in what part of the Port of London the convict ship started the voyage to Australia.
I wonder if the time difference between my convict leaving the York on 11 November and the ship leaving London on 5 January provides any clue to the means of transport ?
Eustace