Is this a Convict Indent or Muster Roll?

[nicdigby]

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to wrap my head around something I found on Ancestry and hope there may be some convict record experts here.

I’m looking at the "New South Wales, Australia, Convict Indents, 1788-1842" collection. Record type: “Bound Indentures”. But at the top of the first page of each ship it then “Muster Roll of (eg) 190 male English Convicts”.

My understanding was that a muster roll was taken when the convicts were in the colonies to keep tabs on them etc — but this is in the "Convict Indent" collection. But the “Muster Roll" wording at the top of the page when the images change from one ship to another is confusing me.

I found this page on Google while trying to work it out.

https://www.digitalpanopticon.org/Convict_Indents_(Ship_and_Arrival_Registers)_1788-1868

Am I right in thinking that the screenshots do show “Convict Indents” and not true “Muster Rolls”?

Link to a typical front page in the collection is here: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/2024/images/32082_223765__0002-00097?usePUB=true&_phsrc=pxd17291&pId=123708

Thank you for your expertise in advance!

[nicdigby]

Another example. The label at the front of the books state "This volume contains the indentures of convict transports which arrived i the years 18xx-18xx" - they MUST be indents, right?

[Neale1961]

Link to a typical front page in the collection is here: https://www.ancestry.co.uk/imageviewer/collections/2024/images/32082_223765__0002-00097?usePUB=true&_phsrc=pxd17291&pId=123708

This link takes you to the Phenix Muster Roll taken 13 July 1828 when it arrived in NSW.
This was proof that no convicts were "lost" on the voyage.

In this case (but not always with muster rolls) it ALSO acts as a convict indent giving information about each convict - age, place of birth, occupation, crime, physical description, and so on. It also gives information about where the convict was sent (disposed off).

There were other convict muster rolls made in the colony at regular intervals. They usually give little information - just name, convict ship and abode.


Your link provides good information
https://www.digitalpanopticon.org/Convict_Indents_(Ship_and_Arrival_Registers)_1788-1868

[nicdigby]

Brill, thanks, I think I just needed a second pair of eyes to confirm I was seeing what I thought I was seeing.