Dec 9th, 2014: Witley Park

[DanaC]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Yes, sending the perp to the colonies where they were indentured for at least seven years to pay for their room and board. If I'm not mistaken they had to pay for their passage too.

Up until 1717, the passage had to be paid for either by the prisoner or by a merchant, or ship owner. Presumably who would themselves be benefitting from prisoner labour. It's one of the reasons it wasn't really widely used during the 17th century - wholly impractical for many convicts. It was, if I recall correctly something that was offered as leniency in capital cases, where the person had been convicted and sentenced - in the gift of the monarch. Tended to get used for political prisoners mostly, I think at that time - but I might be conflating earlier and later patterns there. The Transportation Act of 1717 made it possible for judges to directly order transportation and the state would pay. Not sure if that left the convict liable for the debt of that passage or not.

The servitude for room and board sounds harsh and unfair - but, you have see that in the context of the time. Many ordinary working people were bound by contracts of service, which put them under the Master and Servants acts. Usually that contracte dthem for a specified time, much as apprentices were apprenticed for seven years. During that ocntract hey were in servitude, with both parties to the contract bound by certain conditions. But you could go to prison, or face corporal punishment by the state for walking out on your employer. Fair notice coyld be given in some employment, but not all - and the system was such that, for many the right to end the contract effectively lay with the employer.

Working primarily for room, board and necessaries was the norm for huge swathes of working people during the 18th and 19th centuries, particularly during the early part of peoples' working lives. For soldiers it had always been the norm - subsistence pay and basic needs more or less taken care of.

Many of the people sent out as transported felons did as well as their compatriots back home. Many were able to save money during their period of indenture.

What made transportation the horror it was - was that whilst the state would pay the outward journey, it did not pay for the return, and for some return was denied even after they served their time. It was an absolute severence from family and friends. Also the journey was notoriously bad - particularly in the eighteenth ceentury. Conditions for convicts on ships were bad, and many died of disease. The fear of not surviving the passage was a big thing for those who faced transportation.